Faces of Symbiosis
Role: Biodesigner & Photographer
Materials: SCOBY, Kombucha
The Faces of Symbiosis is a series of artfully-crafted wearable masks made of SCOBY that explore notions of identity and our connections to the natural world.
Malik’s Thesis for the MFA Design & Tech Cohort 2022 at the New School
(do it! It’s a 4 min read)
Each mask takes 2-3 weeks to grow in which bacteria and yeast work together to bind and metabolize.
The longer the fermentation, the more durable the mask is.
When we shine a light and reflect on our identities, we see the strength of living symbiotically–a connection to our microbial ancestors.
Our identity encompasses more than just ourselves. Understanding this connection lays the foundation of our symbiotic survival for the future.
Our bodies encompass an entire ecosystem of microbes.
We have about as much bacterial DNA as we do human DNA, stacked at a 1:1 ratio. This fact alone begs the question of what and who are we as people? Are we even people if not a system of millions of living organisms acting as one?