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Material Profile: Mycelium

What is Mycelium?

Mycelium is the vegetative part of a fungus or fungus-like bacterial colony, consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae. Think of mycelium as the root and mushrooms being its fruit.

Mycelium can feed off of discarded, simple and organic elements to create sustainable and durable materials.

For example, designer Sebastian Cox and researcher Ninela Ivanova produced Mycelium furniture by combining mycelium with scrap willow wood and timber wood from Cox’s own woodland.

The discarded goat willow was sliced up to create thin strips, which were woven together to create individual moulds. Within these moulds, the designers added a type of fungus called fomes fomentarius, which was cultivated using more wooden strips as food.

"It's not just about the fungus, it's about the marriage of the two materials," said Ivanova. "It's not sustainability for us – it's just what makes sense. These two materials have a natural relationship in the woodland, so let's see how we can exploit that."

Brunel University student Aleksi Vesaluoma has developed a technique for using mushroom mycelium as an environmentally friendly construction material by combining it with something as simple as cardboard.

He developed a technique where the mycelium material is mixed with cardboard before being moulded into what he calls "mushroom sausages" using a tube-shaped cotton bandage.

The long sausages are then placed over a mould and left to grow over a four-week period inside a ventilated greenhouse.

Architect Dirk Hebel and engineer Philippe Block used mycelium to create blocks for a self-supporting structure, Mycotree. Mushroom spores are combined with a food mix that includes sawdust and sugarcane.

The fungi consumes the nutrients, so after a few days it begins to transform into a dense and spongy mass. It is then transferred into moulds, where it continues to densify.

Ecovative Design provide packaging alternatives by mixing mycelium with crop waste like seed husks and corn stalks to form a bioplastic.

Mycoworks mixes mycelium and agricultural byproducts in a carbon-negative process to create a new kind of leather that is sustainable, versatile, and animal–free. Philip Ross, founder of mycoworks stated that mycelium "can grow on lots of things - sawdust, crushed pistachio nuts, corncobs, seed husks - often on waste material that would otherwise have no use and that the mushroom grower is paid to take off their hands,"

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Mycelium has excellent properties such as:

It is fully biodegradable. When broken down into small pieces and placed out in the elements, your mushroom materials will return to the earth in about a month. (does however require soil biota and long-term water exposure to fully and naturally biodegrade)

Low cost to produce it as it is grown instead of manufactured

This also allows for it to be grown into moulds

Rapidly renewable

Low water consumption

Good insulation properties

Shock absorbent

Naturally fire retardant but also hydrophobic and not waterproof unless dried and coated

Carbon Neutral

Can be mixed with a vast variety of organic materials, including waste and unused/discarded materials

More applications

Packaging

Replace polystyrene foam/ plastic foam in cars

Acoustic tiles for buildings

Provides alternative option to genuine leather products

Build structures

Furniture

Building blocks

Temporary Installations

Panels

Can it be mass produced?

Mycelium could be grown in a similar way that mushrooms are grown. Mushroom farming can inform the way mycelium could be produced on a larger scale.

Moreover, for Dirk Hebel’s and Philippe Block’s MycoTree the blocks were produced by MycoTech, an indonesian company which started out as ‘mushroom gourmet producers’ but eventually began producing sustainable materials made from mycelium.

“The blocks used for MycoTree were designed using a 3D modelling program developed by Block's team. The templates for the moulds were sent to a mushroom farming company in Indonesia called Mycotech. The blocks were grown there, before being transported to Seoul for assembly”

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Mycotech also aims to help local economy and labour in Indonesia by pushing for the recycling and appreciation of agricultural waste.

‘Burning waste crops is one of the main causes of environmental pollution. We help alleviate this by raising economic interest in the recycling of these “waste” materials to generate extra income for the farmers. Furthermore, the boards produced are bonded with natural mushroom based adhesive. This is environment friendly, and the technology can be easily transferred to the local industry.

Since 2015 Mycotech have been empowering 4 mushroom farmer groups to supply and manufacture raw material. By managing 5000 kg waste, they supply 3000 kg/month. This creates additional income and impact to 200 people involved‘

https://www.mycote.ch/impact

In addition, companies such as Ecovative design prove that it is possible to produce mycelium on a larger scale, opening their second manufacturing plant in 2016.

From 03/07/16 Blog Post:

‘Well, we are excited to announce that the 20,000 square foot facility is up and running, and the team has produced over 68,000 Mushroom® parts there since June!’

‘We started production at this facility in June with 10 Ecovative employees on site. Since then, we’ve consistently kept around that many employees over there everyday running the line.’

