Living Jacket
Is this just too gross to be interesting? I’m not certain, but a couple of guys are growing a “semi-living jacket” out of a combination of mouse and human cells. The goal, they say, is to create “victimless leather.”
While there’s still lots of research to be done before a fully formed live jacket can be created, the artists are quick to point out that they aren’t interested in creating commercial products or even furthering scientific research. Calling themselves conceptual artists who create working prototypes, they say their aim is to bring to the forefront the philosophical implications of making living organisms tools for our own purposes.“It’s quite a scary thing, our attitude to life as it is at the moment,” said Zurr. “And the more we manipulate life for human-centric purposes, I wonder now how compassionate we are going to be towards those living systems. Our work is more about questioning these things rather than saying, ‘This is great, let’s go for it.’”
