S T U D I O · I I¶
The first term involved a lot of feelings of being lost, trying to understand what subjects interest me, letting go of control and learning and moving forward by doing. Keeping an open mind and accepting the feeling of being lost were two of the most useful insights during the first term. By letting go of trying to control what we were gonna do and with who and how it would look and act etc, letting go became fuel for the project where lots of new contacts were made, and new opportunities arose. The term was compact with different courses that helped explore subjects from different perspectives. During the term I have personally worked on understanding my passions, communicating what I am good at within a group and practicing to communicate projects and thoughts verbally with contacts to find opportunities of intervention.
The interventions that we did during the first term were a good way to use different channels and target groups to understand the subject from a broader perspective. Due to the time restrictions the interventions were lacking in depth and true time for deeper collaborations with communities. We had a thought of being able to connect on a deeper level with Food not bombs, to be able to try more things etc but it takes time to gain trust within a group and community. From Design Dialogues we got good feedback on how to proceed with investigating and understanding through which of these channels of people and communities we can create the most value.
My Design Space remians very much the same as it did in the first term, where Regenerative Design lies in the centre. I have accompanied this Design space with a linear visualisation of how the different topics interact with eachother.
During the second term I want to keep volunteering and working with Food not Bombs and Esperanca. There are connections between these organisations that can be interesting to keep working on together. I personally want to keep working with Bio Materials and waste as a hands on part of projects, as well as explore more with AI. Through the different activities the we got a good horizontal understanding of the subject. One of common links between all of the activities and target groups were sorting, storing and serving food and food waste. When working with Food Not Bombs, we might have had design in mind too early in the process, where it took longer time to gain trust within the community to actually start working together on some of the difficulties the organisation has with reaching intended target groups and logistics. We saw early on within the collaboration that they had problems with storage solutions for distribution of extra food. We started brainstorming about how to use food waste as packaging within the organisation as we also knew of upcoming laws in countries where restaurants have to ask if you want to take home your leftover food, wondering about how to make single use packaging. What happens when the UK bans single use plastics? What will happen to street food and the way that we eat? How will
From a horizontal investigating and researching phase to understand the subject of food from different perspectives and target groups we got a broad overview of the subject of food and food waste. We found some areas that could be interesting to keep working with, such as the subject of packaging and materials. How can we apply bio materials to packaging and take away or single use products? What happens to existing systems when single use plastics and products are banned?
Paraphernalia around food (everything around a subject of food for example or waste, accessories etc)- How can we work with secondary materials that aren’t edible? Could secondary materials become a part of packaging? Creating a Second Cycle Everything, second use of food and where the waste becomes viable again.. What can we learn from systems around the world in different times and cultures? How have others get food on mass in remote/ difficult places? Looking at Tiffans in India, the system of transporting large amounts of lunchboxes to difficult locations. The emergence of this and the proudness there is around it.
Alongside the extended work with waste and the channel food waste, I want to work with the subject of water. I started to understand during the first term that the subjects of food, water and energy are core subjects of interest. After the course Living with your own ideas I followed my water consumption during 24 hours looking at grey water, water usage from things I ate and wore and found the large amount of water consumption we use individually. When reflecting on how I could reduce this consumption the insight of how many invisible systems there are that I cannot myself choose to use or not and how hard it is to find information about it. I am at the moment exploring different ways to approach this broad subject, but seek to again be open minded about areas of intervention where a fluid process can lead to unexpected opportunities.
Starting the term I am therefor exploring different perspectives and systems of water. I’ll be visiting and investigating contacts and learning from how The Ocean Race and the event alongside it works, investigating possible collaborations and contacts. In the end of January I will together with some others interested in water, be going to the Waste Water Management in Barcelona to visit the centre and see how the city works with this. In December I visited a wastewater management outside of Gothenburg Sweden. This can be a great opportunity to look at similarities and differences between countries that have opposite relationships to water, where Gothenburg aims to become the best rain city and Spain and Barcelona are in long periods of drought.
As a prolonging of these subjects I’m continuing to work in the group where we are creating a Bio Design Dinner Experience, working with Bio Materials to create tableware and objects from the same materials with a special focus on the subject of ocean and plastic waste. The participants will be an interdiscplinary group of individuals with a background in this subject. while reading a performative dinner experience using these and eating the same materials.
B I O D E S I G N D I N N E R
Within the project we have kept experimenting with Bio Materials and different waste streams to find a material to fit the theme of oceans and the natural materials that exist there.
During the first term when working with food waste and Bio Materials I experimented with a recipe of coRncrete, where I mixed cornflour, water and different types of food waste to create a very hard concrete like material. The original recipe is with the additive sand which I have now incorporated and will be experimenting with to create tableware for the dinner.
