Andrea Gonzalez
Micromentum, MA Biodesign
Jewellery grown through bacteria’s creativity. This collection arises from a shared process where microbial rhythms and human methodologies intertwine, shaping rings from hydrogels to crystals. Each piece redefines the value of jewellery, growing through care and patience to embrace the unpredictable beauty of microbial expression.
Jewellery carries the weight of an extractive legacy. For centuries, value has been dictated by scarcity: the rarer, the more ‘precious’. But what if worth emerged not from what we take, but from what we nurture? This research redefines jewellery by collaborating with bacteria to establish new standards where value grows from life, not loss.
Micromentum embodies a shared design process: human and microbial rhythms take turns, each influencing the other to grow unexpected forms of rings. What emerges is an archive of bacterial expressions. Each ring materialises a dialogue between sporosarcina pasteurii (a bacterium) and me. Within controlled microenvironments, these bacteria colonise soft hydrogel structures and gradually precipitate calcium carbonate – the same mineral found in shells – hardening them into forms shaped not by human hands, but by bacterial behaviour.
More than adornment, this collection crystallises moments of transformation. Here, designing means learning new ways, and wearing becomes a means of connecting with the invisible life around us.
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