Hermit crabs are the hobo recyclers of the crustacean world. Because they are born with soft, long abdomens, they must wander around and find a discarded seashell to stick it into for protection, then they wear the shell around and essentially live out of it.
Japanese artist Aki Inomata started 3D-printing shells for hermit crabs around five years ago. It would've been fine with me if she was just trying to help the crabs out, like those folks who 3D-printed a titanium jaw to allow a mangled turtle to survive; but instead Inomata has printed the shells with cutesy architectural features on the back of them, like Japanese houses, Parisian apartment buildings, Dutch windmills, et cetera in order to, uh, "explore whether we really can choose the place or country where we live."
I dislike it when humans do things to animals, even seemingly harmless things, for their own amusement or in the name of artistic exploration. But her project has continued, and for some reason has just now begun to get traction on social media. Here's Inomata's trite explanation of its latest phase:
That last part of the video was what caught my attention!
We've seen people make clothing out of dog fur before, and showed you a video of the process, too. Harmless enough as the stuff is already off of the dog. And while I probably wouldn't wear a sweater made out of my dogs' cast-off fur, if there were some way to efficiently turn it into a useful material, like that wool felt they use to dampen vibrations in industrial settings, I'd happily contribute all of the fur I vacuum up.
But back to the dog-fur-jacket thing. So yeah, not only has Inomata worn a coat made from her dog's fur—as part of an art installation, naturally—she's also made the dog wear a "cape" made out of Inomata's own hair:
For those curious to wade through Inomata's project description, it's here.
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