But it also wasn’t some magic wand that opened all doors, I had to work really hard to find the right partners that would be willing to help me with the embedding of the silk in human skin. I am really glad with DA4GA for making this “world” more accessible for me, I am pretty sure that without this award this project would not have been possible at all. Luckily I’ve met the right people who can explain even the hardest concepts in common language, which is a rare gift. I love the techy field, but I have to admit that all the jargon that came with it did scare me off at first. I think that would be the most honest answer, because yes I am in close cooperation with the people who gave me the opportunity to work with this material, which is a direct result from ongoing research regarding transgenic modifications, but I can not claim that I work with genetics myself for this project.
This is the first time that I get in contact with a new medium that is the result of high tech genetic research. Hi Jalila! Is this the first time you are working with genetics? Did you find it difficult to get to grips with this rather techy field? How much of a challenge was it to approach genetics as a visual artist? Finally the skin will be tested at the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) with real bullets and be recorded with a high-speed camera. Once the flexible bulletproof spider-silk matrix is done the dermatology department of Leiden university medical center ( LUMC) will help Essaidi with the embedding process. The silk will be woven with special bulletproof vest techniques into a matrix that can be used for culturing human skin cells. ‘This spider-silk is up to five times as strong as steel but still keeps the smooth properties of silk.’ Randy Lewis at the university of Wyoming and Notre Dame and is produced by transgenic goats and more recently also by transgenic silkworms,’ the artist explained me. ‘This spider dragline-silk is a product of transgenic research done by Dr. The work purposely asks whether this technological innovation is socially desirable.
Jalila Essaidi is teaming up with the Forensic Genomics Consortium Netherlands to provide transgenic human skin with a layer of spider-silk embedded in between the epidermis and dermis. One of the winning projects is a bulletproof skin named 2.6g 329m/s. DA4GA invited emerging artists and designers to submit projects involving the exploration of biotechnology.Įarly sketch of the concept. As promised a couple of days ago, here’s the second story about the Designers & Artists 4 Genomics Award, a competition launched by the Waag Society with the Netherlands Genomics Initiative and the Centre for Society and Genomics.
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