CoRncrete is a very interesting material that is very hard and durable, yet before heating it is completely dry and doesn’t hold the form at all. What I have experienced so far it that it has been hard to find moulds that are suitable to be able to put quite high pressure on the material without the mould deforming while still being very thin, as this makes the material harden in the best way in the microwave. I’ll therefor be further experimenting and investigating different types of moulds in various sizes and materials to be able to create plates in various forms and sizes.
We have also experimented with switching the sand with Calcium Carbonate in pure powder which creates a fine finsih, but is not as strong, so we’ll be looking at different ratios in the recipe. Furthermore we have been in contact with different restuarants that can provide us with seashells from their waste which we will also be using to experiment with this recipe.
Alongside investigating form with Corncrete I’ve been experimenting with coating with Shellac. We want to see if we could use this as a food safe water resistant coating to Bio Materials.
O C E A N & P L A S T I C
Every Saturday I have been volunteering together with Sami at the beach clean up in Barceloneta that is organised by Clean Beach Initiative. It started out as a part of the Bio Design Dinner project to understand how organisations in the neighbourhood work with ocean waste and gathering communities to clean the beach.
It was for me a wonderful experience to meet people at the beach every Saturday and has become therapeutic when wandering Barceloneta solely focusing on the small colorful pieces of waste in the sand.
Although a great experience in the moment for my own peace of mind it is also an eyopening experience. Looking at the beach in Barceloneta during this time of year, it can at first glance look quite clean although there is visible trash in places. It is when looking down that the colorful small pieces of microplastics become visible and as soon as you zoom in it’s impossible to stop because its never ending. What becomes even worse is when thinking that most pieces are small parts of shells that would be a natural part of sand and then realizing that most of them are pieces of plastic.
Clean Beach Initiative organizes beach clean ups every Saturday and provide bags and gloves for collection. They arrange people in groups to clean on different parts of the beach. Everything collected is then sorted and weighed to therafter be recycled or thrown away. Those who want then go to a bar around the corner and have a drink together. The bar always has a table reserved for the group, regardless of how full the terrace is.
From the first experience we realised the amount of small microplastics in the sand and how hard it is to collect these pieces, regarding the amount and with gloves. The second time we went we started experimenting with different types of nets to siv the sand and collect a larger amount of small pieces.
We’re experimenting with different forms and how this could be integrated in the practice to collect more in the same amount of time. We also want to look at what can be done with the waste or if we can integrate other communities in the practice.
W A T E R
The subject of water is broad and I am yet to find exactly where within this area I am the most interested and where to intervene. My overall points of interest have been to understand the water systems in the city of Barcelona and to communicate where people can find information about this wide subject to themselves understand the resource we so often take for granted.
To create change and awareness in behaviours through an artefact that can collect greywater to be reused.
To start out with understanding water systems in Barcelona we visited the waste water plant in el Prat de Llobregat where we got to see how wastewater goes through the plant and where it goes. This plant receives a large part of Barcelonas greywater and storm water. These two streams are mixed and arrive at the water plant where they go through several stages of treatment, where one part goes to the sea and a second part goes through and extra treatment and is then repurposed to cleaning streets, filling fountains and water urban plants in the city.
It was interesting to hear that greywater and storm water were mixed and then going through the water plant where they have different quality and are then mixed. In many places storm water is stored in cities to be used directly to water urban plants for example. So why is energy being used to move storm water that is clean enough for plants together with grey water that needs to be treated before it can return into the natural water cycle? The waste water plant treats .. of water every day. It has a loop system where the slam from the water is used to mkae biogas that runs the plant. With heavy rain and flooding the plant is under large pressure and releases water with lower quality into the sea.
Could this be escaped by decreasing the amount of grey water entering the water plant?
M A T E R I A L I N V E S T I G A T I O N S
During this second term we had the course Remixing Materials where I together with Cagsun and Claudia experimented with Shellac as an alternative to silicone, using it as a sealant and adhesive in different ways. Shellac has historically been used for these purposes, but along with new technologies and synthetic adhesives such as silicone, that is easier to use, it is now mostly used for woodwork etc.
Along with the overall concept of creating a system that collects water and uses clay to filter or absorb the water to also be space for plants I have continued to experiment with Shellac, implementing it as a coating to unprocessed and unfired clay to investigate if it could bring water resistant properties to the material and in that case be used as a water sealant when 3D printing with clay for example.
I worked with a ratio of Shellac and Alcohol with a very rinny constistancy to be able to paint the pieces of clay with the mixture. They were coated with different layers to be able to test if there are differences in water resistance.
Although it increases the water resistance, it doesn’t completely make the clay water proof. After 12 hours with water inside, it still holds it form somewhat and doesnt complelty dissolve as it naturally would, but it does deteriorate enough to not be able to hold water.
F I L T E R S
