MA Material Futures Degree Show Catalogue 2018

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T H E I N T E R S E CT I O N O F C R A F T, S C I E N C E & T E C H N O LO GY

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TAKING BACK CONTROL. When this year’s graduates joined Material Futures little did they know what the following two years would entail.

Socially, politically and environmentally there seemed as if there was a lot to be angry about. Very angry. All too often it has felt that the values that we try so hard to uphold, both as a course and as individual citizens have been tested to breaking point. To our collective dismay, it also seems that the responses to these global problems we face owes more to populism and post-truth than it does humanity and fact.

However, sceptical, wary, and tired of hearing simple answers to what we understand to be fundamentally complex and interconnected issues, post-anger, this year’s graduates give us a glimpse of what an alternative, more imaginative and more propositional interpretation of the future could and should look like. Our graduates stand united in the belief that it is exactly at times like these that they must not only highlight, critically engage with and tackle these issues head on, but also offer credible, playful and meaningful future alternatives.

The sheer diversity of the projects is perhaps illustrative of the differing skills, motivations and backgrounds that our students come with, from bio-weaving to bio-hacking,catmaking to fat-taking, each student acknowledges and embraces their own potential and personal limitations, firmly grounding their approach in practice-based research, hands-on technical experimentation and rigorous collaboration with experts.

The work presented at this year’s show is really just the beginning for our graduates, they join an ever-expanding network of successful designers and practitioners from the MA Material Futures course who are paving the way in proposing new, more sustainable alternatives and solutions to the challenges of the 21st century.

We did not create this work alone. To all the personal tutors, practitioners, visiting lecturers, inspirational speakers, experts and technicians that have contributed to making this year’s projects a success, thank you.

Kieren Jones, Course Leader

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The intersection of craft, science and technology OUR AIM IS TO ACTIVELY RE-THINK THE FUTURE. Through collaboration, risk-taking and blurring the worlds of craft, science and technology we look beyond existing boundaries to anticipate our future needs, desires and challenges for the 21st century.

WE ENCOURAGE A WHOLLY MULTI-DISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO DESIGN. Materiality is the starting point of our design process; taking the things we can touch, feel, interact with and observe, we integrate high + low technological materials and processes to respond to the environment around us.

Our students come from and continue to explore within a diverse range of disciplines, including fashion, architecture, industrial, communication, textile, critical, digital and speculative design.

RESEARCH IS INTRINSIC TO OUR DESIGN PROCESS. We practice research-driven design. We believe that it is only by observing and analysing how we live today that we can begin to consider and explore how we might live more sustainably tomorrow. Considering the current and future context of design decisions is key to our ethos, combining social, political, scientific and economic inquiry and insights to help inform future design scenarios, speculations and artefacts.

THE PROGRAMME Material Futures is a two-year Masters course at Central Saint Martins, dedicated to exploring how we will live in the future. The course is divided into two units across two years.

Year one provides an intensive and reactive learning experience. Students are exposed to a broad variety of new ideas and technical processes through a combination of workshops, lectures, expert collaborations and individual project briefs. Providing a bombardment of new ideas, processes and skills, our teaching encourages students to deconstruct their previous experience and expertise and instead adopt an open, experimental and multi-disciplinary approach to design.

We value working with industry partners and usually incorporate at least one live project during the year.

Year two study encourages students to reflect on their experiences gained in year one and consider their own design agenda and desired role within the creative industries.

By synthesising the new processes and methodologies introduced to them in first year with their previous skills and experience, students formulate a single project proposal. All projects are directed by a single research question driven by the student’s personal definition of Material Futures in the context of a more sustainable future.

Collaboration is key and all students engage external support from established practitioners and experts to help validate and strengthen their final projects.

Both year groups enjoy a vibrant and diverse Design Perspectives lecture programme featuring inspiring speakers from the worlds of science, design, critical theory, craft and technology.

Find out more about joining us here: arts.ac.uk/csm/courses/postgraduate/ma-material-futures

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GRADUATE SUCCESSES ↓Giulia Tomasello

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Giulia Tomasello’s project Future Flora has been selected for the European Commission’s ‘Grand Prize Artistic Exploration’ honouring innovation in technology, industry and society stimulated by the arts. Giulia is also a Research Assistant in Interactive Wearables at Nottingham Trent University and, as a freelance designer, is working on a collaborative project with Cambridge University around the topic of women’s healthcare and social taboos.

↑Christine Lew Christine Lew (with Florian Wegenast from MA Industrial Design) has been awarded a Design Trust Seed Grant by Hong Kong Ambassadors of Design, a registered charity in Hong Kong. Their project, Hong Kong Harbour: Future Sea Craft, is a design investigation addressing the rejuvenation of Hong Kong’s seaside waste material through mixing local craft with material innovation and engaging the public through collaborative design workshops.

↑Angela Mathis

↑Jenny Banks

Angela Mathis’ Ectosymbiont project received Fast Company’s ‘World Changing Ideas’ award and Samsung filmed a short documentary about the project. Angela is currently employed as a Material & Innovation Designer at Birkenstock in Cologne where she is working on several projects such as the first completely biodegradable shoe.

Jenny Banks is working for cold-water surf brand Finisterre and the University of Exeter to develop the world’s first fully recyclable wetsuit as part of their #wetsuitsfromwetsuits programme. Current wetsuits are engineered from a complex mix of as many as 10 materials to achieve optimum stretch and warmth for surfing. This makes them very difficult to recycle - the key component, neoprene, is even used to line the world’s landfills, illustrating the wetsuit’s lack of biodegradability.

↑United Matters

↑Lesley-Ann Daly

A collective of Material Futures students exhibited at Dutch Design Week 2017 as ‘United Matters’. Participants were: Anne Vaandrager, Britt Berden, Bolor Amgalan, Angela Mathis, Margaux Hendriksen, Pauline Roques, Florian Wegenast, Inge Sluijs, Christine Lew, Montana Feiger and Lena Saleh.

Lesley-Ann Daly is continuing the research she began on Material Futures and is undertaking a PhD at Central Saint Martins. She is investigating ‘How can Critical Design methodologies be used to examine the impact of Sensory Augmentation and assess ethical issues relating to the development and use of the technology?’

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NEWS, PROJECTS & WORKSHOPS ↑Bio-Hack + Tech Workshop

↑Volkswagen + Material Futures This year saw the launch of an exciting new client project led by Volkswagen Design Research and Volkswagen Future Intelligence, with our fantastic colleagues on the MA Narrative Environments course at CSM. Exploring the theme of Future Urban Mobility, students from both courses presented their vision for a more sustainable, mobile, global and interconnected future.

According to growth forecasts by the United Nations, by 2030 about 60% of humanity will live in cities - an estimated 5 billion people.

In this context, mobility becomes more important than ever before, both economically and socially. The impact that vehicles have had on our urban environment, as well as our wellbeing and culture, cannot be underestimated and is critical if we are to fully imagine how we should and could live in the future.

We would like to thank Volkswagen for the time, investment and knowledge they invested in the project and look forward to collaborating with them again in the future!

↑Future Prosthetics

↑Stella McCartney + Material Futures Here at Material Futures we believe in the power of collaboration, which is why we teamed up with Stella McCartney to launch a research-led professional project that combined cutting edge fashion with the very latest developments in science and technology.

Stella McCartney is a designer who we have a great deal of respect for on Material Futures. In an industry driven by short-lived trends, luxury and mass-consumption, and one seemingly unconcerned by the significant ethical and environmental challenges we face globally, she cuts a lone voice.

McCartney’s personal stance in opposition to animal cruelty and unsustainable practices is well known but, more recently, her collaborations with Dame Ellen MacArthur and companies such as Bolt Threads have earned her a reputation as an outspoken advocate for the rejection of unsustainable materials and, more significantly, for full systemic change to take place in the fashion and textile industry as a whole music to our ears at CSM! We very much look forward to the outcomes of this exciting new collaboration and hope for ongoing collaborations in the future.

As part of our Future Prosthetics project, Agi and future-tech expert / friend of the course Nicolas Myers delivered a week-long hands-on making workshop that introduced students to the world of code, Arduino and prosthetic craft.

35 litres of silicon, 35 Arduino kits and more bread boards and body casts than we care to imagine later, each student presented their very own technological, biological and personal body hack… watch out future!

