In World 53, garments are grown in local material-makeries, or at home using culture-kits and repair themselves. This is supported by an internationally connected network of culture guilds that store, develop and share programmable biological cultures and materials. They partner in symbiosis with citizen guilds and individuals to guide the development of new cultures.
The origin of this can be traced back to the 1850s when we chose to not pursue a fossil economy and we invested for 170 years in new biological materials instead. This led to innovative biological-based computing and material development which supports programable distributed production, use and modification.
What if …
the production of clothing was as local and regional as the baking of bread?
Issue targeted:
fossil-based industry
Inspiration:
material ecologies; programmable matter; living materials; Neri Oxman
This World was contributed by Holly McQuillan (located in Sweden) using a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence which allows others to share and adapt the work in any medium and for any purpose, providing that they credit the author and share their material using the same Creative Commons licence.
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I am keen to hear about any historical or contemporary real-world examples – whether individual practices, subcultures or mainstream activities – that this fiction brings to mind.
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