Reference: GORJANC033
Title: Ceros
Date: 2021
Author: Tina Gorjanc
Details: Commissioned for the 2021 NOVA X Exhibition
Media: Keratin and gelatine amalgamate
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: Animal parts trafficking is in the 4th place of the most lucrative contraband industries, just behind guns, drugs and human trafficking. The demand for rhino horns has skyrocketed in the past decades, creating an industry worth more than £16.7 billion today. The material retails at a higher value than gold, despite being a mixture of keratin and gelatine, two compounds in abundance today.


The Ceros material production process builds on existing techniques of producing material alternatives to the rhino horn. The sourcing, selection and usage of all components and equipment needed to produce the alternative have been adapted to fit the access and limitation of a home-based studio.


The material was developed using a selection of open-source recipes which use commercially available horsehair and a gelatine matrix. The tuft of hair has been treated with heat, mechanical and chemical agents that speed up the natural process of tightly packing and glueing the hair. This action is carried out by exudates from the sebaceous glands on the nose of the animal.


The project’s aim is to map out and project potential material-based solutions and analyse the role those can play in the trade of illegal animal materials, which is causing the further exploitation of endangered species. While most animal material alternatives focus on the very pressing problem of sustainable production, this booming niche field is quietly exploding. Unfortunately, its consequences might eventually cost us the biodiversity of the most diverse ecosystems.

Reference: GORJANC001
Title: Body Spam – Human Skin as a New Advertisement Vehicle
Date: 2015
Author: Tina Gorjanc
Details: Project developed on the Material Futures Course, CSM
Media: Speculative Objects
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: Synthetic bacterial systems can support programmed pattern formation. They involve cell-to-cell communication and intracellular signal processing. Without natural immunity from the new types of synthetic agents, infection rates could rise high, increasing sales of vitamins and health remedies. World’s leading companies could quickly see the opportunity to promote their brand identity through programmable rushes.

Body Spam will be redesigned to make money, and will be mostly harmful to the human body. The advertising with bio spam will allow people to have an active role in the process. Synthetically engineered agents are going to be activated by consumption of a specific product, which will produce receiver cells that will allow rash formation in the shape of a selected company’s logo, recognisable sign, or short slogan.

The effect of the agent will last for a certain amount of time and won’t be uncomfortable for the user. With this process a new medium of advertising in the business environment will be initiated, transforming the human body into a temporary advertising vehicle.

Reference: GORJANC002
Title: Harvest – Sustaining Nature by Easing Human's Self-Appointed Entitlement To It
Date: 2020
Author: Tina Gorjanc and Natalie Nicolaides
Details: 3D renders of future fictitious uses of a mock-rhino horn material
Media: Speculative objects
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: The black market of rhino horns has skyrocketed in the past few years as the authorities protecting the species lack in means and resources to successfully stop the poaching. The project introduces a keratin-based material that is biologically identical to the substance which makes up the entirety of the rhino horn.

Because of the amazing thermoplastic characteristics of this material and its ability to be used as a base for vacuum-forming and 3D printing, the material can be manipulated into products fit for our commercial market. The aim of the project is to analyse the potential implications that the possibility of providing an overabundance of this currently scarce resource can have on its market value. By suggesting implementing the engineered keratin into both the legal and the black market of animal memorabilia, the project tackles the mainstream ethical boundaries and mindset of producing counterfeit objects.

The project acknowledges the work already carried out by the American-based company called Pembient who is in the process of manufacturing synthetic horns for the commercial market and is set to be releasing the first batches in 2022. Where the two projects distanced one from another is the holistic approach that the Harvest one employs as it gains ground of the overarching problem of animal poaching. Instead of proposing purely a material alternative, the project aims to redesign the validation system surrounding rhino memorabilia.

By mapping out chemical and environmental factors that establish a deeper connection between the material owner and the source, the Harvest project aims to shift the negative connotation associated with the terminology of synthetic engineering and biomimicry.

Reference: GORJANC009
Title: The Self-donor Workshop – The Emergence of the Organ Tailor Practice
Date: 2019
Author: Tina Gorjanc
Details: A speculative scenario marketing, packaging and displaying of biological matter as consumable goods.
Media: Film [2m34s]
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: The Self-Donor Workshop project aims to update the medical torso to reflect on the possibilities of future organ bioengineering and transplantation. Whilst customised human organs are still far from being a reality, it may soon be possible to engineer organoids that would improve certain bodily functions.

