Nov.26, 2014

Neri Oxman's team at MIT Media Lab has created four 3D printed artworks called "wearable skins", showcasing the spectacular opportunities that 3D printing brings to the creative design industry.

The project 'Wanderers: An Astrobiological Exploration' is an ongoing collaboration between members of the Mediated Matter research group at MIT Media Lab and German design duo Christoph Bader and Dominik Kolb.

Exploring the idea of voyaging beyond planet Earth to inhabitable landscapes in the solar system, Oxman's collection is the first color, multi-material, 3D printed range of wearables aiming to embed living matter within 3D structures that augment the environment, enabling visitation to these deadly environments.

"The future of wearables lies in designing augmented extensions to our own bodies, that will blur the boundary between the environment and ourselves," explains Oxman. "With this collection, we have designed spatially and materially complex wearables pointing towards the possibility of containing living matter that can interact with the environment. Each piece intends to hold life sustaining elements contained within 3D printed vascular structures with internal cavities, made possible with the dimensional stability and high-resolution accuracy of Stratasys' 3D printing technology. Living matter within these structures will ultimately transform oxygen for breathing, photons for seeing, biomass for eating, biofuels for moving and calcium for building."

The team used an Objet500 Connex3 Color, Multi-material 3D printer to create the "skins". The triple-jetting 3D printing technology enables her team not only to customize designs specific to the individual, but allows them to closely control mechanical and optical material properties to produce close to perfect-fit second skins through the use of human CAT or MRI scans.

3D printing "offers designers unprecedented control over material properties such as rigidity, opacity and color at scales of just several microns. This enabled us to design for movement, as well as being able to implement spatially differentiated, layered channels, folds, pores and pockets. None of this would be possible with traditional fabrication methods." says Oxman.

Each design in the collection is suited to a different planet in the Earth's solar system.

MUSHTARI (مشتري): Jupiter's Wanderer

The first piece, Mushtari, is designed to interact with Jupiter's atmosphere. This tortuous piece is designed as a single meandering strand inspired by the human gastrointestinal tract. It is a wearable that will consume and digest biomass, absorb nutrients, generate energy in the form of fuel or sucrose accumulating in the side pockets and expel waste.

MUSHTARI. Photo credit: Yoram Reshef. Courtesy of Neri Oxman.

 

ZUHAL (زحل): Saturn's Wanderer

ZUHAL was inspired by, and created to adapt to the vortex storms on Saturn. It has a hairy and fiberous large surface area designed to contain bacteria that convert the planet's hydrocarbons into edible matter for humans.

ZUHAL. Photo credit: Yoram Reshef. Courtesy of Neri Oxman.

OTAARED (عطارد): Mercury's Wanderer

For the planet Mercury, Oxman and her team have created a structure that acts as a protective exoskeleton for the head as the planet lacks any atmosphere. The resulting 3D printed shell is designed to contain calcifying bacteria within a wearable Caduceus, with the ultimate goal of growing true, organic bone structures.

OTAARED. Photo credit: Yoram Reshef. Courtesy of Neri Oxman.

AL-QAMAR (قمر): Luna's Wanderer

Inspired by one of the most luminous objects in the sky, this piece embodies the surface qualities of the Moon. Akin to a wearable biodome, the exterior contains spatial spherical moon-shaped pods for algae-based air-purification and biofuel collection to produce and store oxygen.

AL-QAMAR. Photo credit: Yoram Reshef. Courtesy of Neri Oxman.

Oxman's collection was unveiled as part of Stratasys' collection 'The Sixth Element: Exploring the Natural Beauty of 3D Printing' on display at EuroMold, 25-28 November, Frankfurt, Germany.

"As a continuation, Oxman's team is now in the process of integrating living engineered cells into the wearables for functional augmentation purposes," said a statement from Stratasys.


Posted in 3D Printing Applications

 

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Raven wrote at 11/24/2015 3:41:22 PM:

Mushtari looks like just a diaper. also, It is impossible to move your legs with it, and you would need to wear a space suit anyway, because it doesn't cover your body. It just doesn't seem practical compared to attaching it to anything other than a person.

Dan wrote at 11/26/2014 8:16:47 PM:

Looks like internal organs moved to be external instead. Ugly. I don't see how this is useful.

M wrote at 11/26/2014 3:38:14 PM:

I'd say "horrible crap" lol.

Major Tom wrote at 11/26/2014 12:54:43 PM:

The last one looks like she just stepped out into the vacuum of space.



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