From Bacteria to Colour: The Organic Method of Textile Dyeing
Assemblage 001, The Faber Futures x Ginkgo Bioworks, residence 2017, photography by IMMATTER Studio.
The textile industry has provided a colourful range of brilliant, vibrant and damage-resistant colours for our garments. However, the toxic nature of these synthetic chemicals has become a cause of considerable concern in recent years.
According to contemporary studies, "the textile dyeing and finishing industry have created a huge problem of pollution since it is one of the most chemically intensive industries on the planet and the main polluter of clean water (after agriculture). More than 3600 individual textile dyes are currently being manufactured by the industry. The industry is using more than 8000 chemicals in various textile manufacturing processes, including dyeing and printing. Many of these chemicals are poisonous and harmful to human health, directly or indirectly." - comments Rita Kant,scientific researcher from University Institute of Fashion Technology, Panjab University
What is particularly concerning is that, despite performing processes to remove chemical residues after colouring, the fabrics often still contain substances such as pesticides and oil-based pigments within them. For labourers manufacturing clothing using these fabrics, this is particularly harmful as they are in contact with these toxins throughout their working day. For consumers who are wearing clothes dyed with synthetic substances, they are absorbing toxic chemicals via the largest organ in their body: their skin.
To combat this alarming issue, designers, scientists, and biologists have come together to form a solution: producing pigments made from bacteria. The pigments are derived from bacteria using natural processes; they can dye fabrics using around 500 times less water than traditional dyeing as well as reducing the use of harmful synthetic chemicals.
To create this innovative pigment, suitable bacteria are deposited in laboratories where they can be reproduced and multiplied easily. The pigment produced depends on the type of bacteria used - colours such as blue, purple, red, yellow, and orange have all been achieved so far. One notable property of these pigments is their superior colour resistance. They can be applied to a variety of both natural fibers, such as cotton, wool and angora, and synthetic fibers like polyester. In addition to this, the pigments are 100% natural and free of chemicals, meaning that they don't cause any harm to humans or animals.
Natsai Audrey Chieza
"To operate as a creative practitioner at the intersection of design, biology and technology, it seems to me, is to be in a state of determined inventiveness, curiosity, and un-knowing. Inventing new languages, practice identities, terms of engagement, ways of knowing, and methods of making. A curious mind is an open mind: one that interacts without assumption between spaces and their people, always asking questions, seeking connections, letting go of perceived hierarchies, and persisting in the realm of seemingly immovable constraints. The un-knowing, refers to a sense of doubt: what is my practice? Where can it live? How can it contribute value? But more critically, un-knowing is a vital method of operating in new territories at the edge: to un-know received mythologies, to un-know dominant truths, to un-know accepted categorizations. This conscious un-knowing can shift ground from the implausible to the self-evident: new kinds of knowing to emanate from here" - Reflections from Natsai Audrey Chieza, material designer and Founder & Director of the Faber Futures, during her first creative-in-residence at Ginkgo Bioworks.
Looking for a new sustainable solution for colouring materials, designer Natsai Audrey Chieza was inspired by nature itself when she decided to work with an unusual partner: the bacteria Streptomyces coelicolo. Cultivated under monitored laboratory conditions, the bacteria produce a pigmented compound that, when applied to particular textiles, are transformed into purple, blue, and pink patterns. The fabrics dyed with this bacteria do not require chemical fixatives and scarcely any water is needed for the pigmentation. The range of colours made by the bacteria changes naturally according to the pH of the medium in which it grows. The beauty of using this natural method is in its possibility to produce a wide range of colours simply by manipulating the medium used.
According to Chieza, with the right use of biology, it is possible to create natural solutions to be applied in almost all industries. Bacteria is capable of self-replicating and scaling with minimal energy conditions, and can implant molecules exactly where they need to be inserted. Chieza hopes that biodesign can lead the way to a more sustainable means of production, helping manufacturers to reduce waste, as well as moving away from oil-based materials and the use of fossil fuels.
Nature—Cooper Hewitt design triennial with Cube design museum
Among Chieza’s recent works are two installations: Assemblage and Terroir that are presenting on the exhibition ‘Nature – Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial’, co-organized by New York’s Cooper Hewitt Museum and the Cube Design Museum in the Netherlands. The exhibition features over 60 innovative works that display designers' solutions to the environmental and social challenges currently facing humanity and their attempts to transform the relationship between humans and the environment. They are on show until January 2020.
Project Coelicolor: Assemblage 002, 2019; Natsai Audrey Chieza, Faber Futures in collaboration with Professor John Ward, Department of Biochemical Engineering, University College London. Image Credit: Oskar Proctor. Silk and Streptomyces Coelicolor pigment
Project Coelicolor: Assemblage 002, 2019; Natsai Audrey Chieza, Faber Futures in collaboration with Professor John Ward, Department of Biochemical Engineering, University College London. Image Credit: Oskar Proctor. Silk and Streptomyces Coelicolor pigment
Learn more about Natsai Audrey Chieza’s project on the Faber Futures’ website and by watching the video made by Business of Fashion - November 2018.
Living Colour by Laura Luchtman and Ilfa Siebenhaar
Designers and researchers Laura Luchtman and Ilfa Siebenhaar developed the project Living Colour. In their initial experiments, like Natsai Audrey Chieza, the researchers similarly explored natural textile dyeing techniques using bacteria. They created a variety of prints, the visual result depending on the environment in which the bacteria grew, which was altered by their food and oxygen.
Silk dyed using bacteria pigment and the Japanese technique of Shirbori as part of Living Colour
Cymatics Research
Aside from the excellent benefits of using a natural pigment from bacteria to colour fabrics, it must be noted that one disadvantage is the difficulty to generate uniform and spotless colours with this method. To create bacterial growth in patterns, the researchers exposed the bacteria to sound. Together with sound engineer Eduard van Dommelen, they developed several experiments using different sound frequencies, bacteria, and textiles. While experimenting, they discovered that by leaving bacteria for multiple straight hours with music, they achieved an unexpected result: fabrics that were dyed uniformly and completely with higher saturation than before.
“Living Colour is an ongoing biodesign research project exploring the possibilities of sustainable textile dyeing with live bacteria and cymatic (sound) frequencies”