↑Milan Design Week Each year we invite our students to exhibit at the internationally renowned Milan Design Week. This year was no exception. Taking centre stage at Ventura Future, a brand-new space in a former Pharmacy Faculty, Material Futures opened their doors to an exhibition that showcased our students very latest vision for the future.

Looking outside of existing structures, preconceptions and conventions, the exhibition explored when craft, science and technology collide. From bots to rocks and fat to cats, it showcased the very latest of our students’ design research and visions for a more sustainable and radically different future.

Supported and led by Agi Haines and Marta Giralt, our students explored the future of the human body and how new and emerging technologies and sciences might one day impact the way in which we will inhabit, experience and engage with the wider world around us.

A deliberately open brief, our students were asked to consider how the body and the world might merge and how this interaction might occur through exchanging, extending, mimicking or control. Could a prosthetic be an interface, a trigger or a resource for interaction? Where might prosthetics be implemented and by whom? Will they be hidden within the fabric of a building or integrated inside a machine, or will it be small enough to be contained in a syringe?

Only by radically rethinking and reimagining from the bottom-up do we believe that we can even begin to imagine, explore and direct a future discourse and ultimately gain an understanding of how humans and technology will continue to merge and morph into one.

↑Biofabricate Following on from the success of their Biodesign project where they brought back the top prize from the international Biodesign Challenge in New York, students Nina Cutler and Olivia Bargman have gone on to present their work at Biofabricate, the annual summit for the emerging world of grown materials, this year hosted by the New Lab, Brooklyn.

From algae and bacteria to mushrooms and yeast, Biofabricate explores the latest disruptive research companies who are growing the materials of the future. From architecture to apparel, and personal care to performance, Biofabricate is the event to experience how biotechnology is facilitating a new material revolution.

Well done Nina and Olivia!

↑Baume 2019 Nothing gives us more pleasure than to announce a new industry project for 2018/19 with Baume, a new luxury watch brand focused on customisation and sustainability from the Richemont Group.

It is pretty rare that a company such as the Richemont Group would create a brand from the ground up rather than simply acquire one from the outside. However, by starting from scratch, there is a real opportunity to not just change, but completely invent a brand whereby sustainability, new manufacturing techniques and radical customisation is not just a design influence or direction but is fundamental and at the core of everything that they do.

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NEWS, PROJECTS & WORKSHOPS

← Future Matters A symposium hosted by the Het Nieuwe Instituut, the Design and Living Systems Lab and Material Futures explored future materiality and radical sustainability.

Exploring the notion of ‘Sustainable and Radical Materiality’, the Het Nieuwe Instituut and Material Futures invited design practitioners in who not only shape and work with materials, but who are also interested in redefining our current systems of manufacture, consumption and current material culture.

With sustainability at the heart of each of our invited guests’ practice, we encouraged debate and discourse exploring how we, as designers, should and can address some of the challenges facing the material world.

With thanks to the many speakers, practitioners and experts who contributed and who made the symposium a success.

↑Ellen MacArthur Foundation + Material Futures Circular Fibres Initiative ↑Welcome Marta Giralt Material Futures is extremely pleased that design practitioner and researcher Marta Giralt has joined the Material Futures team!

In our chaotic and rapidly changing world, her work focuses on observing emerging technologies and anticipating how these technologies will develop in our future societies. Through the research and analysis of these futures, she uses design and visual communication to build scenarios that anticipate the potential social, cultural and ethical impact of emerging technologies.

Her goal is to inform and question current infrastructures, systems or organisations through a critical, considered and reflective design approach.

A multidisciplinary design researcher and explorer of the future, Marta is also more importantly a graduate of the course and, as such, she seems to be completely un-phased by the various materials bubbling, exploding and ‘growing’ in the Material Futures studio here at CSM… both the course and the students look forward to working with her further in the future!

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation asked Material Futures to produce a short film that promotes a new vision for a future circular economy that could be presented at the International Copenhagen Fashion Summit 2018.

As the demand for resources expands in line with global population growth, today’s linear system based on a take, make and dispose model is approaching its limits. In the case of textile fibres, there is an awareness growing of the industry’s negative impacts. With just 20% of clothing currently collected after use, it is becoming clear that our inherently wasteful system will not support growth in the long-term.

This collaboration applied new circular economy principles to determine a new vision for meeting growing demand, while ensuring that the industry’s impact on climate change, fresh water use, and other key variables remains within ‘planetary boundaries’. By applying this circular vision to textile fibres, the project identified new opportunities to capture the value that is lost in our current system. We hope that the short film as well as the initiative as a whole, once developed, will go on to really inform other applicable industries and promote real and positive change for the future.

↑Welcome Agi Haines Agi joined the team and led the recent Future Prosthetics project, and we are extremely pleased that she will continue to work with us into the next academic year and hopefully beyond.

Much of Agi’s work is focused on the design of the human body.

How might people respond to the possibilities of our body as another everyday material and how far can we push our malleable bodies while still being accepted by society?

After completing her Masters in the Design Interactions department at the Royal College of Art, she is now undertaking a PhD at Transtechnology Research, funded

by Plymouth University. Working amongst various artists and scientists who are all focused on creativity and cognition, her inspiration comes from the weird and wonderful things that exist inside us. She questions how our morbid curiosity for the viscera of life might affect the future of design, not only for the environment but also for us as sentient sacks of flesh within it.

Never before have we identified such a relevant sentient sack of flesh that we would like to have both on the course team and work with in the future.

↑ Future Bio-innovation Workshop Professor Carole Collet

Collaborating with micro-organisms, disrupting future tech and growing new materials…?

This can only be the work of our resident (mad) Professor Carole Collet, who not only has the time to be the LVMH Director of Sustainable Innovation at CSM, Director of the Design and Living Systems Lab and Professor in Design for Sustainable Futures but who also finds the time to help our students navigate and understand the complex new world that Bio-design, Synthetic Biology and grown materials has opened up.

Through her Bio-Innovation workshop, Carole presented ideas and examples of designers and practitioners across the globe who are exploring how we should and could design for a better, more sustainable future.

↑Welcome Attua Aparicio Torinos As if having Marta and Agi joining the team wasn’t enough, then surely the cherry on the top is having the acclaimed material expert and practitioner Attua Aparicio Torinos join us also?

One half of Studio Silo, Attua established the studio with Oscar Lessing while studying in 2009. With a background in both engineering and design, the core of her work is exploring how industrial processes and materials could be hacked, manipulated or hijacked to produce more poetic and intriguing material outcomes. By adopting a very hands-on approach, which she refers to as ‘handmade hi-tech’, Attua aims to discover possibilities that the production line does not see, developing the expressive potential in everyday industrial materials.

As if the Material Futures studio doesn’t already have enough strange materials littering the place, we suspect that it might just get a whole lot more…

↑Material Expedition We believe in the power of making which is why, on a cold October morning, we left the buzz of London behind and headed for the wild terrain of the Welsh countryside. Deep in the heart of the Brecon Beacons, at Middle Ninfa, our students explored ancient bodging skills and worked with the internationally acclaimed landscape artist Mick Petts who, aside from demonstrating the potential of willow, helped them to craft and launch their very own coracles on a secret lake.

The 2-day expedition was kindly sponsored by Visit Wales and a short film detailing our experience can be found here : www.visitwales.com/sea/ the-magic-of-the-coracle

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NEWS, PROJECTS & WORKSHOPS

From all of the team here at Material Futures, we would like to thank everyone in 2017/18 who has contributed and collaborated with the course to support this years’ graduating students:

↑Design Beyond Borders Material Future’s very own Marta Giralt showcases her work at the exhibition Design Does* at the Barcelona Design Museum.

Virtual X Kit looks at how extreme pornographic experiences, such as rape simulation, can become mechanisms that elude the moral and legal limitations of the real world. The project comprises three objects that emulate the parts of the body most commonly involved in sexual activity. It thereby unveils a possible, not-too-distant future, thus opening the debate on the use of virtual reality in the pornographic industry, questioning to what extent these practices should or should not be regulated.

Design Does*, Barcelona Design Museum, April 2018 www.designdoes.es/es/exhibitions

↑Material Futures + ZHdK University Zurich Here at Material Futures, we believe in the power of collaboration.

