The project Co-Becoming with Kombucha explores how biohybrid interfaces facilitate encounters with microbial life—beyond instrumental use or purely representational models. The kombucha culture used here is not understood as a data source, but as a living, temporally dynamic system characterized by growth and transformation.

Central to the project is the question of the relationships between human and microbial actors. The starting point is the concept of the holobiont, according to which organisms consist of multiple interconnected life forms. From posthumanist and feminist perspectives, this relationship is conceived as an ethical and creative practice that challenges traditional boundaries between human and non-human.

The installation is based on an exchange between biological (microbial) and technical processes. Through a “Gift-of-Self” protocol, participants introduce bodily materials such as hair, saliva, or skin contact into the fermentation process. In this way, they themselves become part of a system constituted by mutual interactions.

A central screen is connected to several kombucha containers arranged in a ring, which are in turn connected via electrodes. As biofilms of bacterial cellulose form, sensors record the bioelectrical activity of the cultures. This is translated into a reaction-diffusion model (Gray-Scott model) and output as a visual pattern that depicts growth and change as an open-ended process.

By employing fermentation processes as an aesthetic and relational medium, microbial life emerges as an active participant. The resulting biofilm functions as a living surface that is in a state of constant flux and defies unambiguous interpretation.

Co-Becoming with Kombucha thus explores design as a form of participation—not as control over living systems, but as responsible collaboration in a shared, fragile process between human and non-human actors.