Microbial Interfaces

Image of a person wearing SCOBY Breastplate

SCOBY Breastplate

The SCOBY Breastplate is a sustainable, interactive wearable that was slowly grown and fabricated from kombucha SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast) biofilm over the course of 13 weeks. When worn, LEDs embedded within the SCOBY breastplate produce different light responses in reaction to the wearer being hugged, tapped, or brushed. Through this project, we challenge the fail-fast and rapid prototyping trends that inhabit creative technology research, and instead explore what it means to design at the pace of another living organism.

Living Interfaces: Human Microbiome

Our bodies are home to an unseen ecosystem of microbes that live in symbiosis with us. In this work, we extend the “human” in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) to include these microbes. Specifically, we explore the skin microbiome as an intimate material for interaction design by viewing the body as a microbial interface.

Bio-Digital Calendar: Attuning to Nonhuman Temporalities for Multispecies Understanding

We explore how actively engaging with the temporalities of a nonhuman organism can lead to multispecies understanding. To do so, we design a bio-digital calendar that brings attention to the growth and health of kombucha SCOBY, a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast that lives in a tea medium. The non-invasive bio-digital calendar surrounds the kombucha SCOBY to track (via sensors) and enhance (via sound) its growth. As we looked at and listened to our kombucha SCOBY calendar on a daily basis, we became attuned to the slowness of kombucha SCOBY. This multisensory noticing practice with the calendar, in turn, destabilized our preconceived human-centered positionality, leading to a more humble, decentered relationship between us and the organism. Through our experiences with the bio-digital calendar, we gained a better relational multispecies understanding of temporalities based on care, which, in the long term, might be a solution to a more sustainable future.

Living Matter Lab

Associated Researchers

Publications

Fiona Bell, Joshua Coffie and Mirela Alistar. 2024. "Bio-Digital Calendar: Attuning to Nonhuman Temporalities for Multispecies Understanding". In: Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '24), (Cork, Ireland, February 11-14, 2024).

Fiona Bell, Michelle Ramsahoye, Joshua Coffie, Julia Tung, and Mirela Alistar. 2023. "µMe: Exploring the Human Microbiome as an Intimate Material for Living Interfaces". In: Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’23). (July 10–14, 2023, Pittsburgh, PA). 

Fiona Bell, Derrek Chow, Hyelin Choi, and Mirela Alistar. 2023. "SCOBY Breastplate: Slowly Growing a Microbial Interface". In: Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction(TEI '23). (Warsaw, Poland, Feb. 26-March 1, 2023).

Fiona Bell, Derrek Chow, Eldy Lazaro Vasquez, Laura Devendorf, and Mirela Alistar. 2023. "Designing Interactions with Kombucha SCOBY". In: Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '23). (Warsaw, Poland, Feb. 26-March 1, 2023).