BODY FARMING
textile ⎜ wheatgrass dress ⎜ 2018

In my concept of Body Farming, the organic and living garment is worn directly on the body. It will ultimately provide the wearer with nutrition as it becomes edible during the process. Through natural photosynthesis, plants absorb CO2 and release oxygen (O2). On the other hand, the wearer of my Body Farming garment needs and inhales O2 and exhales CO2. This generates a symbiotic and cyclic process of mutual life support. The relationship between the wearer and the living textile becomes an intimate “give and take” system. The wearer, providing the textile with water and sunlight, supports the bio-material to grow until it can be harvested within a week or two. It will then feed the wearer in turn. The wheatgrass sprouts are fast-growing, rich in vitamins and able to subsist on only water and sunlight. The garment’s base is made of three fabrics: felt as the top layer, for the roots to grow through; wool underneath to absorb the nutrients for the sprouts; and organic cotton, infused with beeswax, as the bottom layer to comfortably lay on the body without letting any dampness permeate. The Body Farming concept works like a symbiosis: it is a close and long-term biological interaction between two different organisms with the exchange of nutrition and O2/CO2 at its center.




