Aart van Bezooijen: I am happy to experience the diversity through life and work in different institutions and countries. I enjoyed the Netherlands for being a very open minded and design-oriented country. A good example is the yearly Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven which is being visited by hundreds of thousands of visitors from all ages, disciplines and cultures. In Germany, being almost ten times bigger, the design landscape is less condensed and more clustered within its federal states. Being able to combine my life and (net)work, travelling days filled one-third of my yearly agenda. Here in Bolzano (family) life and work comes together and I look forward in getting to know fellow creative professionals. Also, I am very interested in expanding my network with regional industries and local crafts for future collaborations.

Buildings made of concrete, bottles made of plastic, smartphones filled with electronics… materials define how we build, enjoy and interact with the world around us. Working with well-known materials and processes allow us to predict its outcomes and might even be a way to preserve tradition and skills, as we see in crafts. On the other hand, new or unconsidered materials have the potential to inspire and enable new ways of making and thinking. I consider myself an optimist and see materials as key ingredients in moving towards a more sustainable society.

The publication gives a good impression of how I have been working with a creative team, staff members and students at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design for over eight years. We explored educational methods focused on material and technology transfer for artists and designers such as the “Material of the Month” series, where we regularly presented a selected, hereafter often sponsored material – making it freely available for students of all art and design courses. The publication highlights a public materials collection and a self-made approach to materials and tools making it possible to adapt or intervene, opening new dimensions in the process of creation.

This semester I am running a “Design & Production” course. Within this course I am supporting a do-it-yourself approach to materials and making and hope to motivate and facilitate the students to experience that (still) everything is possible. Especially in times of corona, we need to support practices where we are thinking in opportunities and alternative ways of making and doing.

Unfortunately, we won’t be able to do a lot of factory tours but hope to get in touch with the local manufacturing industry to see how products are being made in South Tirol.

During my training as an Industrial Design Engineer at the Delft University of Technology has shown me the importance of designers as necessary collaborators in a world of highly specialized disciplines. Many of today’s challenges are related to climate change and require a multi-disciplinary approach to make sure that the right answers (and questions) are considered. History has shown that we cannot repair our planet with technological fixes. Developments such as renewable energy or smart materials require acceptance among citizens and industries need to be involved in getting scientific research on the market. In this context I see artists and designers as valuable change makers by visualizing and facilitating the discussion on which kind of future(s) people want or do not want. To work on the intersection or art, design and science I also look forward in getting to know colleagues from other faculties to enable more interdisciplinary research.

The book brings documents a selection of the people, places and things we encountered during a six-month journey around the world. Having experienced the various local conditions and cultural diversity gave us a better understanding of the context that made sustainable initiatives grow or sometimes not work at all. For instance, the use of renewable materials may sound very positive but once you’ve been driving for hours along endless palm oil plantations, the related deforestation and monocultures in Malaysia bring us a different story. Within my learning projects sustainability issues are no specialized theme but considered in all aspects. This means sharing experiences with the students in finding sustainable alternatives by rethinking materials. This can be hands-on recycling of domestic waste, exploring urban mining within a circular economy, researching the possibilities of bio-fabrication, or even growing materials ourselves. Sustainability has everything to do with taking care about our future generations, therefore it feels very appropriate to work and share with the creative change makers of tomorrow.

photo credits: Julia Knop

(vic)