Eco-East — Green Island, NY

Eco-HQ — Green Island, NY

https://ecovativedesign.com/blog/146

Mycelium’s compelling narrative as ‘magic’ material

Mycelium has been described and marketed as a ‘magic’ material because of its long list of good qualities and ability to fully biodegrade. Companies such as Mycoworks and Ecovative Design provide a large amount of information on mycelium on their website. They are also very active on social media and engage the public by providing full transparency on how mycelium is made. Ecovative’s educational approach goes beyond online education. Through its sister company GROW.bio, they organise workshops for children to learn how to grow mycelium and on its website, GIY (Grow It Yourself) kits can be purchased helping the public become more informed and engaged with the material by showing them how eco-friendly and easy it is to produce. There’s also a forum and blog where people can exchange ideas and tips on growing mycelium.

https://grow.bio/collections/shop

https://ecovativedesign.com/blog/135

Sources:

https://ecovativedesign.com/

https://www.mycote.ch/

http://www.mycoworks.com/

https://www.dezeen.com/2017/09/04/mycotree-dirk-hebel-philippe-block-mushroom-mycelium-building-structure-seoul-biennale/?li_source=LI&li_medium=bottom_block_1#/

https://www.sfgate.com/homeandgarden/article/Philip-Ross-crafts-furniture-from-mycelium-4116989.php

https://grow.bio/

https://www.dezeen.com/tag/mycelium-design/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ystRW4rlqTk

https://www.dezeen.com/2015/03/25/mushroom-materials-ecovative-modelling-kit-mycelium-designs-of-the-year-2015/

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designmiast-blog · 7 years ago

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Mycelium Growing Experiments

How To

1. Allow Oyster mushrooms to develop mycelium for at least 3 days by keeping them in a dark damp place

2. Sterilise work area and tool

3. Dip cardboard in warm water and allow corrugated cardboard to separate

4. Layer corrugated cardboard and bits of the oyster mushroom’s root in a sealed container and allow to grow for 4-5 days

3 day update

2 day update on mushroom w/ pre-developed mycelium

2 day update on mushroom w/ pre-developed mycelium in semi-spherical petri dishes

1 week update

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designmiast-blog · 7 years ago

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Task 6

MYCELIUM + TIMBER / Sebastian Cox and Ninela Ivanova

MYCELIUM+TIMBER comprises a series of stools and lights, made using freshly cut wood waste which has been myceliated with the species Fomes fomentarius. Each piece is created by the mycelium as it grows and binds the green wood waste together around purpose made frames to form lightweight, incredibly strong and completely compostable pieces of design. These pieces will be on display as part of a ‘work in progress’ installation which reveals the research and experimentation we have undertaken.

Sebastian Cox has become the latest designer to start working with mushroom mycelium – the British furniture maker has teamed up with researcher Ninela Ivanova to investigate the material's potential in commercial furniture design.

The material – which is formed from the vegetative part of a fungus – has been used in various architecture and design experiments recently, including a self-supporting structural column and an intricately textured dress.

But Cox and Ivanova wanted to use the fungal material to create more everyday products. Their project, called Mycelium + Timber, features a series of simple stools and lights with a suede-like texture, designed to suit any domestic interior.

"What really excites us both is how you take this material out of the conceptual phase and put it into people's homes," Ivanova told Dezeen. "How do you craft the aesthetics to make something that is really beautiful, as you would with any other material?"

The duo are presenting the results of their experiments at Somerset House this week, as part of the London Design Festival exhibition Design Frontiers. Both products on show were created by combining mycelium with scrap willow wood from Cox's own woodland.

As a champion of natural materials, Cox is best known for his work with wood, on projects including a responsibly sourced oak, ash and beech kitchen and a collection of furniture made from coppiced hazel wood.

He had long held an ambition to find a natural alternative to the glues used in engineered wood products, which is what led him to team up with Ivanova, who has been researching mycelium for the past seven years as part of a PHD at Kingston University.

"In our workshop we don't use composite wood materials because I've never been quite satisfied with the binding agent holding the wood together," Cox said.

"As a result, I've always had a kind of fantasy interest in 'reinventing' a type of MDF and finding new ways to bind wood fibres into either sheets or mounded forms, ideally without glue."

"Mycelium offers us the opportunity to create products that not only continue but advance our ethos of sustainability and test our ability as a studio to design for new methods of manufacture," added Cox

Source: https://www.dezeen.com/2017/09/20/mushroom-mycelium-timber-suede-like-furniture-sebastian-cox-ninela-ivanova-london-design-festival/

Source: http://www.sebastiancox.co.uk/

STUDIO / LAB

http://www.sebastiancox.co.uk/lab/

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INSTAGRAM

https://www.instagram.com/sebastiancoxltd/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BY6GOc-g9Mp/?taken-by=sebastiancoxltd

MYCOWORKS

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More educational approach, excited to spread awareness on material, less focus on promoting products more focused on promoting material.

Source: http://www.mycoworks.com/

https://www.instagram.com/mycoworks/

https://www.facebook.com/MycoWorks

- How to make a Myco-Brick

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- Mycelium Bricks

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MYCOTREE

While some architects have been experimenting with mushroom mycelium as a cladding material, architect Dirk Hebel and engineer Philippe Block have gone one step further – by using fungi to build self-supporting structures.

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Hebel, who leads the Sustainable Construction unit at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and Block, who founded the Block Research Group at ETH Zürich, have created a tree-shaped structure consisting almost entirely of mycelium.

According to the duo, the material – which is formed from the root network of mushrooms – could provide the structure of a two-storey building, if it is designed with the right geometries.

