Materialized Enhancements
A platform translating human biological upgrades into generative, wearable art.
Presented at:
Choose your real-world genetic enhancements, and our system generates a unique, 3D-printable artifact shaped by your biological choices.
”The New Human is a mosaic — assembled by choice, not by chance.”
Team Members
Newton Winter — Concept / Biology
Anton Kulaga — Engineering / Data
Livia Zaharia — Design / Storytelling
Markel Kori — Video / Storytelling
Project Summary
Upgrading human DNA isn’t sci-fi — it is already happening in adults today. In alternative jurisdictions like Prospera, medical tourists are actively receiving gene therapies for muscle growth (Follistatin) and blood vessel creation (VEGF). But what happens in 10 years as we unlock harder-to-implement targets to shape “The New Human”? Nature already has the code for extreme survival: shark longevity, tardigrade radiation shields, and axolotl regeneration. Materialized Enhancements turns this impending synthetic biology into participatory artwork.
Users select their desired “enhancement genes” through our intuitive UI built in Reflex. These selections, combined with a personal digital signature, act as the exact data inputs for a generative algorithm. The result is a single, unrepeatable 3D form — ready for 3D printing.
We built this as a highly extensible platform. We are actively inviting other artists to plug their own generative art models into our biological input engine. While we used Grasshopper for fast prototyping during the hackathon, our roadmap includes switching to fully open-source generative tools integrated directly with the deployed UI.
Project Category
Interactive installation / Data visualization / Generative art
The Hackathon Journey
This project was literally built on the move across over 1,500 kilometers. We pitched the concept during the first hour of the hackathon in Milan, caught a flight to Bucharest, and developed the Reflex code and Grasshopper logic on a train to Munich, where Livia is currently exhibiting her “Data as Art” work.
Vision
How does your project express a perspective on The New Human?
The project embodies the idea that the New Human is not engineered top-down, but chosen — freely, personally, from what 3.8 billion years of evolution has already prototyped across every branch of life on Earth. Enhancement is reframed not as a medical intervention but as a creative act of self-authorship.
Exploration
What are you experimenting with or discovering through this project?
We are experimenting with the boundary between speculative biology and participatory art: can a gene library become an expressive palette? What does it feel like to hold your biological choices in your hand as a physical object? The hackathon is itself an experiment in whether this question resonates with people when made tangible.
Collaboration
How does your project involve collaboration between people, disciplines, or systems?
The project is a collaboration between humans and biological heritage — each source organism (tardigrade, axolotl, Greenland shark, mantis shrimp, immortal jellyfish…) contributes a puzzle piece to the human silhouette, making evolution itself a silent collaborator. The team also spans biology, engineering, and design.
Art and Technology
How do art and technology interact in your project?
A Reflex web app serves as the interface — the gene library is the data layer, generative algorithms translate selections into unique 3D forms, and the final artefact is the physical print. Technology makes the biology legible; art makes it personal and emotionally resonant.
Depth
What deeper reflection or question does your project raise?
The work raises the question of consent and authorship in enhancement: if you could choose your biology, what would that say about who you want to be? The totem is not a prediction — it is a declaration. It also asks: whose choices have already been encoded in us by evolution, and what does it mean to consciously continue that process?
White Mirror
How does your project imagine a positive, human-centered future?
Rather than fearing genetic enhancement, this project imagines a world where it is an expressive, democratic act — as personal as choosing what music to listen to or what words to tattoo on your skin. The positive future here is one where biological choice is informed, creative, and deeply human.
Tools & Materials Used
Frontend UI: Reflex [GitHub Repo]
Generative Form Prototype: Rhino / Grasshopper
Future Generative Engine: Open-source generative models directly integrated with the UI
Generative Video: Google Flux / Veo
Data: Polars, reflex-mui-datagrid
Gene library: 35 genes · 9 categories · ~25 source organisms (each with a real research paper)
Organism silhouettes: PhyloPic (CC0 / CC BY)
Project Demo / How to Experience It
Visit the web app (or scan a QR code on site). Browse the Gene Library — 35 real genes from tardigrades, sharks, axolotls, mantis shrimp, and more. Pick the traits that feel right to you. Enter something personal to sign your composition. Generate your unique totem. On site, it is 3D-printed. Remotely, it is shared as a downloadable file.
What’s Next?
Integrate fully open-source generative tools directly into the deployed UI (replacing Grasshopper prototype)
Invite other artists to plug their own generative art models into the biological input engine
Add the puzzle assembly view — showing how each source organism contributes a piece to the human silhouette
Extend the gene library with more organisms and categories
Explore AR as a presentation layer for the generated totem
Deploy the web app publicly so anyone can compose their enhancement
The gene library is built on real published research — every entry links to a peer-reviewed paper. The organisms range from extremophile bacteria to extinct hominins (Denisovans).
The puzzle metaphor runs through the whole project: each organism is a puzzle piece, the human silhouette is assembled from non-human biological heritage, and your personal totem is the assembled result of your choices — a materialised version of your vision of yourself.
Source code: https://github.com/winternewt/materialized-enchancements