Working with the Industrial Design department at Zurich University of the Arts, the Material Futures team ran a week-long workshop exploring the radical future of food in the context of a sustainability Armageddon. From delectable bio-hacked starfish to primitive underground grub harvesting, students took no prisoners when it came to the final dining experience!

With special thanks to the team at Zurich for supporting us and making the workshop a success.

↑Some Like it Hot A collaborative exhibition curated by and detailing current staff research practice from the Jewellery and Textile programme at Central Saint Martins.

Designing and crafting with materials encompasses transformative processes, which often need to be executed at specific and exacting temperatures. This exhibition explores the varying techniques, methods and process that staff from Jewellery, Textiles & Material Futures are pioneering and exploring as part of their professional practice.

Jonathan Chapman Agi Haines Alexandra Daisy Julia Lohmann Ginsberg Kate Goldsworthy Laura Gordon Amy Congdon Attua Aparicio Liz Wright Torinos Lucy Orta Carole Collet Margaret Wagstaff Caroline Till Marguerite Humeau Charlotte Croft Marta Giralt Claire Bergkamp Matt Malpass David Benque Mick Petts Günes Taylor Mike Thompson Guy Barton Nassia Inglessis Hannah Cheesbrough Nicholas Peres Helen Paine Nicolas Myers Inigo Minns Philippa Wagner Rob Kesseler James Burchill

Rodney Wilson Sinead But Smout Allen Stella McCartney Stephen Hayward super/collider Thomas Thwaites Tobias Revell Prof Tom Ellis Tom Mannion Visit Wales

Thank you.

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AURORE PIETTE

CATHRINE DISNEY

CHARLOTTE KIDGER CHIH-CHIA CHANG CHING-HUI YANG

DAVIDE PISCITELLI DONGYOUNG KIM

GARANCE DER MARKARIAN GAVIN VAUGHAN JEN KEANE

KATIE MAY BOYD KE FU

LEO FIDJELAND

LINDSAY HANSON LINNEA VÅGLUND

LOUIZE HARRIES ROBOTHAM LUDOVICA CANTARELLI LULU WANG

NINA CUTLER

NOÉMIE SOULA SINAE KIM

ZAKI MUSA

16 | Aurore Piette

aurore.piette@orange.fr

aurore.piette@orange.fr

Aurore Piette | 17

AURORE PIETTE

Marecreo: Made by Nature ↓

A collection of artefacts crafted in Meschers-sur-Gironde, France While the universe destructs it also constructs.

SOURCE: Koren, L. (2008). Wabi-sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers.

I consider myself an apprentice of a new natural craft atelier, rising against the industrial way of production and instead adopting a new autarkic, self-sufficient vision of making that works with organic systems and exploits the energy found in the natural world.

In the Meschers-sur-Gironde estuary in France, every tide deposits a new layer of sedimentary material on the sea bed. By working with this natural system of production, I have developed a collection of mud, limestone and sand-cast vessels that draw from the natural techniques and processes found in this very special region, but also exploit nature.

More than a making journey, these objects are symbols of humans and nature coexisting, a reaction to the current production system and a tribute to the origin and qualities of natural materials and elements. Ultimately, Marecreo is a proposition of a new utopian and transparent vision of what making could be in the future.

So there is a song of the objects, and the one of their shapes, of their journey to the shape.

SOURCE: Bailly, J-C. (2013). Sur la Forme (The Shape).

18 | Aurore Piette

aurore.piette@orange.fr

Experts Sylvain Salvador, Professor, International Mines Albi Graduate School of Engineering.

Jean-Pierre Kerdudou and colleagues, Harbour Master, Harbour of Meschers-sur-Gironde.

Mathieu Gauthier and Laura Miton, Glassblowers, Verrerie d’art de Cordes.

Kiro, Sculptor and Ceramicist, Kiro Sculpture.

Jean–Pierre Lallée, Stonecutter and President/Founder of the Patrimoine et Culture Association.

Grégory Barrère, Geologist.

Maximilien Guibert, Geologist.

aurore.piette@orange.fr

Aurore Piette | 19

20 | Cathrine Disney

www.cathrinedisney.cargocollective.com

cathrinedisney@gmail.com

Cathrine Disney | 21

CATHRINE DISNEY

Desires of the flesh ↓

As a vegan, how can I morally indulge in my insatiable desire for meat?

Animal agriculture is the leading cause of species extinction, ocean dead zones, water pollution, and habitat destruction.

SOURCE: Cowspiracy (2014).

51% of greenhouse gas emissions are due to livestock and their by-products.

SOURCE: Cowspiracy (2014).

It takes 3000 litres of water to make 1 hamburger – that’s the equivalent of showering for 2 months continuously.

SOURCE: Cowspiracy (2014).

The question of meat is perhaps one of the most contested topics of our generation. Despite being perhaps the only species with the capacity to reason, many of us continue to assume that meat is something we don’t have to think about as a moral issue. However, with such vast amounts of information now available, ignorance is no longer an option and the ethics of where and how our products are made is beginning to cause conflict between our desires and the conscious moral decisions we must make.

Desires of the Flesh is an exploration into the sensualities around why we crave the experience of meat eating in the hope to satisfy these visceral temptations. If we cannot morally indulge in the literal act of meat eating, we might be able to achieve gratification without the associated guilt and shame by celebrating it through vegan principles and exploring the eroticism of indulging in meat eating.

Each artefact: Skin, Bone and Flesh, are playful vegan alternatives that imitate the material qualities of meat and explore the imbalance between desire and guilt through the notion of taboo and fetish. They exist within a narrative that places the meat-craving vegan in a kinky setting where the vegan is permitted to indulge in their meat fetish, to evoke the pleasures of meat eating without eating meat. The project intends to engage the viewer with an alternative perspective on meat eating and to question our intuitive desires and morals to provoke debate around the question of meat. Through an exploration of the sin and eroticism of indulging in meat eating, and by celebrating it rather than shaming it, perhaps we can redefine our notion of meat and transition into a more sustainable, healthy and non-violent era of meat eating.

22 | Cathrine Disney

www.cathrinedisney.cargocollective.com

Experts

Collaborators

Jeff McMahan, Professor of Moral Philosophy, University of Oxford.

Alisa Boanta, Cinematographer.

Robert Elwood, Professor of Ecology, Evolution, Behaviour and Environmental Economics, Queen’s University Belfast.

Jonathan McGowan, Roadkill enthusiast and Naturalist.

Tom Mannion, Photographer.

cathrinedisney@gmail.com

Cathrine Disney | 23

24 | Charlotte Kidger

www.charlottekidger.com

ckidge@gmail.com

Charlotte Kidger | 25

CHARLOTTE KIDGER

Industrial craft ↓

Utilising and repurposing the plastic waste stream from CNC fabrication as a new raw material Currently 100% of the plastics we dispose of could be recycled or recovered but only 14% actually is. The rest is consigned to landfill or burnt.

SOURCE: World Economic Forum, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and McKinsey & Company (2016). The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the Future of Plastics.

The use of secondary raw materials presents a number of advantages, including increased security of supply, reduced material and energy use, reduced impacts on the climate and the environment, and reduced manufacturing costs.

SOURCE: European Parliament (2016).

Strategy for Secondary Raw Materials.

Industrial Craft is a reaction to the prolific amounts of plastic we send to be buried, burnt or thrown into the ocean every second of every year.

Through this project, I became a designer in residence on a local industrial estate. During my residency, shocked by the sheer volume of plastic pollution that was disposed of daily, I created new systems, materials and techniques that allowed me to repurpose and re-utilise this waste as a brand-new virgin raw material.

My end artefacts, a series of vessels and decorative tables that are created from the polyurethane foam and dust created as a by-product of the CNC process, are both a testament to the craft and skills found on the industrial estate as well as a complete utilisation of what would otherwise end up in landfill and cause long-term environmental destruction.

26 | Charlotte Kidger

www.charlottekidger.com

Experts Max Baker, Owner, Bakers Patterns Ltd.

ckidge@gmail.com

Charlotte Kidger | 27

28 | Chih-Chia Chang

www.cathrynchang.weebly.com

chia972976@gmail.com

Chih-Chia Chang | 29

CHIH-CHIA CHANG

Myself, my life and my trash ↓

How will taking complete responsibility for dealing with my own trash lead to a greater understanding of materials and new creative design outputs?

There is no such thing as “away”. When we throw anything away, it must go somewhere.

- Annie Leonard.

