Bacterial-Material Agentic Assemblages

In this paper, I will discuss two of my collaborative works - Inciperem and Lo Lamento – and how the production of these biodesigned pieces, toward fashion propositions, further complicate the already entangled notions of human-nonhuman relations. These works of biofashion force us to confront typical and idealised anthropo-centred ways of working – and I question and critique, instead, a bacterially-centred notion of ‘Protection’ in relation to fashion, body and the garment, whilst operating in the production of living and agential materialities. I discuss how these pieces invite us to probe typical design research methods and demonstrate ways in which such methods are challenged when working with bacterial-material, agentic assemblages. I underpin my paper, drawing upon theorists Jane Bennet and Bruno Latour and the notion of ‘agentic assemblages’. This is discussed as underpinning the pieces, when including both organic and inorganic substances as holding efficacy and agency within processes, whether social, political, or in this case in relation to fashion. Theoretical fashion academics Anneke Smelik, Joanne Entwhistle and Elaine Igoe are discussed, having translated aspects of philosophical concepts of Actor Network Theory and New Materialism into frameworks within theoretical fashion research, in order to explore the processes of the fashion system when each element – organic or inorganic matter – arguably holds agency. Here I examine what aspects of new materialist philosophies can mean for these forms of human-nonhuman relationships – and will discuss how this form of ‘in-becoming’ is shaped through and via materialities, agencies and assemblages in flux.