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Short abstract

The paper presents an interdisciplinary project situated at the intersection of art and microbiology, which explores possibilities of fungal decomposition of a plastic corset, tracing the links between plastic’s longevity, BDSM aesthetics, and real-time microbial evolution.

Long abstract

"Composting Horror Barbie" is an interdisciplinary research project situated between anthropology, bio-art and microbiology, that investigates the metabolic afterlives of synthetic materials through artistic speculation and microbiological experimentation. Originating as a collage produced at the Matter of Flux festival (Art Laboratory Berlin, 2023), it follows the transformation of a polyurethane and PVC corset once associated with the social media profile of a fictional and ephemeral entity called “Horror Barbie.” The project explores strategies for training selected fungi strains to decompose the corset.

"Composting Horror Barbie" foregrounds the collision of multiple metabolic time-scales: the deep time of petroleum-derived plastics, the transient lifespans of digital identities, and the accelerating rhythms of microbial evolution. It explores the interrelations between the evolutionary history of fungi and the deep history of petroleum, tracing its origin to the ancient forests that could not be decomposed because fungi had not yet developed the ability to break down lignin, as well as the entanglements of the slow violence of plastic pollution with the eroticization of violence in the context of BDSM practices, and the dual meanings of plasticity—as both the malleability of inorganic matter and the vulnerability of living bodies to physical and symbolic violence.

By mobilizing these temporal, metabolic, and affective entanglements the project frames biodegradation as an epistemic practice: a site of cross-species negotiation where synthetic, biological, and fictional agencies co-compose new narratives of transformation and new practices of care and remediation.