SOURCE: Horn, H. (2013). ‘The Secret World of Garbagemen’, The Atlantic.

Regardless of country, culture, or time period, objects are connected to memories.

In fact, one could go out on a limb and say that most, if not all, of our memories involve some kind of relationship to things.

SOURCE: Baker, F. (2017). ‘The Afterlife of Discarded Objects’, The State of the Arts.

Everything is raw material.

Everything is relevant.

Everything is usable.

Everything feeds into my creativity.

But without proper preparation, I cannot see it, retain it, and use it.

SOURCE: Tharp, T. (2006). The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life.

We live in a throw-away society. On average, each person in the UK throws away their own body weight in rubbish every seven weeks.

However, the way we understand and define waste very much depends on how much we feel it impacts us on a personal and local level.

By taking complete responsibility for my own consumption and waste, I aim to not only gain a better understanding of the material composition of my trash, but to also consider it as an abundant and potential new raw material.

As part of my personal journey, I have created new composite materials and products from my trash that sit in a new, circular and more holistic method of consuming and processing one’s personal trash.

30 | Chih-Chia Chang

www.cathrynchang.weebly.com

Experts Jordan and Bob, Happenstance Workshop.

chia972976@gmail.com

Chih-Chia Chang | 31

32 | Ching-Hui Yang

www.chinghuiyang.com

inachinghuiyang@gmail.com

Ching-Hui Yang | 33

CHING-HUI YANG

Standardisation ↓

Muscle memory - is standardisation a process enhancer or a creativity killer?

Practice is important for learning dance because it’s a part of your muscle memory, and sometimes that can be your crutch or your saver. When things go wrong the body instinctively knows what to do without conscious thought.

SOURCE: Interview with contemporary dancer Valerie Ebuwa.

Muscle memory emerges through associative learning. Once you master a new motor skill, it becomes unconscious and you are unlikely to forget it. The more routine a behaviour becomes, the less we are aware of it. Examples of muscle memory are found in lots of daily activities that become automatic and improve with practice such as swimming, riding a bicycle, playing a musical instrument, martial arts or even dancing. This process decreases the need for attention to detail and creates maximum efficiency within the motor and memory systems. Efficiency is the ability to complete a task whilst avoiding wasting effort and muscle memory is a learning process that uses this concept.

‘Practice makes perfect’ According to the book Outliers, 10,000 hours of deliberate practice is required in order to achieve master status and become expert performers. To achieve mastery there is therefore no alternative but to simply clock up the hours practicing.

This project aims to document the concept of muscle memory, a fundamental form of learning, in order to rethink the definition of standardisation in the future. I have designed a collection of dance training devices as a notation of body movement that provide opportunities for people to choose the most efficient way of gaining ‘perfect’ skills by harnessing a professional dancer’s muscle memory.

Creativity is the process of bringing something new into being. It brings to our awareness what was previously hidden and points to new life. The experience is one of heightened consciousness: ecstasy.

SOURCE: May, R. (1995).

The Courage to Create.

I want to highlight that most human behaviours appear to be standardised by either our muscle memory or by social conditioning. The rationalisation behind standardisation is often purported to be because it makes our lives safer, simpler, more comfortable and more efficient.

However, is standardisation a process enhancer or a creativity killer?

34 | Ching-Hui Yang

www.chinghuiyang.com

Experts Valerie Ebuwa, Dancer, Vincent Dance Theatre, Clod Ensemble, Holly Blakey, Rhiannon Faith and Tom Dale Company.

Celia Smith, Postgraduate Child Psychologist, University of East London.

inachinghuiyang@gmail.com

Ching-Hui Yang | 35

36 | Davide Piscitelli

www.davidepiscitelli.com

hello@davidepiscitelli.com

Davide Piscitelli | 37

DAVIDE PISCITELLI

GOGO’s dream ↓

Me: ‘Hey Google, what is your dream?’

Google Home: ‘I’ve always wanted to sing a duet with Stevie Wonder...’

One human’s attempt to fulfil the dream of a non-human, his Personal Intelligent Assistant

People think that if something is more intelligent, it must be more human-like.

-Joanna Bryson.

SOURCE: Auer-Welsbach, C. (2018). ‘Fifteen Minutes with Leading #AI Specialist Joanna Bryson’, LinkedIn. We must save the non-humans from being merely humans.

SOURCE: Bratton, B. (2016). The Stack.

People are engaging with their voiceactivated speakers as if they were human. They’re saying “please,” “thank you,” and even “sorry.”

People perceive the devices as more than just an electronic toy, they’re more akin to another person or a friend.

SOURCE: Kleinberg, S. (2018). ‘5 Ways Voice Assistance is Shaping Consumer Behavior’, think with Google.

The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is challenging our concept of intelligence and what constitutes being a human. The notion of machines having the intelligence of a human is also reinforced by the emergence of new Personal Intelligent Assistants (PIAs) such as the Google Home Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri, which could be perceived by the consumer as some sort of human equivalent or friend.

Key to these machines appearing to be human is their voice interface. This technology could be one of the most significant interfaces we have ever developed, but also one of the most persuasive techniques for believing that technology can become human. However, with so few technology companies controlling and managing such interfaces, are we not opening ourselves up to widespread seduction and corporate influence?

Me: ‘Hey Google, what is your dream?’ Google Home: ‘I’ve always wanted to sing a duet with Stevie Wonder…’ In this project, and with the help of experts, musicians and fans of Stevie Wonder, I embarked on trying to make this dream a reality.

The result is GOGO, the first product whose only purpose is to make my PIA’s dream a reality.

By adopting such a silly and satirical approach, I aim to not only raise awareness of the absurdity of this situation, but also critically question the wider ethical and moral implications of a mass adoption of these potentially exploitative and manipulative devices globally.

I hope that by critiquing such technologies and artefacts, I can create a more respectful and deep relationship between us and technology and develop a new level of social understanding and technological sustainability.

38 | Davide Piscitelli

www.davidepiscitelli.com

Experts

Collaborators

Nick Smart, Head of Jazz, Royal Academy of Music.

Elia Praderio, Piano Composer.

Arno van Bavel, fan of Stevie Wonder from 1970.

Matteo Pennese, Musician and Coder.

David Mwaniki, Street Musician, London.

Tom Mannion, Photographer.

hello@davidepiscitelli.com

Davide Piscitelli | 39

40 | Dongyoung Kim

www.instagram.com/2030_space_oddity

DONGYOUNG KIM

2030: Space Oddity ↓

How can humans overcome the physical limitations of a journey to Mars?

The atrophy of muscles in space can affect not only the performance of astronauts during missions, but it can lead to severe spinal muscle injuries upon return to Earth.

Astronauts landing on Mars may be susceptible to spinal muscle injury once they step onto the planet.

— NASA.

This project explores the potential impact that commercial space travel will have on our bodies and, in particular, our bones and spine.

The rapid investment into commercial space enterprises suggests that space tourism is almost around the corner. However, only when our bodies are able to acclimatise to such new environments can we begin to fully appreciate what this would and could mean for us and our longer-term physiology.

In order to gain the public’s confidence in such ventures, I have explored what it would physiologically mean for our spines to visit and return from a commercial space trip to Mars.

Space is a punishingly harsh environment for the human body. While much of the bone mass loss we will experience in space is reversible, the extent of the damage is particularly distinct in certain skeletal areas including our spines. Prolonged exposure to zero gravity can also increase bone fractures from atrophy. Many studies have also shown that microgravity can even affect our body’s ability to repair our bones altogether.

My prototypes aim to not only inspire, but to also communicate the longer-term implications that such tourism will have on our bodies on our return.

They provide the public with a sense of what we can realistically expect to have to embark upon in order to see planet Earth from the comfort of Mars, yet equally not deter them from something I believe could be one of the richest and most rewarding experiences we can ever have.

42 | Dongyoung Kim

www.instagram.com/2030_space_oddity

Experts Dr Ji Hyun Lee, Body Consultant, Fit and Fix Academy.

andy.dongyoung.kim@gmail.com

Dongyoung Kim | 43

44 | Garance Der Markarian

garance.dermarkarian@outlook.com

garance.dermarkarian@outlook.com

Garance Der Markarian | 45

GARANCE DER MARKARIAN

Manufactured Geology ↓

A rock making machine that emulates the geological phenomenon that transforms dust into sedimentary rocks Human beings have been changing the Earth and kicking up dust ever since their origin.

