Jalila Essaïdi

The Fox News article “Bulletproof Human Skin” Made From Spider Silk reported

Take a pinch of Spider-Man’s webbing, add some human skin cells, and you just may end up with skin worthy of Superman.
 
A Dutch team created a piece of “bulletproof” skin from special, U.S.-made spider silk and human skin cells and found that it indeed can repel bullets — as long as they’re not traveling too fast.
 
The bulletproof skin showed its superiority over normal human skin by stopping a bullet fired at a reduced speed. But it fell short of surviving a shot at normal speed from a .22 caliber rifle, the benchmark for protection for a Type 1 bulletproof vest.
 
The result did not discourage Jalila Essaïdi, the Dutch artist who, along with the Forensic Genomics Consortium Netherlands, created the skin. She just wanted an art project demonstrating the relative concept of safety.

Born in 1980, Jalila Essaïdi is a BioArtist who uses Biology and the Life Sciences as an artistic medium, living and working in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. By embracing new materials and knowledge resulting from biotechnology, she offers a view on the social, political, ethical, and cultural issues resulting from this relatively new ability of humans to understand and manipulate the mechanism behind nature’s genius.
 
Jalila who was previously owner at Essaïdi Cosmedix and Event Manager at Fontys Art Academy, is Founder of BioArt Laboratories, BioArt Teacher at Fontys Hogescholen voor de kunsten, Delegation member for the candidacy of the European Cultural Capital, and Author of Bulletproof Skin, Exploring Boundaries by Piercing Barriers.
 
Jalila earned her Bachelor’s in Art at Fontys Hogescholen in 2009, graduated in Three-dimensional artwork, autonomous; Educational research and development; Art review, Art and cultural history. She studied Bioart (Honors) at Universiteit Leiden from 2008 to 2010, and is currently completing her Master’s in Art at Alliantie Kunsten Fontys Zuyd.
 
In 2010 she was a recipient of the Designers & Artists 4 Genomics Award and recieved an Honorary Mention in the Category of Hybrid Art of the Prix Ars Electronica 2012.
 
Recent exhibitions include OK Center for Contemporary Art, Austria; Design Museum Nord Rhein West falen, Germany; Verbeke Foundation, Belgium; and National Natural History Museum Naturalis, The Netherlands.
 
Read Artist uses spider-goat silk to make “bulletproof skin”. Read her blog. Visit her Facebook page. Read her LinkedIn profile.