DEAN WEIGAND
Project topic: circular design of bioplastics
Question: How can a product made from bacterial cellulose circulate in a business model within a realistic framework, taking into account the material flows generated in the process?
Date: 2020/21
Project: Full circle - designing full circle(s) with and for (regional) bioplastics.Studentproject under Mareike Gast Burg Giebichenstein Halle
Exhibitions:
Gewerbemuseum Winterthur 2022fomu the home-cultured menstrual sponge, is the fictitious idea of a reusable menstrual product made from bacterial cellulose. Through a fermentative process with a cellulose-forming bacterium, the bacterial cellulose is cultivated, growing into a three-dimensional foam structure. The resulting by-products are either fed back into previous processes or are used for disinfection and storage of the sponges. In addition to selling the fomu sponges, an online platform for fomu provides instructions and information about menstruation and its contemporary issues, an applicator set for uncomplicated use on the go, and a set plus materials for culturing the fomu sponges at home. The fomu – the home-cultured menstrual sponge project that serves to not only cultivate healthy discourse towards the destigmatization of menstruation processes, but also, as a tool that attempts to break a historically damaging, oppressive cycle of predatory capitalism within the realm of essential menstrual products.
FULL CONCEPT