KAO SP I LOT T EAM 2 0
TOPIA
H elene A rnfred
Combining science & art
Are we able to break down the humans conformity in regards to their profession through interdisciplinary work and thereby change humans relationship with other life? Can we change the product supply chain if we understand the origin of the materials and life-circles? THE STORY OF MY PROJECT
At first I had an urge to work with my hands. I had a feeling that what I needed was to be in a process with fewer words and more action. I wanted to change how I interacted with both materials and other people. I realised that If I wanted to change the way people understand themselves in a community, I needed to be part of a community and not just by myself, alone in a workshop. I wanted to work with how people consume and what they consume, but the product supply chain is almost too complex to comprehend, and this realization made me want to try to understand the way we produce and use materials. I found a possibility of combining the artistic and scientific approach to create something new entirely. New products made from nonsynthetic materials.
Another realization I made was about the way we understand ourselves as humans, and mostly how we look at ourselves as being divided from nature. We have high thoughts of ourselves, but we must admit that we can’t compete with the complex nature which surrounds us. I believe that the answers to better solutions lies all around us - we just have to know where to look!
MY PROCESS
In my research I found that many people were already working towards the same goals as I. Interdisciplinary work is everywhere and universities around the world are starting to teach scientist the field of art and vise-versa. There is a huge need to find alternatives and retouch our production methods. My wish is that we break free from our sense of being superior beings, and instead begin to see ourselves as part of a bigger whole. I’ve been in Reykjavik working closely together with the Icelandic Academy of the Arts creating an interdisciplinary lab combining science and art in order to research Icelandic Materials. A lab looking into new ways of using the non-synthetic materials at hand. I have, in collaboration with a professor from the academy, gone in depths with what a lab should look like, and how we can create a new way of learning and producing. Besides the project in Reykjavik I have also been in contact with other really interesting communities in Denmark, Brazil and Norway. [HG1]
WHAT’S NEXT?
I hope to continue working with the interdisciplinarity between art and sciens and soon hope to go from taking in knowledge, to start expressing my knowledge through lectures and workshops etc.
94