Isolation in Colours

Pirita Lauri is a Doctoral Candidate from Aalto ARTS. She is doing her research Living Matter as a Textile Design Medium in the Fashion and Textile Futures research group at the Department of Design. Lauri’s research is positioned in the intersection of design and materials sciences. It focuses on methods of making or manipulating (textile) materials, especially processes that incorporate living organisms, such as bacteria. Lauri zooms into this topic from different perspectives ranging from the technology of the future – synthetic biology – to the most ancient of textile dyeing traditions – fermented indigo vat dyeing – both utilizing bacteria as a workforce. Before Lauri joined BioColour-project, she participated in the research projects NewSilk (2017-2020) and Crops4Luxury (2018-2019).

Lauri turned the COVID19 lockdown period of spring 2020 into something positive by creating a project where she was dyeing with natural dyes in her home environment. Instead of systematic research, literally living with these processes engaged her in a unique dialogue with different natural substances. This resulted in an intimate relationship, one where, for instance, vats got names. In the form of pictures and excerpts from Lauri’s working diary, the exhibition Isolation in Colours showcases selected moments from this period of unprecedented isolation.