Eggshell ceramics conceptual tableware- meant to be composted at the end of use.
An original technique converted into an open-source curriculum. Credits- Ylem lab © 2021
Spending an unusual number of hours indoors has forced us to realize the importance of the outdoors. How beautiful and real our life can be beyond a home-office or a virtual classroom and how exhausting it is to stare at a screen for days at an end. It is clearer than ever that our mental and physical health greatly rely on human contact and a feeling of belonging to a community.
While we are faced with this truth, advancing technology continually weaves webs of isolation in our lives to ensure our increased engagement time on social media. If this is true, what is the kind of detached and unhealthy world we are leaving for the next generation? And how much control do they have over their future?
For the next generation to be able to sustain themselves, it is imperative to come together with nature, collaborate with her in order to shift to 100% renewable/ recycled resources or streams that are biologically regenerative. Not only are our current blueprints of cities a few centuries old and outdated, but so are the materials we build with. Construction, transportation, agriculture, manufacturing, consumer goods, fashion, etc., not one industry is responsible and capable of change. Unfortunately, deeply ingrained, stringent policies and systems make it seem like a complex and slow transition; one that the current generation has begun.
Having a creative professional background enables you to contribute in many ways. Spreading awareness and educating through eye-catching graphic and climate action art and even creation of activities and materials is extremely impactful. But while creating the tools to catalyze change that can be applied daily is challenging, it is also very crucial.
In Gelderland, Makers on the Move is on a mission to create impact by involving all stakeholders and enabling them to contribute to the green cause, by developing a hyper-local flow of disposable materials across industries with an immediate output in maker education. They collect and sort residual waste from local manufacturers and then process, experiment with and apply them in hands-on activities for children. They believe that making is learning and when you are thinking while using your hands, being physically busy with materials and tools, it influences your mind and develops an inventive personality.
Residual ceramic material collection from TCKI, a high-tech ceramic research centre.
Some brick varieties collected by Makers on the Move to experiment with from an artistic perspective.
Imagine using old bricks from demolished sites for an exciting lithography session. It not only exposes children to an ancient craft of stone printing but also draws their attention towards construction waste. Image creating ceramics from food waste like egg/oyster shells collected from neighbourhood restaurants. This not only helps them develop a new tangible but also directs them to think about food waste. Imagine reusing the metal from the thousands of bikes recovered from the Dutch canals to create artwork, not only building blacksmith skills but also awareness about the amount of metallic waste created globally.
Eggshell ceramics conceptual tableware- meant to be composted at the end of use.
An original technique converted into an open-source curriculum.
Such activities are media for children to touch, feel and internalise the building blocks of their environment; where these come from and where they can end up if there isn’t a generation-wide intervention. It aims to make them think with their hands, to create while they are driven by complex realisations, to expose them to making; making a structure, making a difference. It presents an alternative to having fun: non-tech, out there and life changing. A simulating way of teaching, this method looks at learning beyond books, giving the children an immersive, hands-on experience to explore their creative side and tickle and trigger their eco-conscious tendencies. It shows them how they can help in their own way and little by little, change the world.
Eggshell ceramics circular life-cycle
The awareness about climate change and acceptance to slowly transition to more sustainable sources have come a long way in small stages but there is still a long long way to go. The change is coming not through their own consciousness but by us, people who raise questions and demand better products, make policies shift, driven by a school of thought that only the multi-billion dollar corporations are not responsible for our future. We need to be our own heroes.
We need to train the next generation to not do things the same way, condition them towards sustainable living so that is their default way of functioning and their expectations of good, conscious operations change. Anything destructive to the planet must become a subject of critique and immediate discreditation and everything good for our planet must become the new, new normal.
Midushi Kochhar is a designer and material researcher who works between Amsterdam and New Delhi. With the mindset of solving problems by keeping the material first, she has co-founded Makers on the Move, Netherlands, which is an innovative educational program based on a hyper-local recycling system. Scientific process and an underlying theme of green design drive her creative practice called Ylem Lab and her latest projects have been exhibited at V&A Museum, London Design Festival, Architecht@Work and even at material libraries like Materiom and Material Driven.
Instagram
Ylem Lab
Makers on the Move
Website
Makers on the Move
This article is part of the MAHB Arts Community‘s “More About the Arts and the Anthropocene”. If you are an artist interested in sharing your thoughts and artwork, as it relates to the topic, please send a message to Michele Guieu, Eco-Artist and MAHB Arts Community coordinator: michele@mahbonline.org. Thank you. ~