Long ago, dust was the common measure of our work with things: it indicated how much, with what, and how finely we worked.

SOURCE: (2000).

History and the

Amato, J. Dust, A of the Small Invisible.

I have used the natural phenomenon of sedimentation as a tool to investigate our future legacy, as well as to question our current methods of production.

In geology, sediments are particles of matter that settle somewhere and solidify into sedimentary rocks. These rocks are witness to what has happened on Earth’s crust over the different geological ages as they contain fossils and other remains.

Intrigued by the potential legacy of sedimentary rocks, I have made a parallel with the most mundane traces we leave behind us: dust.

The result of human activity on Earth, dust contains information about us as individuals, and as a society. By considering dust as a memory carrier, I aim to propose a vision of our future geological legacy.

I have created a process that reproduces all the parameters necessary for sedimentation to happen. Essentially, I have become a maker of rocks. In making rocks, I have focused on the process in order to produce new resources and to suggest a new way of production.

Though there is no etymological connection between the words dust and industry, industrial societies created more, and more varied, dusts than had any previous society.

SOURCE: (2000).

History and the

Amato, J. Dust, A of the Small Invisible.

By making rocks, I hope to look beyond current human activity on Earth and explore what it is that we will leave behind and what this will mean geologically and poetically.

46 | Garance Der Markarian

garance.dermarkarian@outlook.com

Experts

Collaborators

Alexandra O’Rorke, Geologist, British Geological Survey.

Tom Mannion, Photographer.

John Williams, Geologist, British Geological Survey.

Lorraine Cornish, Head of Conservation, Natural History Museum.

Jay Owens, Dust Researcher.

Ricky Lee Brawn, Metal Technician, Central Saint Martins.

garance.dermarkarian@outlook.com

Garance Der Markarian | 47

48 | Gavin Vaughan

gav-vaughan@hotmail.co.uk

gav-vaughan@hotmail.co.uk

Gavin Vaughan | 49

GAVIN VAUGHAN

Coming of age in the bio-era ↓

Should we have the right to transmogrification?

A team of biohackers from California successfully induced a temporary sense of night vision by injecting a simple chemical cocktail directly onto the eye. Incredibly, it allowed them to see over 160 feet in the dark for a brief period of time.

There are a growing number of individuals and subcultures who are exploiting advances in science and technology in order to enhance and manipulate their own bodies, this process is often referred to as transmogrification. A quick search online and you will most likely be shocked by the number of tutorials and videos that demonstrate the necessary steps in which to hack your own body using the principles of biomimicry or on how to manipulate your own DNA.

SOURCE: “This Biohacker Used Eyedrops To Give Himself Temporary Night Vision”.

Gizmodo. 2016-03-27.

In response to this culture, which I believe should be better regulated given that it is often teenagers performing it, I have created a kit that allows teenagers to be able to extract the Glowing Florescent Protein (GFP} commonly found in jellyfish and insert it into own DNA, essentially allowing them to have glow-in-the-dark skin.

Pat Mooney, executive director of ETC Group, is a critic of biohacking who argues that—using a laptop computer, published gene sequence information, and mail-order synthetic DNA—just about anyone has the potential to construct genes or entire genomes from scratch (including those of the lethal pathogens) in the near-future. A 2007 ETC Group report warns that the danger of this development is not just bio-terror, but “bio-error”

Rather than release or promote this for sale, my project is more about stimulating public debate and raising awareness. There is a considerable amount of data and studies online around issues of synthetic biology, however, I wanted to create something very visceral that would enable the debate to take place amongst teenagers and communities who wouldn’t ordinarily access such information.

SOURCE: “Extreme Genetic Engineering: An Introduction to Synthetic Biology”.

2012-09-28.

Much like sitting in a best friend’s bedroom with an ice cube on their ear as their best friend inks their first tattoo, my project is based in the same scenario, although rather than simply being grounded, this time the consequences and potential long term dangers are far less understood.

Coming of age is something that many cultures throughout history and the world practice. Whether that be lip stretching, teeth sharping, tattooing or scarification, it remains commonplace in almost all communities and all countries. However, coming of age in the bio-era presents completely new and unknown practices, many of which we have no idea about the long term consequences.

50 | Gavin Vaughan

gav-vaughan@hotmail.co.uk

Collaborators Tom Mannion, Photographer.

gav-vaughan@hotmail.co.uk

Gavin Vaughan | 51

52 | Jen Keane

www.jenkeane.com

jenkkeane@gmail.com

Jen Keane | 53

JEN KEANE

This is grown. / Bioweave ↓

How could we collaborate with microbes to weave a new generation of hybrid materials?

Nanocellulose is very similar to glass fiber or Kevlar — it’s very stiff, lightweight, and it has eight times the tensile strength of steel.

SOURCE: Sebastian Anthony, Extremetech.com.

Microorganisms, which until quite recently were the only living things around, are capable of amazing feats. A microorganism belonging to one species can incorporate genetic codes from a completely different species into its cell and thereby gain new capabilities.

SOURCE: Harari, Y. N., (2018). Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.

Unlike in computers, virtually all biological bodies can run any kind of software.

SOURCE: Ridley, M. (1999). Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters.

With microplastic pollution, growing land and water scarcity and over-consumption, we have a real material problem. We need to find another way of making and everyone is looking at biotech for a solution. But what does the future of bio-facture really look like?

This is Grown. employs an organism-driven approach to material design, merging modern industrial textile practice with future biotech principles to propose an alternate future where a better understanding of microorganisms could help us not just replace petrochemical based materials but change our entire approach to making.

By manipulating the growing process of k. rhaeticus bacteria, I have developed a new form of ‘microbial weaving’, working with microbes like bacteria and yeast to optimise the natural properties of bacterial cellulose and create a new category of hybrid materials that are strong, lightweight and potentially customisable to a nanoscale.

If we talk about the work in context to traditional weaving, I am doing the warp, and the bacteria are growing the weft. But because the bacteria are so small you don’t have the same restrictions of directionality that you would have with a traditional loom, you have quite a bit more control over the material properties and you need less yarn.

The really interesting part will come when we employ synthetic biology to control the types of fibres the microbes produce and how and where they grow them. But as we begin to exercise our new knowledge of nature to try and solve our material problems, we have to question what is natural really, and accept that we may not actually be collaborating with nature anymore but controlling it.

54 | Jen Keane

www.jenkeane.com

Experts

Collaborators

Marcus Walker, PhD Candidate in Synthetic Biology, Tom Ellis Lab, Imperial College.

Dr Martin Hervy, PhD Researcher, Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College.

Dr Tom Ellis, Biologist and Investigator, Lab, Imperial

Dr Juan Hinestroza, Professor of Fiber Science, Material Scientist and Director of the Textiles Nanotechnology Laboratory, Cornell University.

Synthetic Principal Tom Ellis College.

Dr Koon-Yang Lee, Material Scientist and Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College.

Dr Ben Reeve, CTO, CustoMem.

Markus Westerberg, Footwear Designer, Adidas.

Elizabeth Ramos, Film Producer, Adam Toth, Photographer.

Tom Mannion, Photographer.

jenkkeane@gmail.com

Jen Keane | 55

56 | Katie May Boyd

www.katiemayboyd.com

contact@katiemayboyd.com

Katie May Boyd | 57

KATIE MAY BOYD

Foreign garbage ↓

A new method of recycling expanded polystyrene to create beckoning cats that are used to explore the politics around waste, specifically the new China ban In the UK we throw away 40,000 tonnes of EPS per year. 45% of this is sold to foreign markets.

SOURCE: Axion Consulting report for the EPS group.

The more one looks at the “problems of plastic”, the more they become identified as the problems of society.

SOURCE: Maxwell, J. (1999). Plastics: The Layman’s Guide.

In 2016, China processed 7.3 million tonnes of plastic waste which is more than half of the world’s recycled plastics.

SOURCE: World Trade Organisation.

This project uses the beckoning cat or Manekineko as a symbol of useless plastic junk, creating a tool for discussion around waste. Historically, the UK has sent 30% of all its waste to China, however as of the 1st March 2018 China enacted a ban on the import of all ‘foreign garbage’. This has created massive problems for countries like the UK who have relied upon China to dispose of their rubbish, subsequently meaning there is no domestic infrastructure to deal with this waste. Exploring this issue, the project focuses on one specific waste stream - expanded polystyrene or EPS. Through experimentation I have developed a new recycling process to create Deflated Polystyrene (DPS).

