MFA DT Student Marta Molina Gomez Creates “Engineering Agar”
Written by:
amt
11.10.14
AMT recently talked with Marta Molina Gomez, a second year MFA Design and Technology student, about her project Engineering Agar. Learn more below!
What prompted you to create the project Engineering Agar?
Since taking BioArt last semester, I started asking myself questions that I never had before. In particular, I started to have a big interest in bio-materials and how technology has been influencing biology. It is giving us new and almost unbelievable possibilities that we don’t ever consider in the every day life.
What was your medium for the project and why did you use it?
I wanted to use technology to create a new medium for artists and designers. The material I used is agar, a vegetal gelatin much stronger than regular gelatin. It solidifies at room temperature and it is the main medium to grow any living organism.
What steps did you take and where do you hope to go with it?
I worked on reshaping this material into a more organic form to build artificial environments for living organisms – in this case I used slime mold. I continued working on this project to create a collaboration between microorganisms and their synthetic environments in labs. The next step is to be able to build these environments with a 3D printer for an identical reproduction of each piece.
Thanks Marta! Looking forward to seeing more on your upcoming progress in the program!