"We want to show that there might be alternative construction materials that don't get us in trouble with our world, but that needs to go together with some kind of designing," explained Block.

"In order to show the potential of new alternative materials, particularly weak materials like mycelium, we need to get the geometry right. Then we can demonstrate something that can actually be very stable, through its form, rather than through the strength of the material."

Hebel and Block are presenting the idea as part of the inaugural Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, which opened this weekend in the South Korean capital.

Their installation, called MycoTree, consists of dozens of mycelium components that support one another in compression. These components are attached to one another with a system of bamboo endplates and metal dowels – but it is the mycelium that is taking all the load.

"It take two weeks to grow any form, any shape you would like," said Hebel. "It only needs a form, a little bit of biological residue and a little bit of knowhow, and then you can grow this in any place you can think of."

The blocks used for MycoTree were designed using a 3D modelling program developed by Block's team, which has been previously used to build structural systems using materials ranging from stone to discarded drinks containers.

The templates for the moulds were sent to a mushroom farming company in Indonesia called Mycotech. The blocks were grown there, before being transported to Seoul for assembly.

According to Hebel, these huge farms offer a pre-established system of infrastructure that could easily be tapped into by the construction industry.

But on the other hand, anyone with a CNC machine could potentially download the files for an open-source design and grow their own building structure.

Source: https://www.dezeen.com/2017/09/04/mycotree-dirk-hebel-philippe-block-mushroom-mycelium-building-structure-seoul-biennale/?li_source=LI&li_medium=bottom_block_1#/

ECOVATIVE DESIGN

https://ecovativedesign.com/

Mylo - Mycelium Leather

‘Mylo™ is a material made from mycelium, the underground root structure of mushrooms. We carefully control the mycelium’s growth conditions to produce a substrate that can be cured and tanned into a soft, supple material that looks and feels like leather.‘

https://boltthreads.com/technology/mylo/

https://boltthreads.com/?ref=ecovativedesign.com

They sell their own growing kits

https://grow.bio/collections/shop

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designmiast-blog · 7 years ago

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Yianna Argyrides

Visiting Jewellery Designer & Maker Yianna Argyrides.

“Designing and creating jewellery is an art form that allows me to sink into my inner self. I let the moment inspire me. Sometimes I allow the material I choose to unfold and reveal itself to me and this is what motivates me to create. The connection between the person and the piece of Jewellery is what truly brings it to life which, for me, completes its purpose. My work is uniquely designed and handcrafted ".

Diploma in Jewellery Design from the University of Design, Schwäbisch Gmϋnd /Germany (Hochschule fϋr Schmuck Gestaltung) Since 1990, runs a studio in Nicosia/Cyprus and presents new collections annually and until today has created 30 themed presentations.Collection always available on display.

Also has participated in:

•2009, group exhibition in “contemporary Jewellery”, Nicosia. •2008, the Inhorgenta Jewellery fair, Munich. •2007, group exhibition “Schmuck”,Nicosia •2006, Kara Jewellery exhibition,Paris •2006, Inhorgenta Jewellery fair, Munich.

Source: http://yiannaargyrides.com/the-artist

R 317 Ring Silver 925º/ yellow Gold 18k

R 315 Ring Silver 925º/ Yellow Gold 18k

R 313 Ring Silver 925° /Yellow Gold 18k

P 403 Pendant Silver 925º/ Yellow gold 18k

The Workshop

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designmiast-blog · 7 years ago

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Task 4

Batch Production

What is Batch Production?

Batch production is when a small quantity of identical products are made. Batch production may also be labour intensive, but jigs and templates are used to aid production. Batches of the product can be made as often as required. The machines can be easily changed to produce a batch of a different product.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/design/resistantmaterials/processindpracrev1.shtml

Jewelry Casting

Jewelry casting is the process by which a wax pattern is made into a jewelry mold and then filled with molten metal or silver to create a custom piece of jewelry. It is also called lost wax casting because the wax is always “lost” during the process of making jewelry.

Most jewelry that is manufactured starts off as a wax pattern. Jewelry manufacturers will take the wax pattern and use plaster to create an “invested” mold.

Once the mold is prepared, jewelry makers will put the mold into oven until the plaster hardens.

In the oven, all of the wax will melt out of hallow cavity inside of mold of wax pattern. (The cavity for the mold is set when setting up the wax pattern.)

With a wax-free mold, manufacturers will then pour molten metal or silver into the hallow cavity that is in the mold with a vacuum machine or a centrifugal casting machine.

After a few minutes, jewelry makers will throw the mold into a bucket of cold water and mold will dissipate. You will then be able to reach in and pull out a piece of jewelry that is the exact replica as the initial wax pattern.

Source: https://makersrow.com/blog/2016/06/5-steps-to-jewelry-casting/

How It's Made - Lost Wax Casting

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Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWVli5iY8BI

Resin Casting

Resin casting is used to produce collectible and customized toys and figures like designer toys, garage kits and ball-jointed dolls, as well as scale models, either individual parts or entire models of objects like trains, aircraft or ships. They are generally produced in small quantities, from the tens to a few hundred copies, compared to injection-molded plastic figures which are produced in many thousands. Resin casting is more labor intensive than injection molding, and the soft molds used are worn down by each cast. The low initial investment cost of resin casting means that individual hobbyists can produce small runs for their own use, such as customization, while companies can use it to produce small runs for public sale.

