Tina Gorjanc just graduated from MA Material Futures and explores the intersection between biology and luxury with a proposed leather collection made of skin grown from Alexander McQueen.
 
In her project ‘Pure Human – Embodied Luxury’ she pushes the boundaries of the luxury industry and criticizes the current legislation that deals with biotechnology, a legislation that until now, only focuses on medical purposes. The project uses the process of tissue engineering, in which scientists grow human skin in a laboratory. Her project is based on recent developments that uses biotechnology and leather making; first the genetic material is extracted and implemented in a cell culture, than the cells are harvested into skin tissue that is later tanned and processed into leather.
 
Tina shows how genetic information can be redefined as a source of luxury but also how easily a person or corporation can claim ownership over biological material. The project shows the huge ability of biotechnology shifting in perception from luxury goods to implement in consumer material and leather, by highlighting this issue she shows her concern about the protection of biological information.

In her design proposal, Tina has designed a line of future commercial leather products cultivated from extracted biological material of Alexander McQueen. The designed products within the collection are manipulated into three modifications referring to the human skin; a tanned bag, a freckled backpack and a tattooed jacket.
 
Britt Berden
 
tina_gorjanc
 
Britt Berden is a Dutch future concept developer and material explorer living in London, currently studying MA Material Futures at Central Saint Martins. She works across various disciplines to create a single body of work in which she emphasizes that the assets of nature and being human are of intrinsic value, especially because we are heading towards a technological future. She derives from intuition and seeks new tools to stir the imagination to inspire a more valuable future.

www.brittberden.com