Tissue Culture Living Leather

Tissue culture research comes up with 'living leather'

by Lucy Heavens

In one of the more bizarre unions of art and science, Oron Catts and his team at the Tissue Culture and Art Project (TC&A) have created the victimless leather jacket from a living layer of tissue grown in a stitchless coat shape.

It is just 5cm high, but this "semi-living" fashion item raises all sorts of questions in the debate of the ethics of tissue culture.

The TC&A was set up to explore the use of tissue technologies as a medium for artistic expression, and the team see their work in a cultural context, not a commercial one.

SymbioticA: The Art and Science Collaborative Research Laboratory at the University of Western Australia, is the first research laboratory of its kind, in that it enables artists to engage in scientific research and development projects.

The tissue used for the coat is formed by 3T3 mouse cells and human bone cells. The 3T3 cells come from what are known as immortalised cell-lines; cells that can multiply indefinitely after being removed from the animal - in effect, a renewable resource.

3T3 cells are extremely common in scientific research. At present, all the 3T3 cells in the world could be weighed in tens of tons, though they all came from one original mouse in the 1970s.

This semi-living material is supported by a biodegradable polymer scaffold fashioned in the desired shape (in this case a miniature coat shape). It is then seeded with the appropriate cells and immersed in a solution rich with nutrients.

It is grown inside a specially designed bioreactor that acts as a surrogate body. Once the polymer skeleton degrades, a whole jacket that maintains its shape is left behind.

As opposed to most modern conceptual art that looks at the border between technology and the human body, this project is about the seamless interaction between the natural and the synthetic, the living and the non-living.

We are at the early stages of a biological revolution.

Biotechnology is enabling us to design and construct life at its most fundamental level.

For the TC&A, the possibility of wearing "leather" without killing an animal is the starting point for discussion. Imagine a world in which the culture of production does not rely on manufacturing or harvesting, but growing.

Can consumers ever be more comfortable wearing semi-living leather than the skin removed from an animal?

The TC&A is exploring these concepts through technology and art. Other projects include the "Extra Ear" and "Disembodied Cuisine," a laboratory-grown steak experimenting with the potential for victimless meat consumption. - bigeyeddeer @yahoo.co.uk