Mycela Oslo - Believing in a Fungi Future
Mycela, founded by Sondre Eng, Renée Isabel Jung and Maria Aaslund is an Oslo-based mycelium studio and lab founded in 2020. On a warm summer day, Elementa visited Mycela at their studio at Tøyen in Oslo and got to know their concept a bit better.
Delphine Lejeune on Neo-lace, the history of domestic crafts and the potential of 3D-printing
In a mini-series of short interviews, Maren Bang of the Elementa crew presents the work of some of her fellow alumni from Design Academy Eindhoven.
Delphine Lejeune is a visual designer and material researcher working experimentally across 2D and 3D printed surfaces. Her curiosities lie within designed objects, and how they critically shape our social behaviors.
Carlos Sfeir on design as a Trojan horse
Carlos Sfeir is a Chilean architect, designer and artist currently based in Berlin. A little while back we had a talk about the rational and the poetic, forces of nature, and the consequences of colonialism. And about design and arts potential for being a trojan horse - bringing insight and perspectives within conventional systems.
Benedetta Pompili on conversing with matter
Benedetta Pompili is an Italian interdisciplinary designer currently based in Amsterdam. Her practice is focused on a dedication to earthwork ethics and local narratives, and she explores making processes, rethinking them for sustainability aims. We had a conversation with the designer about savior faire, toxicity and the dialogue between maker and material.
Audiophile Niclas Ekwall on vocal drum solos, the importance of play and the resonating body.
Swedish designer and artist Niclas Ekwall recently exhibited his project “The Resonance of Play“ as a part of the Graduation Show during Dutch Design Week, and this coming summer he will be showing his work during the design week in Milan. We had a talk with Niclas about his approach to design and his relationship to sound and music.
Material Alchemy #3: The Noble Potato
Potatoes are made up of starches and fiber components that are able to bond with each other and harden which makes them a versatile starting point for different materials.
Highlights from Design Academy Eindhoven Graduation 2021
The annual Graduation Show by Design Academy Eindhoven is one of the most visited venues during the Dutch Design Week, and this year it was located at the Beursgebouw in the center of Eindhoven. Maren Bang from the Elementa team was present, and has gathered some favorites from this years edition.
Nebil Zaman on lifting found objects out from digital space
In the work of Norwegian designer and artist Nebil Zaman, objects found in digital space are materialized and turned into unusual furniture and objects - sometimes with an almost otherworldly touch. We have met Nebil at his space at the Kroloftet makers space in Oslo to learn more about his work with found objects - digital and physical.
Material Alchemy #2: The Pleasures and Promises of Industrial Hemp
Loved dearly by many, misunderstood and feared by some - hemp carries a lot of cultural associations, most of which have little to do with its potential as a sustainable material in product design and architecture.
Hailed by enthusiasts as a potential ally in changing the way we make objects and buildings, many designers and scientists are researching new uses of hemp with interesting results.
Lorraine Legrand on clay, bread and making materials sing
The French ceramic artist Lorraine Legrand has spent the last years venturing deeply into the formal and artistic possibilities of clay. In her BREAD project, she takes on the adjacent art of making bread with the eye and hand of a ceramicist.
For Lorraine bread-making becomes a reflection about the basic sanity inherent in our most ancient crafts, and a search for an antidote to the neurotic relationship most of us have to modern food industry.
Material Alchemy #1: Eggshell ceramics & bio-plastics
Eggshell is one of the small wonders of nature and a biodegradable material with interesting properties. While used to some extent in agriculture, a lot of eggshell is scrapped as waste. The last couple of years several designers and researchers have looked into how eggshell can be used as component in materials for use in consumer products and objects and surfaces for use in interior design.
Bruno Baietto on going beyond the fake and the real
What can be found in the spaces in between the beautiful and the ugly, feminine and masculine? How can dragqueen culture inform and expand design thinking?
Maren Bang of the Elementa blog meets the Uruguayan designer and artist Bruno Baietto.