A flexible mold made from room temperature vulcanized (RTV) silicone rubber is made for each part of the object that is being cast. After the mold has been made, a synthetic resin - such as polyurethane or epoxy - mixed with a curing agent, is poured into each mold cavity. Mixing the two liquid parts causes an exothermic reaction which generates heat and within minutes causes the material to harden, yielding castings or copies in the shape of the mold into which it has been poured. The molds are commonly half-divided (like the hollowed chocolate Easter eggs with candy inside) and a release agent may be used to make removal of the hardened/set resin from the mold easier. The hardened resin casting is removed from the flexible mold and allowed to cool.

Due to aggressive nature of most compounds used for casting and the high temperature of the reaction the mold gradually degrades and loses small details. Typically, a flexible mold will yield between 25 and 100 castings depending upon the size of the part, the intensity of the heat generated.

Depending on the type of product it may then be cut or sanded to remove any casting artefacts like sprues and seams. Some products are also assembled and painted, while some models and kits, which are intended for the consumer to assemble, are left unfinished.

The ability of RTV silicone molds to reproduce even the tiniest detail means that many of these low volume castings are of very high quality. Quality of both original masters and resin castings varies due to differences in creator's skill, as well as casting techniques.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resin_casting

Preparing Mold for Resin Casting

First take pearlescent powder and apply it with a soft brush onto the surface of a silicone mold. Thoroughly coat all surfaces of the mold. Pay particular attention to deep detail and the mold side walls. Remove any excess powder by gently tapping the inverted mold.

Dispensing, Mixing, and Casting Resin

Carefully measure out part B of the resin, then pour it into the mixing container. Add a few drops of urethane tint to Part B and thoroughly mix. Now carefully measure out part A of the resin, pour it into the mixing container and mix with Part B.

Carefully pour the mixed resin into a single spot in the mold. Allow the material to slowly flow around the mold, completely filling the mold cavity. Allow the resin to cure fully.

Finishing Piece

Once cured, remove the casting from the mold.

Source: http://www.instructables.com/id/Creating-Metallic-Glitter-Casting/

Using Ice Resin, Molds and Color Dyes to Make Jewelry

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Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NSf2wdvzFQ

Small Batch Jewelry Manufacturers

All Jewelry Contracting (AJC)

From concept to finish, AJC is a full service manufacturer of fine jewelry. Integrating all components of manufacturing under one roof guaranteeing efficiency, speed, quality and exclusivity, surpassing nearly all competition in the industry. They offer quality model and mold-making, stone setting, polishing, finishing, patina and casting in brass, bronze, silver, platinum and all karats and colors of gold.

SHOOTDIGITAL

Shootdigital’s process is ideal for study models through ideation, prototyping and comps via their metal and precious metal plating options. They have partnered with two high-end service providers to offer the perfect complement to their suite of services. The first is a metal plating company that allow us to produce and finish accessories, jewelry, and hardware prototypes in 24k gold, silver, nickel, copper and rhodium, among other specialty materials such as “black gold”, “gunmetal”, etc. They can also print prototypes in pure stainless steel with an incredibly high resolution and finish quality.

Christine McPartland – Earwings

Christine McPartland has been in the business over 31 years and has a vast knowledge of the industry. She does everything from design, to metal fabrication, to casting, to model-making, to production and much more. Earwinsg will walk you clients from the beginning to the end of the jewelry creation process, while offering many options for metals ranging from pewter to silver to gold. They like working with all levels of designers, from large brands to novices.

Melindesign

MelinDesign works with small and upcoming jewelry designers looking to get their jewelry designs produced in the U.S. Once a client provides the materials for their product along with a sample or image, MelinDesign will create the piece following your specific instruction. They are dedicated to providing technically correct, quality, handmade work for small businesses.

Source: https://makersrow.com/blog/2016/03/small-batch-jewelry-manufacturers-you-should-know/

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designmiast-blog · 8 years ago

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Task 3

Key Issues for Design

One of the main issues faced by designers at the moment is creating products that are sustainable, long lasting with minimal waste, products that have a small ecological footprint yet a major social impact. In an effort to reduce waste, designers look into creating durable designs. An example of this is clothing or furniture that grow as their users grow.

Illa and Illeta pieces, Teehee

Modular Crib that can be adapted as the child gets older.

Source: https://www.dezeen.com/2016/10/03/teehee-kids-adjustable-customisable-units-childrens-furniture/?li_source=LI&li_medium=bottom_block_1

Petit Pli, Ryan Mario Yasin

Petit Pli clothing expands to fit children as they grow. It has a pleat system that lets garments stretch to fit even after growth spurts.

