Maine College of Art and Design

EAT DIRT

finalist project

Cam FoX, Tom Dailey

EAT DIRT imagines a future where humans reconnect through a shared nutrition source: soil. It critiques social inequities caused by the capitalist food industry and its harmful effects on consumption patterns. Inspired by fungi’s interconnected mycelium networks, the project explores humans evolving to absorb nutrients directly from the environment. Through a wearable glove or prosthetic hyphae system, and eventually genetic modification granting fingertip absorption abilities, it envisions a sustainable shift away from mass production and convenience. EAT DIRT promotes co-evolution with soil, fostering deeper connections between humans, nature, and a more regenerative way of living.

Megan Valanidas is an industrial designer and studio artist with a focus in biomaterials, national security and existential threat. She focuses on nature, convenience, the role of chance and the inevitability of accidents to suggest methods, materials and strategies for a better tomorrow. Specializing in bio-based material application and interactivity, her work establishes and employs methods for designing our waste stream by collaborating with extra-human species such as locally present decomposers. She has lectured and exhibited her work nationally and internationally on the topics of biomaterials and their application. In addition to her work in biomaterials, Valanidas is a creative director with the Altimeter Design Group, where she specializes in speculative and discursive design and applying these tools to policy change and complex systems. In this capacity, she has collaborated and exhibited with groups including the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency, among others.