Living Mesh is a textile that heals land poisoned by oil. Fique fibre infused with bacteria that biodegrade hydrocarbons in under 30 days, built in 3D.
Science that no camera can reach
Colombia has an alarming number of land based oil spills, many caused by the country's armed conflict. VML Colombia and Macarena asked Nea Studio to make the science visible, so the case study was built entirely in 3D, most of it simulated in Houdini. Fique strands intertwine in photoreal close up. Lysinibacillus sphaericus bacteria grow across a fibre. Rolls of textile spread over contaminated strips of land. A rock shifts from oil slicked to moss covered in water. Then the ground comes back: a grass field regenerating, a single purple flower blooming among white daisies. A fique patch floats with its strands radiating outward, the weave readable thread by thread.
Why none of it could be filmed
The bacteria work at a scale no camera reaches, and the land takes months to come back. The project, developed by Atratus and Universidad de los Andes, won a Bronze Cannes Lion in Innovation.