Source: https://www.dezeen.com/2017/07/05/ryan-mario-yasin-petit-pli-clothing-expands-fit-children-grow-royal-college-art-design-graduates/#/

In a Dezeen article, an interesting point of view on the topic of sustainable design is that of Lenger’s, ‘whose latest project sees creatives team up with human-rights defenders to develop tools for change.’

‘Lenger said that design is a powerful tool that can be used for much more than simply creating chairs and tables. But designers need to partner with other "changemakers" to have a real impact.

"As designers, we are shaping parts of our world, so there is a part we can play in creating a positive impact," he said.

"But," he continued, "designers should not be portrayed as the heroes of our time, as we are only a small cogwheel in an enormous machine."

According to Lenger, he isn't unique in wanting to use to design to solve bigger problems. He said he had noticed a shift in the degree of responsibility felt by young designers.

"Some people just want to make pretty things, some feel like there's something missing if they just make pretty things," he said.

"I think there's a change in general, but it's bad that people feel guilty. It's ironic in that sense, that design itself becomes the guilty aspect."’

Source: https://www.dezeen.com/2018/01/26/bernhard-lenger-dutch-design-week-designers-not-heroes-interview/

Why did I choose design?

Becoming a designer to me means that I can be more than one thing. It’s a profession that bleeds in every section of everyone’s lives. From architecture to toasters to installations to furniture, design has the ability to encompass everything and anything whilst focusing on the human aspect. I want to create memorable objects and experiences with interactive elements that will educate, help and hopefully enrich lives. In a way I too want to have a positive impact on the world, as Lenger stated, but I want to do it in a different way, beyond sustainability and functionality.

Design, from what I have learned and experienced these past few years as an art and design student, focuses on giving solutions to problems and current issues. However, I have also found that in doing so it can also do the opposite by raising more questions than answering them. It can instigate curiosity in people, it can raise awareness about social issues and make people think. As a designer, I would like to push design and its practicality and focus on play in hopes that it will encourage curiosity, exploration and re-ignite an almost child-like behaviour in people.

One of the issues that perplexes me as a design student, and personally as well, is the fact that the majority of the world faces some kind of mental health issue, whether it’s depression, anxiety or simply feelings of loneliness. Growing up in a world which is success-driven and obsessed with “making it”, has made people consumed by their work, their insecurities, anxieties and with comparing themselves to others. A lot of individuals, including myself, often fail to connect to one another and at the same time don’t take time for themselves because of issues like anxiety and depression. Therefore, people resort to investing their time and money in poor forms of entertainment because they seek an escape from an anxiety-filled routine. I believe, through design, people can be provided with a better form of leisure that can genuinely improve their lives and provide a healthier ‘escape’ from reality’s hardships. A kind of design that celebrates play and is created by play.

Maarten Baas, for example, is known for his experimental and playful approach to design. In a Crafts magazine interview by Grant Gibson, the following was stated regarding two of Baas’ most infamous projects, the Smoke furniture collection and the Clay series:

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Smoke Furniture Collection, 2004

Source: http://maartenbaas.com/smoke/wheretheressmoke/

Clay Furniture Collection, 2006 Source: http://maartenbaas.com/clay-furniture/standard/

This playful attitude towards design appeals to me as it focuses on the experience it provides people and finds value in the reactions it will receive. Another Crafts Article, ‘Play-makers’, perfectly covers how play and making work together.

‘Play is a subject for our time. Going by the wealth of recent books and festivals on the topic, the claim that we live in the ‘ludic century’ – the century of play – shows early signs of being true. Everyone, it seems, from neuroscientists to business gurus, in arenas as diverse as medicine, technology and education, is waking up to how play drives new ideas.

In some cultural fields, connections between play and creativity are embedded in the language. Actors and musicians are players. We speak of wordplay, playing an instrument or a role, directing a play. Yet, in craft, playful aspects are generally less explicit, sometimes even denied lest a work or practice be dismissed as lacking gravitas.

Now, States of Play, the Crafts Council exhibition for Hull City of Culture, takes a look at how playfulness shapes our lives and the world around us. Through the eyes of makers and designers it presents play as a way of being, of understanding the world and giving it form. Turning upside down the idea of play as merely frivolous or trivial, the exhibition reveals it as a serious creative, social and political force that infuses all of life.

Am I Robot, Paul Granjon, 2016

Play has current resonance in many fields, beyond the trend of ‘gamification’ – the application of game-like rules to an activity. Playfulness, it is argued, enhances resilience and health, helps children build life skills and fuels scientiﬁc breakthroughs.

In this way, playing and making empower us to shape the environment. They are expressions of our agency in the world. This is not to make a trite identification of one with the other: making cannot be reduced to a form of playing. Rather, it is that an experimental mindset, curious about materials, willing to try things out, to explore through trial and error – in short, a playful attitude – characterises many craft practices.

Fast Basket, 2013, Skateboard, Basketball Hoop, Wind

Playfulness is sometimes embedded in the process of making. And, sometimes makers play about with what materials are and do. Some make objects for playing with – toys for simple enjoyment or, as we’ve seen in the case of some automata makers, with more serious intent. Others make environments for playing in. Think of Assemble’s foam-constructed Brutalist Playground or the Polyphonic Playground by Studio PSK, which combines archetypal elements of a playground, such as swings and slides, with sound engineering, transforming them into musical instruments.’

