what if humans could bring back the material cycle back into balance? as part of the planetary ecosystem, humans play a key role in shifting the balance through over-exploitation and domestication of the natural environment to create their own domestic environment. the materials used for the built environment that are processed by humans, almost never pass through a human’s body. this creates an imbalance in the material cycle of the planet. at the same time, animals, plants and other organisms are constantly giving and taking material from their bodies to create their habitat, which is in balance with their own internal and external ecosystem. if humans want to remove the hierarchy, they have created between themselves and nature, how might they change their behavior of excessive material consumtion to bring the material cycle back into balance?
by seein their own body as part of the ecosystem, people feel more connected to it. with an ochiba, people are able to multiply material attached to their own body to return it to the related ecosystem. other actors in the ecosystem can then use them for their own needs. ochiba is a portable bone-growing system that uses people’s own stem cells and nutrients to grow an object from bone mass. the cast in which the bone object grows can be customized to make the carrier of the object feel more connected to the object and thus to the new habitat it creates.