The project presents a vision of a bioengineering boutique, in which human stem cells could be sampled and cultured until they have grown into simplified organs. Each cultured tissue is given a biopharmaceutical label and name based on the organ it is to be grafted onto.

The packaging and display of biological matter as consumable goods, therefore, aims to address our current view of the human body in this age of quick technological advances. It is reflecting our desire as a capitalistic society to try linking biomedical sciences with the aggressive commercialisation that is invading nearly every sector of human life.

The speculative scenario emphasises the need to update the anatomical torso as an educational tool which fails to offer general biological insights to the learners. The set-up of the torso within the display also hints at a tailoring workshop environment that speculates on the emerging new profession which merges the field of medicine, biological engineering and 3D design.

Reference: GORJANC005
Title: Pure Human – Exploring the Commodification of Human Flesh as a New Form of Luxury
Date: 2016
Author: Tina Gorjanc
Details: Speculative project exploring the commodification of human flesh as a new form of luxury. Final Master's Project on the Material Futures Course, Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design.
Media: Speculative objects
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: The Pure Human project was conceived research methodology to better understand the development of tissue engineering technology and how it redefines today’s concept of luxury. The critical project speculates on a possible future application of biotechnological processes within the luxury industry. The project also aims to address shortcomings that are present in our current legal system which is enabling ether an individual or organisation to claim ownership over biologically engineered products that are embedded with human genetic information. The outcome consists of a range of speculative commercial leather products cultivated from extracted human biological material. The products within the collection have been exposed to different surface manipulation. The purpose of this action was to expose the identity of the source and humanise beck the bodily materials usually depersonalised because of their scale.

Reference: GORJANC007
Title: Pure Human 0.01 - An Exploration of the Intersection Between Luxury and Biology
Date: 2016
Author: Tina Gorjanc
Details: Materials and tests exploring the intersection between luxury and biology. Project developed on the Material Futures Course,
Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design
Media: Experiments
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: Skin related biotechnologies seem to have caught the interest of the luxury industry. Major fashion and cosmetic companies have already signed research collaboration agreements with bioengineering institutes. Those collaborations are enabling the development of existing skin technologies that were firstly designed for specific medical problems into the enhancement of normal human functions and the extension of one’s self beyond its body.

Newly formed alliances will redefine the standards of the luxury industry by developing products that reach far beyond beauty and physical enhancements, provoking and challenging the relationship between human and skin. The project is projecting the shift that is happening in the field of ethics and security regarding tissue engineering technologies.

Reference: GORJANC008
Title: Pure Human [Documentary] – Ethical Implications of Commercial Tissue
Date: 2016
Author: Tina Gorjanc
Details: Commission from the Lethaby Gallery, Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design
Media: Film [4m06s]
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: The Pure Human project was conceived research methodology to better understand the development of tissue engineering technology and how it redefines today’s concept of luxury. The critical project speculates on a possible future application of biotechnological processes within the luxury industry. The project also aims to address shortcomings that are present in our current legal system which is enabling ether an individual or organisation to claim ownership over biologically engineered products that are embedded with human genetic information. The outcome consists of a range of speculative commercial leather products cultivated from extracted human biological material. The products within the collection have been exposed to different surface manipulation. The purpose of this action was to expose the identity of the source and humanise beck the bodily materials usually depersonalised because of their scale.

Reference: GORJANC006
Title: Pure Human [Experiments] – Exploring the Commodification of Human Flesh as a New Form of Luxury
Date: 2016
Author: Tina Gorjanc
Details: Speculative project exploring the commodification of human flesh as a new form of luxury. Final Master's Project on the Material Futures Course, Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design.
Media: Experiments
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: The Pure Human project was conceived research methodology to better understand the development of tissue engineering technology and how it redefines today’s concept of luxury. The critical project speculates on a possible future application of biotechnological processes within the luxury industry. The project also aims to address shortcomings that are present in our current legal system which is enabling ether an individual or organisation to claim ownership over biologically engineered products that are embedded with human genetic information. The outcome consists of a range of speculative commercial leather products cultivated from extracted human biological material. The products within the collection have been exposed to different surface manipulation. The purpose of this action was to expose the identity of the source and humanise beck the bodily materials usually depersonalised because of their scale.

