Who Am I
Today, I explore alternative design perspectives by collaborating with living organisms to create valuable and sustainable materials, thus, bringing design closer to the natural world. This is being performed within the context of the renewable and natural fibre industry. With a hands-on explorative approach, I aim to create novel (composite) materials with natural fibres and design innovative products and applications that showcase their unique properties. In this process, I attune my senses to unexpected and emerging material and aesthetic qualities and translate this into design opportunities. However, my design process extends beyond mere experimentation. I am a designer with a profound interest in biology, (bio)chemistry, and ecology. I draw inspiration from grounded scientific knowledge and aim to connect seemingly unrelated fields of knowledge into my design process. In doing so, I carefully balance the capturing of the unexpected with knowledge-driven design based on natural sciences and data.
Integrating post-anthropocentric perspectives is at the core of my work, and I employ a diverse set of methods and approaches to decentralize the human subject in the design process. I make sure non-human participation is guaranteed and aim to establish intricate and caring relationships between humans and non-humans. To do this, I adopt a synergy of creativity and technology to design the appropriate tools to bridge the gap between human and non-human perspectives. Harnessing these tools and methods, I am committed to transforming the production process of new materials into regenerative systems that benefit both humans and non-humans alike. I achieve this by infusing the production process of materials with established or newly developed collaborative relationships with the natural environment. Thus, transforming conventional human-centered manufacturing to a symbiotic bio-facturing process.
What I believe
In the name of human progress, we have ravaged much of the non-human world, driving countless species to extinction, exacerbating climate change, and polluting every far corner of the planet. Throughout a series of paradigms, most of our design practices directly contributed to these crises, exploiting ecosystems and collecting resources to create value for our ends. Designers tend to believe that new solutions to human pleasure, well-being, health, and productivity, are within reach, and a human-centred approach to environmental sustainability, social injustices, free-market capitalism, and social inequalities, is the path to solving these issues. Yet, I believe there is something fundamentally wrong with this approach. That is, we have distanced ourselves from the non-human world, assuming divine status.
First and foremost, I believe the challenge for designers lies in decentring the human subject in our design process and moving towards more porous, ecological, and relational understandings between non-humans, tools, materials, and design practices, acknowledging the interconnectedness of all beings. This means, recognizing that humans are just one part of a larger social-ecological system, each with an equal stake in its preservation and flourishing. Harnessing this new way of thinking, designers should then aim their energy on creating local solutions for worldly problems, replacing globalization with systemic approaches to local and regenerative systems that work in symbiotic relationships with the ecosystem.
Experience
2017 - 2022 --> Kilojoule Clothing, Self-employed.
2021 - 2021 --> Internship at Bonnesuits, Operational Overlord