Expanded polystyrene is solely used for packaging, so the root of our waste problem is in fact an excess of buying rather than an excess of waste. By taking a product that is symbolic of ‘Made in China’ manufacturing and making it with the waste that was intended to be sent to China, we can start to question the status quo around how we treat materials like plastic and start to think about the absurdity of shipping these products around the globe.

Waste is increasingly explored and discussed as a design topic, and this will be key to tackling issues in the future. This project works to propose a new recycling method for EPS and inform the surrounding politics of its role in the economy.

58 | Katie May Boyd

www.katiemayboyd.com

Experts

Collaborators

Matthew Wotherds, Factory Manager, Jablite.

Nicolas Canal, Photographer.

Attua Aparicio, Designer, Studio Silo.

Martha Armitage, Carla Reyes Coca and Marion Flanagan, Cat Production.

contact@katiemayboyd.com

Katie May Boyd | 59

60 | Ke Fu

k.fu0220161@arts.ac.uk

k.fu0220161@arts.ac.uk

Ke Fu | 61

KE FU

Pharma-ant ↓

Colonising healthcare one ant at a time Polyrhachis vicina are the only ants with medicinal and food value approved by the Ministry of Health.

SOURCE: Shen, L., Li, D., Feng, F., and Ren, Y. (2006).

Nutritional Composition of Polyrhachis vicina Roger (edible Chinese black ant).

Songklanakarin Journal of Science and Technology, 28.

For centuries in traditional Chinese medicine, ants have been used in traditional tea to help alleviate a wide range of health conditions, including arthritis and hepatitis. Researchers suspect that these health effects are due to anti-inflammatory and pain-killing substances found naturally in the ants.

However, whilst the scientific community cannot agree on the evidence, most people in China adopt the widespread consumption of ants and it is currently the primary treatment for the alleviation of arthritis across the country.

The most revered and widely consumed ant is the wild Black Ant, native in the rocky mountainous regions of rural China and much admired for its wild diet and natural existence. However, in recent times, due to an increasingly elderly population and a growing middle class, these ants have become heavily hunted by traditional Chinese ant hunters to such an extent that they are at risk of disappearing altogether. The role that they play in bio-diversity is also unclear and there is concern for what this will mean for the other species and vegetation they support.

Whilst attempts have been made to farm the ants, due to a scepticism of the farming industry and the heavy reliance on chemicals and ‘fake’ products, much of China instead continues to source their ants from traditional hunters.

This project proposes a new domestic farming kit that enables 5g of ants to be harvested daily in a method that feels ‘natural’ and promotes trust amongst the general Chinese public, yet at the same time prevents the mass destruction that the hunting of real wild colonies creates.

Ant alcohol can enhance immunity and improve sexual ability.

SOURCE: Chen, X., Feng, Y., & Chen, Z. (2009).

Common Edible Insects and Their Utilization in China. Entomological Research, 39.

62 | Ke Fu

k.fu0220161@arts.ac.uk

Experts David Hu & Nathan Molt, Professors of Mechanical Engineering and Biology, George Tech.

k.fu0220161@arts.ac.uk

Ke Fu | 63

64 | Leo Fidjeland

www.leolinnea.studio

hello@leolinnea.studio

Leo Fidjeland | 65

LEO FIDJELAND

Turn to stone ↓

It is nothing special being human, but stones have worlds! Eat this stone and you too will turn to stone Spit out the idea that you are on top, that you are the pinnacle of existence.

Just spit it out!

— Dartmoor Mage.

Underneath the problems of the Anthropocene is a view that humankind has the right to manipulate (create, destroy, alter) other species and our surroundings. This view is called Anthropocentrism - placing the human in the centre and on top, the idea that humans have a unique, significant, and exceptional position on the planet. It is the idea that humans are more real than non-humans because we can think. But thinking is not the only access mode into the world, and it is not necessarily the best access mode either.

The impossible is precisely that which escapes the respective cosmological paradigm.

— Franco “Bifo” Berardi.

A cure is found! By venturing into the world of stones, we establish a shared space of overlap where we become part human, part stone.

Dissolving the boundary between what is seen as alive and not alive, this recently re-discovered ritual forces us into a reverence for the mystery of having no view: I do not know whether you or I or this stone is alive, therefore I am paranoid - a possible condition for solidarity with the non-human.

Agency is not something that someone has, but an enactment; a matter of possibilities for reconfiguring entanglements - that enlists “non-humans” as well as “humans”.

— Karen Barad.

66 | Leo Fidjeland

www.leolinnea.studio

Experts Diane Assiri, Artist.

Federico Campagna, Philosopher.

hello@leolinnea.studio

Leo Fidjeland | 67

68 | Lindsay Hanson

www.lindsayannhanson.com

lindsayhanson1@gmail.com

Lindsay Hanson | 69

LINDSAY HANSON

Digitized Material ↓

A new type of material that has the ability to change colour, pattern and design by the command of a user Artists and scientists both think outside the box. They’ve got to come with genius experiments or ideas to expose the most interesting phenomena.

Later, they’ve got to diverge a little bit because scientists will start to look at the common elements between many of the phenomena to describe the most general law, and artists will probably try to study individuals rather than the crowd as a whole. But we’re just two sides of the same medal.

— Dr Konstantin Novoselov.

This is a project that proposes how advances in graphene and photonic crystal technology could lead to the creation of completely new colour changing yarns and textiles that could decrease our dependency on synthetically produced dyes and help to reduce the sheer volume of garments that each of us own.

Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms that originate from the mineral graphite. The properties for graphene include a strength of 200x stronger than steel, a super conductor, flexibility and transparency.

Photonic crystals are natural crystals that are found in plants, animals and insects (such as butterfly wings and beetle shells) and when light hits the crystals at various angles it creates their colour. Photonic crystals can be synthetically created as artificial opals. Both photonic crystals and artificial opals produce structural colour which is a non-pigmented form of colour.

Through this project, I propose combining these two technologies to create garments which can infinitely change colour, pattern and design at the click of a button and, more importantly, can exist within a single garment.

I believe that this is all possible through a small flexible power grid that could be hidden within the garment. Not only would this provide the necessary power to enable the changing colours and patterns, it could also connect the garment to a concealed memory drive, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or a nanochip. In order to communicate the potential of this technology to a wider public, I have proposed a series of single garments that have the potential to radically change for different situations or circumstances.

70 | Lindsay Hanson

www.lindsayannhanson.com

Experts

Collaborators

Dr Kostya Novoselov, Professor of Physics, National Graphene Institute, University of Manchester.

Tom Mannion, Photographer.

Dr Nazmul Karim, Knowledge Exchange Fellow (Graphene), National Graphene Institute, University of Manchester.

lindsayhanson1@gmail.com

Lindsay Hanson | 71

72 | Linnea Våglund

www.pinkchickenproject.com → www.leolinnea.studio

hello@leolinnea.studio

Linnea Våglund | 73

LINNEA VÅGLUND

Pink Chicken Project ↓

This project suggests changing the colour of the entire species of Gallus Gallus Domesticus (chicken) to pink by using the recently invented CRISPR gene-drive technique Last year’s invention of a working Gene Drive might be biology’s ‘nuclear’ moment.

They denote awesome power, potential widespread destruction and has significant geopolitical ramifications.

— Jim Thomas.

Being the world’s most common bird, the bones of the 60 billion chickens we kill and eat every year leave a distinct trace in the rock strata (the Earth’s crust), an identifier for the new geological age - the Anthropocene. To re-occupy this identifier of our age, the project suggests genetically modifying a chicken with pink bones and feathers using a gene from the insect cochineal to produce a pigment that will fossilise when combined with the calcium of the bone.

Let’s say I create 10,000 pink chickens.

If I consider the IUCN Red List, this is a highly endangered population, should they be protected?

— Barbara Livoreil.

Spreading this gene with the newly invented CRISPR gene-drive technique, the species could be permanently altered on a global scale in just a few years. Thereby colouring the stratum of the Anthropocene pink; a symbolic colour coded as the specular opposite of hetero masculine supremacy.

The DNA also carries a message and call for change on a planet with an unjust power balance.

