© 2017 HCII Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

Second Skin Exhibition

2016

Theme: This internal exhibition is to celebrate our own MIT Media Lab 30’s anniversary. We had a live dancer performance where two dancers performed in the “Second Skin” in front of the media lab community. 

Location: MIT Media Lab E14 lobby; 75 Amherst Street. Cambridge, MA. 02142

Time: Oct 26 - Dec 26, 2015

  • Lining Yao, Jifei Ou, Wen Wang, Guanyun Wang, Oksana Anilionyte, Chin-Yi Cheng, Helene Steiner, Hiroshi Ishii

  • Tangible Media Group, MIT Media Lab
  • Paper
    Material Development

A new behavior of an ancient bacteria has been unearthed, the expansion and contraction of the natto cells relative to atmospheric moisture. These animate cells are harvested in a bio lab, assembled by a micron-resolution bio-printing system, and transformed into responsive fashion, a “Second Skin”. We can now observe the self-transforming biological skin activated by living bacteria. The synthetic bio-skin reacts to body heat and sweat, causing flaps around heat zones to open, enabling sweat to evaporate and cool down the body through an organic material flux.

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