Reference: GORJANC030
Title: Sketchbook
Date: 2019
Author: Tina Gorjanc
Details: Illustrative sketchbook spreads
Media: Sketchbook
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: The sketchbook acts as a visualisation of my thought and ideas. It is a door into my creative brain. Trying to curate it helps me make sense of all the research and info I am processing about a project or more general interests. I treat every sketch as a final illustration. Rather than producing quantities, I focus on ideation and progression of the same sketch. I compromise the recording of different stages of the process for a final version that encompasses all the amendments and updates needed. Therefore, it very closely reflects the physical object it is portraying.

Curation Reference: GORJANC026
Title: Notebooks
Date:
Author: Tina Gornjac
Details:
Media: Notebooks
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: I try to record all the info about a project from different research sources (books, online articles, interviews, podcasts) in the same notebook.

Reference: GORJANC027
Title: Leather Making and Casting Kit
Date: NA
Author: NA
Details: Leather crafting or simply leather craft is the practice of making leather into craft objects or works of art, using shaping techniques, colouring techniques or both.
Media: Tools
Credit: wikipedia.org/Leather_crafting

Description: Despite each of my projects is usually done with a completely different technique, those two kits seem to be the constant - even though they might not always be used as intended.

Reference: GORJANC028
Title: Adobe Creative Suite
Date: NA
Author: Adobe Systems
Details: Adobe Creative Suite (CS) is a software suite of graphic design, video editing, and web development applications developed by Adobe Systems. Each edition consisted of several Adobe applications, such as Photoshop, Acrobat, Premiere Pro or After Effects, InDesign, and Illustrator, which became industry standard applications for many graphic design positions.
Media: Software
Credit: wikipedia.org/Adobe_Creative_Suite

Description: My work is most tangible, but those digital tools are necessary throughout different stages of my project development: technical sketches, fabrication guidelines, presentation of the project, supporting display materials.

Reference: GORJANC013
Title: Stranger Visions
Date: 2013
Author: Heather Dewey-Hagborg
Details: DNA is extracted from hairs, chewed up gum, and cigarette butts from the public areas, then analysed to computationally generate 3D printed, life-size, full colour portraits representing what those individuals might look like, based on genomic research. Calling attention to the developing technology of forensic DNA phenotyping, the project investigates the potential for a culture of biological surveillance, and the impulse towards genetic determinism.
Media: Sculptures
Credit: deweyhagborg.com/stranger-visions

Description: Bio-design can be a contentious topic as it opens new possibilities that redefine or current social and political landscapes. Heather's work shows how merging new technologies with design approaches can act as a non-direct activist medium to initiate interest from the public and debate around a previously ambiguous and unrelatable topic.

Reference: GORJANC014
Title: Hair Label
Date: 1992
Author: Alexander McQueen
Details: From The Museum of Savage Beauty, which explores the hidden stories and craftsmanship behind some of the most remarkable objects made by Alexander McQueen and his creative collaborators. Here the designer's iconic pieces are placed alongside historical objects from the V&A’s collections, which represent some of the many design traditions that inspired him.
Media: Fashion item
Credit: vam.ac.uk/museumofsavagebeauty

Description: A very influential discovery for my Pure Human project has taught me a lot about retrieving information and biological data, which we have deemed lost forever. In addition, it has initiated my fascination with biological materials that sit between the past and the future.

Reference: GORJANC015
Title: Remote Control
Date: 2020
Author: Hussein Chalayan
Details: Hussein Chalayan's collections are an articulation of his immediate conceptual and philosophical preoccupations as well as his fascination with materials and techniques as they might be applied to his métier.
Media: Fashion item
Credit: metmuseum.org/remote-control

Description: I have come across this collection while studying on my BA levels in Fashion and Textile Design in my home country. It has recalibrated the way I think about design and material application. Chalayan's work introduced me to London as a centre for fashion and as a hub for innovation and cross-pollination of sciences and new technologies with design and art, which later play a role in my decision to move here.