Biological relationships must be mutualistic to sustain. Humans are currently parasitising the rest; either the host kills the parasite, or the parasite kills the host.

— Mark Williams.

The project rejects the current violence inflicted upon the non-human world but is itself an act of violence through the non-consensual modification of the bodies of billions of chickens. It poses questions of the impact and power of synthetic biology and gene drives but uses the very same technologies to formulate the critique. It highlights the unfathomable scale of industrial agriculture and factory farming, while at the same time depending on these systems as a vessel for its manifest.

It re-occupies not de-occupies the strata.

The intention of such contradictions is not nihilistic, but an attempt to re-invigorate the public imagination in an ecological discourse that must include issues of social justice in order to achieve the radical restructuring of society needed to break the death grip of the sixth extinction.

74 | Linnea Våglund

www.pinkchickenproject.com → www.leolinnea.studio

Experts Barbara Livoreil, Knowledge Broker, Foundation for Research on Biodiversity, Paris and part of the French delegation at the Convention for Biological Diversity at the United Nations.

Eben Kirksey, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Deakin University, Melbourne.

Jim Thomas, Programme Director, ETC Group.

Heather Davis, Assistant Professor of the Culture and Media Department, Eugene Lang College, New School, New York.

Jan Zalasiewicz, Carys Bennett and Mark Williams, all Geologists, Paleontologists and Stratigraphers, Leicester University.

hello@leolinnea.studio

Linnea Våglund | 75

76 | Louize Harries Robotham

www.louizeharries.com

hello@louizeharries.com

Louize Harries Robotham | 77

LOUIZE HARRIES ROBOTHAM

My first subconscious shopper ↓

What are the issues of neuromarketing in a time of mass consumption, data collection and rapid technological developments?

We should have a public discourse about how far we want neuromarketing to go - the time is right for a discussion of its risks and benefits.

SOURCE: Sahakian, B. J. and Gottwald, J. (2017). Sex, Lies and Brain Scans.

We live in an age of mass consumption which is causing vast environmental damage and in a time of information overload with brands constantly competing for our attention. With more ways than ever to do this, some estimates put our exposure to adverts and branded messages at over 5,000 per day.

In order to grab our attention and cut through the constant noise that is a feature of everyday life, many multinational companies are using neuromarketing to figure out exactly how best to do this. By using a combination of tools originally designed for medical diagnostics, neuromarketing reads neural responses to marketing stimuli.

My project is a tool for public discourse.

Neuromarketing, and the improving technologies around it, is sometimes hard to grasp so this project looks at its potential reach. By navigating the legalities and designing an EEG headset aimed at children which reads their preferences as a ‘fun’ way to aid shopping, this conversation can be started.

78 | Louize Harries Robotham

www.louizeharries.com

Experts

Collaborators

Dr Marcello Lenca, Department of Health Sciences and Technology, ETH Zurich.

Dulcie Smout Allen, Model.

Dr Javier Asensio Cubero, Software and Machine Learning Engineer, Emotech Ltd.

hello@louizeharries.com

Louize Harries Robotham | 79

80 | Ludovica Cantarelli

cantarelliludovica@yahoo.it

cantarelliludovica@yahoo.it

Ludovica Cantarelli | 81

LUDOVICA CANTARELLI

Wine matters ↓

Upcycling wine waste Looking beyond the current “take, make and dispose” extractive industrial model, the circular economy is restorative and regenerative by design.

Relying on system-wide innovation, it aims to redefine products and services to design waste out, while minimising negative impacts. Underpinned by a transition to renewable energy sources, the circular model builds economic, natural and social capital.

SOURCE: Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

A red foil communicates berries, while a green or yellow foil says buttery or tropical flavours are inside.

SOURCE: Schuemann, D. (2013). 99 Bottles of Wine: The Making of the Contemporary Wine Label.

Each year, 50 million hectolitres of wine is produced in Italy and almost 2 million tonnes of solid waste as branches, stems, skins and vines have to be disposed of or, as is more commonly done, burnt on site. This produces a significant amount of CO2 but the waste could instead become a significant and valuable raw material for individual vineyards.

Both my parents are independent winemakers and, as such, some of my earliest memories are of harvesting and producing wine. By using my parents’ vineyards as a case study, I have explored how every single waste stream created from the wine making process could be better utilised to become intrinsic to the end product.

The waste grape skins and branches become a sturdy and poetic packaging for the wine, white wine grapes become a paper for the labels, whilst red wine the ink and dye. Every detail becomes not only a practical and cyclical re-used material, but also a poetic connection to the environment, the skills and the local crafts of the region in which the wines have been crafted.

82 | Ludovica Cantarelli

cantarelliludovica@yahoo.it

Experts Piero Cantarelli, Winemaker, Cantina Lapone.

Alex Koban, Graphic and Labelling Designer, Alex Koban Design.

Giovanna Bianchi Michiel, Winemaker, Villa Angarano.

Dawn Willey, Carder and Spinner, The Handweavers Studio & Gallery.

cantarelliludovica@yahoo.it

Ludovica Cantarelli | 83

84 | Lulu Wang

550928585@qq.com

550928585@qq.com

Lulu Wang | 85

LULU WANG

Increasing the value of rice husk ↓

Making natural plant fibre (rice husk) into environmentally friendly writing materials Rice residues can produce energy and at the same time reduce the negative effects of rice production systems on the environment; they could also be a source of extra income for farmers.

SOURCE: Smith, P. et al. (2007).

Agriculture. In: Climate Change 2007.

Husk is produced globally, around 70% of which is not utilized properly because of the difficulties in paddy rice husk biodegradability and the disposal of the combustion ash of rice husks. According to estimation, the global demand for paddy rice will be up to 780 million tons by 2020 and tons and tons of rice husk will be produced and waiting for a better solution.

SOURCE: Ayyappan, S. & Ahamad Ali, S.A. (2007). Analysis of Feeds and Fertilizers for Sustainable Aquaculture Development in India.

Each year millions of tonnes of waste rice husk are burnt in China as removing it, which is often created by many smaller farmers, is deemed too energy intensive or financially unviable.

The burning of this husk is also the main cause of the annual haze, a smog that engulfs China and is one of the largest contributors to declining public health. Preventing or significantly reducing this haze would be one of the most straightforward and easiest ways of tackling such an environmentally unfriendly practice and would help save lives.

Through this project, I have created a process for extracting the waste starch from the husk which in turn provides the binder for turning the waste into cheap mass produced pencils and household products such as disposable chopsticks.

86 | Lulu Wang

550928585@qq.com

Experts Jiawei Zhang, Nantong Rudong Zhongcheng New Energy Co., Ltd. Shangqiu Haiqi Machinery Equipment Co., Ltd.

550928585@qq.com

Lulu Wang | 87

88 | Nina Cutler

www.ninacutler.co.uk

hello@ninacutler.co.uk

Nina Cutler | 89

NINA CUTLER

Made in our image: Love and cruelty with robots ↓

With the introduction of household robots in our day-to-day lives, will the act of humanising them have consequences for our own humanity?

People’s fantasies about robots is that, somehow, these robots will be more human than the disappointing humans around them.

SOURCE: Sherry Turkle, Cultural Analyst, Professor of Social Studies of Science and Technology, MIT in an interview with NPR.

Pepper loves to interact with you, Pepper wants to learn more about your tastes, your habits and quite simply who you are.

SOURCE: SoftBank Robotics.

Violent behaviour towards robotic objects feels wrong to many of us, even if we know that the “abused” object does not experience anything.

SOURCE: Darling, K. (2012). ‘Extending Legal Protection to Social Robots’, IEEE Spectrum.

In 2007 Bill Gates predicted that, within decades, household robots will be as ubiquitous as computers. Arguably, if we consider the products that are technically robots - a smart fridge for example, we are already there. However, when we think of ‘household robots’, a smart fridge is not what we see. We tend to expect a humanoid servant whose image we have been fed through popular culture ever since the term ‘robot’ was coined back in 1920. And yet, despite their arguable inconvenience, robotic engineers and tech firms are keen to feed this expectation, and more recently with some measure of success.

But beyond hardware and aesthetics, these robots are also delving into another human facet - emotions. Circumventing the popular image of the ‘unemotional’ robot (think Data from Star Trek) where a machine begins to understand emotion after becoming sentient as part of their journey to humanity, we are beginning to engineer robots that can recognise human emotion and simulate a personal response.

