OCTOPUSSY: FULL PROJECT

Octopussy: Cellular Lingerie

OCTOPUSSY

^{click image to watch trailer}

^{Microscopic picture of an octopus paralarvae, x10 mag}

^{click below to watch full documentary}

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Vimeo

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Youtube

‘‘Biotech is often portrayed as the business that will heal, fuel and feed the world. It marries free enterprise with the pursuit of knowledge. And with a twist of its fiscal hand, it conjures visions of profitability and a beneficent new order, engendering curiosity, corrections and cures. But darkness lurks at its edges. In the shadows are those who practice the arcane arts of deception, bewitchment and false promise.’’

- Rogers, 2016. When Biotech Goes Bad

^{Wild Common Octopus: Octopus Vulgaris
Galicia, Spain}

^{Breeding octopuses at Pescanova’s
Biomarine Aquaculture Facility}

^{Octopus biopsy to retrieve muscle cells for culture}

In this project I work both in situ and ex situ. My research in Part I takes me to Galicia, Europe’s understated octopus hub where I draw from research conducted underwater, with octopuses living in their natural habitat. In Part II, I collaborate with the Pescanova research team to examine octopus paralarvae—born and bred in their land-based aquaculture facility. In Part III, I transition to the lab, working with ‘semi-living, decontextualised’ (Catts, 2015)  muscle cells. As we move further from the oceans, the route from net to plate becomes increasingly more mechanised and obscure. These interactions were documented audio-visually and accompanied by written reflections, reflecting my feminist, embodied ethnographic approach.

^{C2C12 muscle cells
x20}

^{Cell growth on biodegradable fishnet scaffold
x20}

^{Cells in trypsin whilst passaging cells
x20}

Design process

Like wild octopuses seeking refuge in the ‘nasas’ (traps) designed to capture, the muscle cells do the same in a biodegradable, fishnet growth scaffold. In order to shift from designing at a micro scale to a wearable scale, the surplus cells that otherwise would have been discarded were laced into an edible bioleather material and crafted into the cellular lingerie.

Made with cell cultured meat, infused with cultured oysters for an extra aphrodisiac quality, this edible cellular lingerie is excessive, erotic, and exotic: a feast for the eyes, and a feast for the mouth.

Octopussy Screenings