Reference: GORJANC016
Title: Victimless Leather
Date: 2004
Author: Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr
Details: Grown from immortalised cell lines on a biodegradable polymer matrix in the form of a miniature stitch-less ‘jacket’, Victimless Leather explores the future of lab-grown ‘leather’.
Media: Fashion item
Credit: tcaproject.net/victimless-leather

Description: This project exposed me to the possibility of filling in what I always considered a moral gap in my practice. Even though my core interest lies in working with animal-based materials, I am also very fond of animals and had always questioned the ethics of my practice because of this. Besides just acquainting me with the possibilities of alternatives and alternative procedures to produce such materials, the project also made me more critically aware of the vast and deeper ethical implications of the validity of such materials and how those materials are portrayed and marketed.

Reference: GORJANC017
Title: Lucyandbart
Date: 2010
Author: Lucy McRae and Bart Hess
Details: Lucyandbart is a photographic collaboration between Lucy and Bart Hess, generating imagery exploring how the human silhouette may evolve. The ad hoc duo worked close to the body, imagining the skin could sprout gills, becoming ecological skins, where textiles grow from skin pores and gender becomes fluid.
Media: Photographs
Credit: lucymcrae.net/lucyandbart

Description: When speculating about the future, becoming too abstract or making the environment and the context foreign to the viewer always becomes a challenge. Lucy's and Bart's work has taught me the importance of transitional products and scenarios, which struck the perfect balance between a futuristic outlook on a problem and familiarity with a known context.

Reference: GORJANC018
Title: Frankenstein
Date: 1818
Author: Mary Shelley
Details: Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment.
Media: Publication
Credit: wikipedia.org/Frankenstein

Description: Great classics that shows how, even though we tend to think about the human mentality to be radically evolving alongside the developments of sciences, tech and society, our moral compass has not changed much. Most of the moral dilemmas explored in the ebooks are very much applicable to the happenings in our current society.

Reference: GORJANC019
Title: Jurassic Park
Date: 1990
Author: Michael Crichton
Details: A cautionary tale about genetic engineering, it presents the collapse of an amusement park showcasing genetically re-created dinosaurs to illustrate the mathematical concept of chaos theory and its real-world implications.
Media: Publication
Credit: wikipedia.org/Jurassic_Park

Description: Great classics that shows how, even though we tend to think about the human mentality to be radically evolving alongside the developments of sciences, tech and society, our moral compass has not really changed so much. Most of the moral dilemmas explored in the ebooks are very much applicable to the happenings in our current society.

Reference: GORJANC020
Title: Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction and Social Dreaming
Date: 2013
Author: Fiona Raby and Anthony Dunne
Details: Speculating about how things could be, using design to imagine possible futures, posing "what if" questions that are intended to open debate and discussion about the kind of future people want (and do not want).
Media: Publication
Credit: dunneandraby.co.uk/speculative-everything

Description: Design bibles that have shaped how I position and evolve my practice. Today design is facing very challenging societal, environmental and social justice problems compared to the design goals of the past decades. As a result, the overabundance and the expansiveness of those briefs can sometimes become very hindering. Those texts have definitely helped me overcome this feeling and helped me remap my role as a designer to fulfil my sense of purpose.

Reference: GORJANC021
Title: Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
Date: 2016
Author: Yuval Noah Harari
Details: Harari recounts the course of history while describing events and the individual human experience, along with ethical issues in relation to his historical survey. However, Homo Deus deals more with the abilities acquired by humans throughout their existence, and their evolution as the dominant species in the world. The book describes mankind's current abilities and achievements and attempts to paint an image of the future.
Media: Publication
Credit: wikipedia.org/Homo_Deus

Description: A very insightful and thought-provoking anthropological, social and cultural, investigation. The focus of the writing is on the role and possibilities of current and emerging sciences and technologies that redefine what it means to be human. The overarching outlook of each example and the connectivity to other domains is something I have found extremely relatable to my work. I have interpreted those more philosophical and theoretical methodologies through design processes.