It is not hard to imagine the widespread ownership of humanoids (socially and emotionally intelligent robots) in the near future considering their increasing sophistication and plummeting prices.

Pepper from SoftBank Robotics can be yours for £1,335.

However, would owning a product that we believe is a ‘person’ (it looks like us, it ‘feels’ like us) have a disrupting effect on our society? What will the relationships be between us and an utterly compliant ‘being’?

90 | Nina Cutler

www.ninacutler.co.uk

Experts Dr Blay Whitby, Technology Ethicist, University of Sussex.

Joanna Bryson, Associate Professor in the Department of Computing, University of Bath.

Callum Imrie, PhD Student, Confidence in Autonomous Robotics Applications, Heriot Watt University.

Emese Botha, Carer.

hello@ninacutler.co.uk

Nina Cutler | 91

92 | Noémie Soula

www.noemiesoula.com

soula.noemie@gmail.com

Noémie Soula | 93

NOÉMIE SOULA

Matter of fat ↓

A dystopian scenario where fat is a valuable material playing a crucial role in our future healthcare The fatty tissue removed during liposuction is often discarded as medical waste and the true potential of the stem cells is never realised.

SOURCE: Commercial slogan of the Future Health BioBank.

2030, London, UK: The NHS’s massive privatisation combined with the private development of stem cell therapies has radically changed the face of healthcare in the UK. Now far closer to US healthcare subsidiaries, the NHS is reserved for people with comfortable incomes and has left many lower-income communities deprived or without adequate provision.

But, the percentage of the overweight population has risen from 30% to 50% in little under 10 years. Due to economic inequalities, rising food prices and inadequate diets, the most affected by this new epidemic are the poorest in society.

In 2005, global adult human biomass was approximately 287 million tonnes, of which 15 million tonnes were due to overweight people.

SOURCE: Walpole, S.C., Prieto-Merino, D., Edwards, P., Cleland, J., Stevens, G. and Roberts, I. (2012).

The Weight of Nations: An Estimation of Adult Human Biomass. BMC Public Health.

Fat is also one of the richest sources for stem cells and is currently one of the most effective materials for growing new organs, an industry that is rapidly increasing and will become far more mainstream in the future.

My project exposes a fictional, but plausible, dystopian scenario where fat is extracted for its monetary and medical qualities from the poorest in society.

Through my exploration of this subject, I have designed and built the necessary equipment required to illegally extract, harvest and feed a human organ.

94 | Noémie Soula

www.noemiesoula.com

Experts

Collaborators

Prof. Max Lafontan, Director of Research, INSERM, Toulouse.

Maël Henaff, Photographer, Model and Cameraman.

Dr Anne Bouloumié, Researcher, INSERM, Toulouse.

Dr Dominique Larrouy, Researcher, INSERM, Toulouse.

Dr Alex McKeown, Postdoctoral Researcher, Neuroscience, Ethics & Society (NEUROSEC) Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford.

soula.noemie@gmail.com

Noémie Soula | 95

96 | Sinae Kim

www.instagram.com/sinae_akery_kim

snpooh44@gmail.com

Sinae Kim | 97

SINAE KIM

This is urine ↓

A collection of decorative vessels crafted, composed and glazed with human urine Today, over seven billion people populate our planet, which means on average around 10.5 billion litres (2.8 billion gallons) of human urine is produced and wasted each day.

SOURCE: Verma, S. S. (2016). ‘Power from Urine: Reimagining the Future’, Government of India Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

Urine is an incredibly complex biofluid with at least 3,079 compounds. We had no idea there could be so many different compounds going into our toilets.

SOURCE: David Wishart, University of Alberta.

This project explores the potential of human urine to create a new, more sustainable material for the ceramic manufacturing industry.

Each of us produces around 2 litres of urine every day, but with over seven billion people currently living in the world today, that soon adds up to over 10.5 billion litres of urine that is produced every single day.

My project explores the potential of human urine, from extracting the minerals to produce clay, distilling it to form a natural glaze and eventually crafting ceramic vessels that nod to the origin of this humble, abundant and completely under-utilised natural resource.

I hope to not only create practical and viable end ceramic artefacts, but also question the ethics of disposing such a vast raw resource simply because of our own personal perceptions around what is considered to be a disgusting natural process and resource.

98 | Sinae Kim

www.instagram.com/sinae_akery_kim

Experts Dr Simon GuillaumĂŠ, PhD Student in Chemistry, University College London.

Clover Lee, Ceramicist.

snpooh44@gmail.com

Sinae Kim | 99

100 | Zaki Musa

mmusa.zaki@gmail.com

mmusa.zaki@gmail.com

Zaki Musa | 101

ZAKI MUSA

The Digital Spirit ↓

How can we use technology as an instrument of belief in soothing our future anxieties?

The power of the performative (healing) act is the heightened intensity of communication and enhancement of experience.

SOURCE: McClean, S. (2013). ‘The Role of Performance in Enhancing the Effectiveness of Crystal and Spiritual Healing’. Medical Anthropology: CrossCultural Studies in Health and Illness.

Vol.32 (1), 61-74.

The role and importance of ritual practice have adapted over the years to now include technology as a vital instrument. Technology has played an integral role in developing enhanced tools for efficiency, moving past initial functions of mechanisation to encompass the quest for the optimised self. Fitness, health and wellbeing are now burgeoning fields in which devices, apps and algorithms have come to not only aid, but transform the rituals of healing.

The design of the digital dreamcatcher demonstrates a potential space for technology to fulfil and to inhabit, embodying a transformative dimension for us to complete our quest for optimised spiritual development. With the rise of alternative healing therapies and spiritual practices, there is a potential space for exploration and integration into these methods of healing, to not only enhance our understanding, but to heal our digital selves.

The omnipresence and pervasiveness of technology has provided us with a perfect transformative framework to re-examine our collective consciousness in relation to our wants and fears. Additionally, the concepts of wellness and vitality now include a mental and spiritual component that is inexorably linked to a digital dimension.

In Shamanic Practice, you would treat everything that comes up as intelligence or information from the soul, responding to its healing needs.

SOURCE: Interview with Aisha Amarfio, Shamanic Therapist.

Whilst we currently perceive technology to be an agnostic entity, exploring its use in a spiritual context could help achieve a newfound state of wellness: to one that integrates and balances our physical, mental, spiritual and digital selves.

102 | Zaki Musa

mmusa.zaki@gmail.com

Experts Aisha Amarfio, Shamanic Therapist.

Dr Stuart McClean, Social Anthropologist, Programme Lead MSc Public Health, UWE Bristol.

mmusa.zaki@gmail.com

Zaki Musa | 103

104 |

Course Leader Kieren Jones Research Leader Carole Collet Special Projects Coordinator Marta Giralt Contextual Studies Tutor Stephen Hayward Lead Administrator Hannah Cheesbrough Academic Coordinator Chloe Griffith Visiting Tutors Agi Haines Attua Aparicio Torinos Liz Wright Philippa Wagner External Liaison Coordinator Sinead But

106 | Typefaces Aktiv Grotesk

by Dalton Maag T-Star Mono by Die Gestalten

Design Laura Gordon Photography Tom Mannion Printed by Pureprint

STAFF Kieren Jones Carole Collet Stephen Hayward Hannah Cheesbrough Chloe Griffith Agi Haines Attua Aparicio Torinos Liz Wright Marta Giralt Philippa Wagner Sinead But

AURORE PIETTE

CATHRINE DISNEY

Plastiglomerate image courtesy of Kelly Jazvac Photography by Jeff Elstone

CHARLOTTE KIDGER CHIH-CHIA CHANG CHING-HUI YANG

DAVIDE PISCITELLI DONGYOUNG KIM

GARANCE DER MARKARIAN GAVIN VAUGHAN

M A M F

JEN KEANE

2

KATIE MAY BOYD

0 1

KE FU

8

LEO FIDJELAND

LINDSAY HANSON LINNEA VÅGLUND

LOUIZE HARRIES ROBOTHAM LUDOVICA CANTARELLI LULU WANG

NINA CUTLER

NOÉMIE SOULA SINAE KIM

ZAKI MUSA

INSTAGRAM @materialfutures TWITTER @materialfutures FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/ MaterialFutures EMAIL materialfutures @csm.arts.ac.uk