About
As a designer and material researcher, I am motivated by the concept of Resonance – the continuous interaction with our environment, in which we both influence and are influenced by, and transform through, living and existing alongside one another. Through my work, I aim to establish a connection with our environment by stimulating sensitivities to the world around us. In doing so, I embrace the importance of embodied learning and explore the phenomenon and meaning of resonance.
With my background in product and spatial design, I combine field research, craftsmanship techniques, and experimental material research to design compositions in biodegradable materials that actively participate in living processes. My research focuses on the rippling structures in the plant domain, where I analyze, deconstruct, and reconstruct materials and substances to reveal hidden potential. By exploring and comparing natural anatomical structures and growth patterns, I create designs in bio-based textile objects and fashion that make visible the connections between human and non-human entities.
In my transition and development as a biodesigner, I want to discover what this role truly entails and position my own practice purposefully within the field of biodesign and biocouture. These innovative approaches link biology with fashion design and offer alternatives for textile production. I aim to focus on the hidden networks that connect us to living organisms, their origins, life cycles, and transformation processes. I do this by demonstrating in my research how humans and microorganisms can collaborate in creative processes. For example, when I carefully place a dissected fiber in a jar with water and am surprised by the fermentation process that emerges, I realize I am not creating it alone.
Working with textiles and fashion comes from my fascination with the structure of the human body, and how we receive, emit, and store embodied information from our environment. Textiles and fashion, for me, are powerful mediums as an intermediary layer through which our inner selves are connected with what happens outside of us. They show how we relate to our natural environment, both to other people and nature, and how we can interact with it consciously.
In my design process, I make conscious comparisons with my surroundings to better understand my position in the world. This allows me to comprehend my relationship to others, my societal role, and the spirit of our generation. I experience and observe how stress and tension from daily life affect our bodily tissue and how this manifests in muscle tension. As designer Bart Hess described it: visualizing the physical and emotional burdens that we, as humans, move through. The process of shaping provides me with the space to integrate and embrace this as a mirror for the processes I go through. By making something from my own world visible, a connection is created when others recognize themselves in it. The essence lies in my growth process as a designer, which determines the impact of the work.