Polyphonic Playground, Studio PSK

Source: http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/articles/playmakers/

Through design I aim to encourage play, and bring a new form of entertainment to people, one that is more interactive, personal and self-reflective. It’s necessary in our time to help people reconnect with others and themselves through playful and explorative design, which I believe is just as necessary as sustainable design. It’s important for creators as well, to have a playful approach when creating so as to innovate and think differently, bring new solutions to age-old issues.

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designmiast-blog · 8 years ago

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Task 1

Grand Installations: Networks

For Use/Numen

Numen/For Use is a collective working in the fields of conceptual art, scenography, industrial and spatial design.

The group first formed in 1998 as a collaborative effort of industrial designers Sven Jonke, Christoph Katzler and Nikola Radeljković under the banner For Use.

In 1999. they establish Numen as a collective identity covering all projects actualised outside the sphere of industrial design.

The group's early enterprises are characterized by experiments with impersonal design and radical formal reduction, deeply rooted in the tradition of high modernism and mainly applied to various synergetic total-design projects in Croatia.

From 2004. onwards, after setting up a large scale site-specific project for the production of “Inferno” in the National Centre for Drama in Madrid, Numen/ For Use become intensely involved with scenography. Further realisations in theatres across Europe ensue.

Since 2008. the collective turns its focus towards configuring objects and concepts without a predefined function, an activity resulting in the more hybrid and experimental works such as the N-Light series and Tape Installation.

Parallel to these publicly exposed ventures, the group wins several international awards for their accomplishments in the field of industrial and set design.

Source: http://www.numen.eu/info/biography/

Tape Installations

Federation Square, Melbourne, Australia, 2011

"The interior of the structure is supple, elastic and pliable while the form itself is statically perfect. With the further layering of the tape, the figure becomes more and more corporeal as it picks up on the slow increase of the curvature" - Katzler A team used layers of conventional Scotch Tape to create the sinuous form between the concrete columns of the gallery. The tape lines were then covered inside and outside by layers of an elastic plastic sheeting to bind the structure together, forming a 50-metre-long network of cocooning passageways.

Source: https://www.dezeen.com/2014/10/31/numen-for-use-sticky-tape-paris-installation-palais-de-tokyo-cling-film/

Spiral Garden, Wacoal Art Center, Tokyo, Japan, 2013

“For us it is 100% important that the public can go inside and experience these works. Nowadays we write it in our contracts that the public has to be able to go inside during normal opening hours. When people see the installations most of them are curious, they want to go inside. But since you have to take your shoes off and crawl an all four it makes the social borders falling. They are starting to enjoy it together in a very communicative way although they often do not even know each other. This is nice! That’s why we like to see it in the public. Maybe it is somehow like in a different world and some rules do not count anymore for a while.”

Source: http://we-make-money-not-art.com/interview_with_numen_for_use/

How it’s made:

The tendons of multiple layers of transparent adhesive tape are firstly stretched in between a construction. The following continuous wrapping of tendons results in a complex, amorphous surface through the process reminiscent of growing of organic forms

Idea:

The idea for the installation originates in a set design concept for a dance performance in which the form evolves from the movement of the dancers between the pillars. The dancers are stretching the tape while they move, so the resulting shape is a (tape) recording of the choreography.

Source: https://www.dezeen.com/2010/06/17/tape-installation-by-for-usenumen-at-dmy-berlin/

What I like about it:

Organic form, looks like a spider’s web

Interactive

Unconventional use of material

Element of fear

Chiharu Shiota

Chiharu Shiota is a Japanese installation artist born in 1972 in Osaka. She has been living and working in Berlin since 1996. Shiota studied at the Seika University in Kyoto and at various schools in Germany. While in Germany, she studied with Marina Abramović.

Shiota's oeuvre links various aspects of art performances and installation practices. Mostly renown for her vast, room-spanning webs of threads or hoses, she links abstract networks with concrete everyday objects such as keys, windows, dresses, shoes, boats and suitcases. Besides installation works, she frequently collaborates with choreographers and composers such as Toshio Hosokawa, Sasha Waltz and Stefan Goldmann for opera, concert and dance projects.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiharu_Shiota

Sleeping is like Death, Galerie Daniel Templon, Brussels, 2016

Shaping her inner universe in a myriad of lines, she creates crossings that work as key points, either suspending and grasping objects, or as webs capable of generating chromatic surfaces and transparencies, which overlaps with shapes and light. In all circumstances, her artworks allow the inclusion of human beings in a spatial and immersive experience.

This time, A.R.M. visited the exhibition Sleeping is like death at the Daniel Templon Gallery, in Brussels. A site specific installation and performance about the body in its sleeping and dreaming state.

Webs woven from black threads come out of three hospital beds, extending into the space, as if invading it. They create a dim environment emphasized by the light that travels through their transparency. The undone beds and the white linens, mark the absence of a body and, at the same time, the dark web, with both round and angular movements, creates a graphic and pictorial mesh.