Reference: GORJANC022
Title: Crake and Oryx
Date: 2003
Author: Margaret Atwood
Details: Focusing on a lone character called Snowman, who finds himself in a bleak situation with only creatures called Crakers to keep him company. The reader learns of his past, as a boy called Jimmy, and of genetic experimentation and pharmaceutical engineering that occurred under the purview of Jimmy's peer, Glenn "Crake".
Media: Publication
Credit: wikipedia.org/Oryx_and_Crake

Description: One of my favourite sci-fi writers, the defined my outlook on fiction in design and helped shape my interest in speculation and critical approaches. The ability to immerse oneself into a scenario that becomes a reality once you are in it is, in my view, one of the most powerful tools to equip the audience with the ability to imagine alternative futures.

Reference: GORJANC023
Title: Defuturing, A New Design Philosophy
Date: 2020
Author: Tony Fry
Details: An account of what it means to comprehend that we live in world that is taking away futures for ourselves and non-human others. Arguing that designing is doubly implicated in this process, first in its roles in helping to create the unsustainable, but second, re-thought through the lens of defuturing, as a mode of acting in the world that can help contest the negation of the world, Defuturing transforms our comprehension of designing and of how futures can be constituted.
Media: Publication
Credit: books.google.co.uk/Defuturing

Description: Design bibles that have shaped how I position and evolve my practice. Today design is facing very challenging societal, environmental and social justice problems compared to the design goals of the past decades. As a result, the overabundance and the expansiveness of those briefs can sometimes become very hindering. Those texts have definitely helped me overcome this feeling and helped me remap my role as a designer to fulfil my sense of purpose.

Reference: GORJANC024
Title: Design as an Attitude
Date: 2018
Author: Alice Rawsthorn
Details: An explanation of how design is responding to an age of intense economic, political and ecological instability. It charts different aspects of contemporary design, from its role in interpreting new technologies and the emergence of a new wave of digitally empowered designers in Africa, to the craft revival, design’s gender politics and its use in expressing our increasingly fluid personal identities.
Media: Publication
Credit: wikipedia.org/Alice_Rawsthorn

Description: Design bibles that have shaped how I position and evolve my practice. Today design is facing very challenging societal, environmental and social justice problems compared to the design goals of the past decades. As a result, the overabundance and the expansiveness of those briefs can sometimes become very hindering. Those texts have definitely helped me overcome this feeling and helped me remap my role as a designer to fulfil my sense of purpose.

Reference: GORJANC025
Title: Hope in the Dark
Date: 2004
Author: Rebecca Solnit
Details: An exploration of optimism in an era of seeming defeat and cultural pessimism. When the worldwide movement against war in Iraq failed to persuade the Bush administration against military action, many activists felt that their actions had been futile, their voices ignored. This book arises out of this moment, arguing millions marching against war did not constitute a failure, but a step toward success.
Media: Publication
Credit: books.google.co.uk/Hope_in_the_Dark

Description: Design bibles that have shaped how I position and evolve my practice. Today design is facing very challenging societal, environmental and social justice problems compared to the design goals of the past decades. As a result, the overabundance and the expansiveness of those briefs can sometimes become very hindering. Those texts have definitely helped me overcome this feeling and helped me remap my role as a designer to fulfil my sense of purpose.

Reference: GORJANC029
Title: Far, Far From Land
Date: 2013
Author: Tim Walker
Details: Series of fashion photographs depicting mermaids
Media: Photographs
Credit: wmagazine.com/tim-walker-mermaids

Description: Walker has touched on all the points that make art and design exciting. He can convey a fictional narrative that is not too foreign to the viewer by positioning the disrupting element into an everyday scenario. I also interpret it through the lens of possibilities offered by new developing technologies; bio-engineering, synthetic biology, and material design are achieving results that were previously regarded as entirely unattainable. This is marking our current time as a fascinating but equally frightening era.

Reference: GORJANC030
Title: Liberator, Defense Distributed
Date: 2013
Author: Cody Wilson
Details: The first fired 3D printed prototype handgun
Media: 3D printed object
Credit: wikipedia.org/Liberator_(gun)

Description: The Liberator is the first fired 3D printed prototype handgun. The STL files were made freely available on Wilson's search engine for anyone to download them and 3D print from them. Even though the US Government ordered them to remove several files from the platform, he was not breaking any laws in the production of the firearms themselves. This object is a great case study illustrating the need to constantly adapt and check in on the ethics and mainstream mindset about released designs produced by the ever-growing fast pace of innovation and tech. We tend to categorise design applications in a binary way - positive or negative, and this object epitomises how spectral those are.