.The human body is a complex ecosystem hosting billions of microorganisms, including bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses, residing on both the internal and external surfaces of our bodies. Research shows that our growth and development are not only shaped by our own genes but also significantly influenced by this vast microbiome that has inhabited our bodies since birth. This intertwined relationship is dynamic; we continuously regulate the composition and number of microorganisms through our diet, lifestyle, and habits, while shifts in our microbiome inevitably impact our functioning, emotional state, and behaviour.
Despite its profound influence, the human microbiome has been largely overlooked in the design of future eating practices, rituals, and tools. Yet, our dietary choices play a critical role in reshaping our microbiome. Second Skin questions how embracing the idea of the human body as an ecology — rather than a singular entity — could fundamentally alter our eating behaviours and practices.
Second Skin invites visitors to explore this concept through an XR exhibition where a digital, interactive layer allows them to visualize a ‘second skin’ on themselves. This immersive experience presents a futuristic dining scenario where microbiome awareness shapes eating rituals and redefines our agency over our own bodies.
Location: Avans Creative Innovation (Parallelweg 23, 5223 AL ‘s-Hertogenbosch).
The exhibition is located on the ground floor, near the catering area.
Opening Hours:
Join us for the keynote presentation of ‘Second Skin: Microbiome-Centric Dining’, where Hazal Ertürkan will provide deeper insights into her research. The keynote will explore how acknowledging the human body as a complex ecology could transform the future of food and eating practices. The event will conclude with networking drinks.
The keynote will be held in English.
Program:
Location: Room PP055, Avans Creative Innovation (EKP Building, Parallelweg 23, 5223 AL ‘s-Hertogenbosch)
Time: 4.00PM – 5.00PM
Registration: Click here to register
The research behind Second Skin led to the development of the performative, multisensory XR experience ‘Microbiome Restaurant’. In collaboration with Marcel van Brakel, founder of studio Polymorf, Hazal Ertürkan co-created this futuristic walk-through dining experience. The project introduces new ways of bodily gastronomy, expanding the taste palette to include the ecology of lifeforms that compose the human body.
Explore how understanding our microbiome can reshape future dining practices. Visit the exhibition at the EKP Building of Avans Creative Innovation and experience ‘Second Skin: Microbiome-Centric Dining’.
The research conducted for the Second Skin project led to the development of the performative, multisensory XR experience ‘Microbiome Restaurant’ project, in which Hazal is positioned as the co-owner/co-director and lead designer. Microbiome Restaurant, developed in collaboration with Marcel van Brakel, founder of studio Polymorf, introduces a futuristic walk-through dining experience offering new ways of bodily gastronomy, expanding the taste paletee for the ecology of lifeforms we call the human body.
Explore how our understanding of the human microbiome can transform future dining practices. Visit the exhibition at the EKP Building of Avans Creative Innovation to learn more about microbiome-centric dining.
Hazal Ertürkan, researcher and multidisciplinary designer at TU Delft and owner of Studio Bleu, explores future living concepts. In her work, she integrates living materials like bacteria and fungi into design. With this project, Hazal aims to challenge our agency over our bodies and invites visitors to imagine microbiome-aware eating practices.
The future alternative food and eating practices are a prominent area in current research and design endeavors. However, to date, the human microbiome and its affect on human body has not been taking into account during the development of possible future eating practices. But, how would seeing the human body as an ecology rather than an independent being affect our eating behaviour and practices?
‘I am eager to explore how unique qualities of ‘living materials’ can transform the way we think, feel and act.’
Hazal Ertürkan is a researcher within the Caradt research group Biobased Art and Design. She also works as a design researcher and material designer at Delft University of Technology. Her current PhD project is collaboration between TU Delft and Avans Caradt.
The research group Biobased Art and Design capitalises on the role of artistic practice in unlocking the unique potentials of living organisms for everyday materials and communicating these to a broader public. In doing so, the group aims to instigate and accelerate our widespread understanding, further development and usage of such materials. The group’s research approach encourages tangible interactions with the living organisms, such as algae, fungi, plants and bacteria, to explore and understand their unique qualities and constraints through diverse technical and creative methods taking artists, designers and scientists as equal and active partners in the material creation.
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