The exhibition also features small sculptures, which maintain the use of the webs, black or red, as well as drawings of the artist’s mental projections.

This gallery space now turned into immersive experience, welcoming the spectator’s physical and emotional presence, will host the works of Chiharu Shiota until the 20th of February 2016.

Source: http://artresearchmap.com/exhibitions/chiharu-shiota-sleeping-is-like-death_25/

youtube

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88pQ2GgqfYI

Interview with TL magazine

Another word: thread?

Threads are connectors. Each key is connected with the others, and each body, and each memory. In this other installation [showing the photo of people sleeping on beds surrounded by a net of interwoven black thread], when people sleep their dreams are also connected.

The beds?

I used beds because most people are born and die in a bed. Life begins and life ends in a bed, where all of us face dreams, sleep, fear, death…

Source: https://tlmagazine.com/chiharu-shiota-interview/

From her Nasty Magazine interview:

From a spectator’s point of view, seems like it takes a lot of time to assemble an installation and fill a room. Did it become a ritual for you? With every installation it is great to see it grow and being realized. I prefer not to build models and visualize an idea before the set up but to make it reality during the set up. This is the same for any installations, may it be with windows or beds or threads. Setting up the thread installations takes up an especially large amount of time but it is like meditation. The weaving of the thread can also be seen as an indicator of the current mind set – when I’m troubled the thread tangles up more irregularly and I make more knots. When I’m in a balanced mood, the weavings are more regular.

How long does it take to move from an idea to an installation? From first idea until the realized installation, it can take up to several years. The ideas need to grow inside me and at some point I know how I would like to realize it.

Source: http://www.nastymagazine.com/art-culture/interview-chiharu-shiota/

What I like about it:

Immersive experience

Ritualistic

Looks like it grew on its own, doesn’t look manmade

Henrique Oliveira

In the form of paintings, sculptures or installations, the hybrid art of Henrique Oliveira (b. 1973, lives and works in São Paulo) evokes both the urban and the vegetable, the organic and the structural, as well as art and science, through compositions in which the unexpected generates a universe tinted with the fantastic. Graduating from the University of São Paulo in 1997, the artist explores fluidity, the combination and color of materials, which endows his installations with a certain pictorial quality. Oliveira often borrows materials from the Brazilian urban landscape, notably tapumes, wood taken from fences surrounding and blocking access to construction sites. By using these materials, Oliveira highlights the endemic and parasitic nature of these constructions; evoking wooden tumors, his installations function as a metaphor for the favelas’ organic growth, thus revealing the dynamic decay of São Paulo’s urban fabric. In the artistic lineage of Lydia Clark or Hélio Oiticica, he uses the very context of this sprawling city as a raw material. The way in which it is treated, as well as its unexpected apparition, destabilizes the visitor’s perception of space.

Source: http://www.palaisdetokyo.com/en/event/henrique-oliveira

Baitogogo, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France, 2013

Creating a spectacular and invasive Gordian Knot, Henrique Oliveira plays with Palais de Tokyo’s architecture, allowing a work that combines the vegetal and the organic to emerge. The building itself becomes the womb that produces this volume of “tapumes” wood, a material used in Brazilian towns to construct the wooden palisades that surround construction sites.

Through a kind of architectural anthropomorphism, Henrique Oliveira reveals the building’s structure. At Palais de Tokyo, he plays on the space’s existing and structuring features, prolonging and multiplying pillars in order to endow them with a vegetable and organic dimension, as though the building were coming alive. The artist draws inspiration from medical textbooks, amongst others, and particularly from studies of physical pathologies such as tumors. Through a formal analogy, these outgrowths evoke the outermost layers of the bark of a common tree. The texture of this wooden tapumes installation inevitably calls to mind certain tree essences from Amazonian, humid tropical forests: the rivulets and other nodes constitute uncontrollable networks, in a logic that Man can no longer suppress.

Source: http://www.palaisdetokyo.com/en/event/henrique-oliveira

Henrique Oliveira - Beyond Brasility by Cauê Alves, 2013

The act of resorting to fragments of wood with different textures and tones was born from the internal necessity of the work. Oliveira's trajectory began in painting and, gradually, moved from the canvas to the three-dimensional space. Fencing installations are first of all large colour collages and boards that reinvent architectures and cause interference with the space. It is not, however, a linear and predetermined course, as if the arrival of expanded painting were an inevitable consequence that would have forced the artist to leave the canvas to rediscover the painting outside. The artist continued to make paintings on canvas and flat in parallel to those in which the public can enter and walk paths as if inside the guts and viscera. It is as if his pictorial installations reveal organs and structures. The organic and fluid appearance that Oliveira's works possess is not only an empty form, but it speaks volumes about contemporary life. Its installations bring about changes that presuppose the mobility of space, a kind of flexibility that characterizes the world today. They bring within themselves the flow of time and all that is fleeting. It is as if the architecture, after Oliveira's intervention, ceased to have a definite orthogonal shape. The plywoods adjust and act in space as swollen bubbles in the imminence of exploding, as if they were a viscous liquid that is always ready to drain and follow other paths. In a period in which what seems most stable in the world is the change itself, the non-permanent aspect, the instability, and the temporal dimension that these works present acquires a broad sense. The installations of Oliveira cause strangeness, there is something of a very particular dream and imaginary universe, but without losing the reality: like the palette of colours of the walls and the materiality of some buildings of the city.

