Designing Interactions with Kombucha SCOBY
People: Fiona Bell, Derrek Chow, Eldy Lazaro Vasquez, Laura Devendorf, and Mirela Alistar
Year: 2023
Description: The goal of this studio was to facilitate a space in which HCI researchers and designers could explore SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast), a sustainable biofilm, grown in kombucha tea, that acts similarly to traditional leathers when harvested and dried. While SCOBY is a popular biomaterial in biodesign and DIYBio practices, we aimed to introduce SCOBY as a biomaterial for HCI and ground it in sustainable HCI and slow design theory. Together we explored how SCOBY would be customized through various fabrication techniques, and how to create interactive SCOBY interfaces.
Outcomes: ACM TEI’23 Studio