Source: http://www.henriqueoliveira.com/portu/depo2_i.asp?flg_Lingua=1&cod_Depoimento=41

What I like about it:

Curves and round form

Entanglement

Use of wood and natural tones in contrast to man-made white interior

Looks like an unkempt root of a tree, it’s like an interruption to the building

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designmiast-blog · 8 years ago

Text

A Balancing Act

23 December 2017

A talk by Michael Anastassiades hosted by the Nicosia Pop Up at Theatre Polis OPAP.

Michael Anastassiades launched his studio in 1994 to explore contemporary notions of culture and aesthetics through a combination of product, furniture and environmental design. Positioned between fine art and design, his work aims to provoke dialogue, participation and interaction. He creates objects that are minimal, utilitarian and almost mundane, yet full of vitality one might not expect. Anastassiades’ work is featured in permanent collections at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Craft Council in London, the FRAC Centre in Orleans, France, and the MAK in Vienna. His solo exhibitions include Time and Again at the Geymüllerschlössel/MAK in Vienna, To Be Perfectly Frank at Svenskt Tenn in Stockholm, Norfolk House Music room at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Cyprus Presidency at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. One of the most recent exhibitions explores what Anastassiades calls the “contemporary anxieties of modern Cyprus” entitled Reload the Current Page at the Point Centre for Contemporary Art in Nicosia, Cyprus, and the collection General Illuminations, as part of the exhibition Doings on Time and Light at Rodeo Gallery, Istanbul.

He has designed products with various leading manufacturers including FLOS, Lobmeyr and Svenskt Tenn. In 2007 he set up the company Michael Anastassiades Ltd to produce his signature pieces; a collection of lighting, furniture, jewellery, and tabletop objects.

The studio’s philosophy is a continuous search for eclecticism, individuality, and timeless qualities in design. Michael Anastassiades trained as a civil engineer at London’s Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine before taking a masters degree in industrial design at the Royal College of Art. He lives and works in London.

Source: http://michaelanastassiades.com

His current work is very minimalist and clean

Mobile Chandelier 13, 2017

Mobile Chandelier 11, 2017

Arrangements, 2017

Arrangements is a modular system of geometric light elements that can be combined in different ways, creating multiple compositions into individual chandeliers. Each unit simply attaches onto the previous one as if resting, balancing perfectly as a part of a glowing chain.

Source: https://usa.flos.com/arrangements

Lit Lines, Floor Light 2, 2011

Floating Forest, 2015

Launching a new series of brass items, Michael Anastassiades supports Spring’s first green buds to sprout. Through the series of five hand made objects – the disk, the mobile, the clip, the cone and the see saw – Anastassiades captures the first few steps of the oak tree’s germination process. Each item delicately suspends the seed above the surface where it is encouraged to grow. The objects, made out of polished brass, are produced by hand and will be released throughout the year, starting with the cone which was first released in March. “A few years ago I saw an acorn vase by Estrid Ericson, produced by Svenskt Tenn. I loved the simple poetry of an object of that nature, growing a single acorn. It was the hope for early spring, especially coming from a country with such heavy and dark winters. I became obsessed with the simple idea of suspending a seed on the surface of water; submerged, just to the right level for it to germinate. All with the possibility of being able to support itself in the absence of soil, that would allow it to stand upright; exposed, all in clear view.” Source: https://www.yellowtrace.com.au/floating-forest-series-by-michael-anastassiades/

I was more fascinated by Anastassiades’ early work:

Dunne & Raby and Michael Anastsassiades, Hideaway Furniture Type 1, 2004-5

English Oak, Felt, Sliding and Pneumatic Mechanisms

Hideaway Furniture Type 1 is part of the Designs for Fragile Personalities in Anxious Times series. There are three versions. Like the other pieces in the collection, they are designed to meet irrational but real needs, in this case, a fear of alien abduction.

Source: http://www.dunneandraby.co.uk/content/books/88/0

Dunne & Raby and Michael Anastsassiades, Huggable Atomic Mushrooms, 2004

The Huggable Atomic Mushrooms are for people afraid of nuclear annihilation. Like treatments for phobias they allow for gradual exposure through different sizes.

Source: http://www.dunneandraby.co.uk/

Dunne & Raby and Michael Anastsassiades, Alignment

A wall mounted airbag that deploys when the planets are in the right position.

Source: https://designapproaches.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/dunne-raby-18/

Dunne & Raby and Michael Anastsassiades, S.O.C.D.

For people who are obsessed with watching porn. You must hold the handle for the screen to work. But if your pulse quickens, the screen becomes more pixelated. Therefore you must remain calm in the face of sexual temptation.

Source: https://designapproaches.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/dunne-raby-18/

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