Material Futures
Central Saint Martins’ Material Futures is where science, technology and design collide. The 2021 graduation was presented online for those who could not travel to London and see the exhibition. Most projects explored the idea of waste and how alternatives can be created to produce less waste. Growing materials, mycelium and algae, to create new ways of dyeing and creating materials. Also consumerism and our behaviour towards products was a theme. Are we changing our production methods and influencing nature so that we don’t have to change our behaviour?
Rūta Irbīte
Each of us throw “away” 5 times our bodyweight of unwanted stuff per year. The current waste management systems in place to deal with this man-made material abundance are failing. Nature’s material systems are circular. In nature there is no waste as everything is food for another. Fungi are one of the main recyclers. This project is a personal investigation into the life and death of her unwanted material possessions and the digestive power of fungi as a solution. Should use the mushrooms' ability to change their DNA to solve our waste problem, or should we change our behaviour creating it instead?
Liene Kazaka
Myco Colour is a sustainable textile dyeing process of growing pigment, producing fungi directly on materials. Blue elf cup fungi can release a turquoise pigment into the object it is growing on - a property that holds a promise to completely eliminate the use of all chemicals in the textile dyeing process. Blue-green pigment produced by the mushroom has shown equal colourfastness measurements to commercial dyes allowing to imagine a future where fabric is coloured solely by living organisms.
Lars Dittrich
Sculpting With Air is proposing a new approach to shaping pure mycelium foam. The project investigates how design tools evolve beyond traditional technologies e.g. moulding when designing with living organisms. The material is grown in a growth chamber under special conditions of high humidity, high CO2 and ambient temperatures including a constant airflow.
Randa Kherba
Algear is a bio-alternative to constructing outdoor gear specifically for short-term use: made from nature, to be experienced in nature. This project contributes to the importance of the leave-no-trace code, through growing a material that naturally biodegrades and nourishes the land in the process, allowing for the conservation of an ecological future through our transient adventures outdoors.
Aastha Poddar
This project explores how traditional Indian block printing could become not just more sustainable, but actually carbon negative. Microalgae, a prolific, cheap and carbon-absorbing super power, could replace synthetic dyes and produce textiles that are not just true to the heritage and traditions of Jaipur, but could equally remediate the land and water and capture more carbon in the process of harvesting it than it emits.
Yu Chen
The burning of waste corn husks was common practice in China until it was recently banned due to the devastating atmospheric pollution it causes and the impact it has on human lives. However, with farmers creating millions of tonnes each year, and with no obvious methods for disposing of it, this vast waste stream is becoming a serious issue for rural communities. Historically, corn husk waste, due to its low cost, high volume and its naturally water repellent properties, was woven to create simple and cheap raincoats and hats for agricultural workers. This project, Informaize, explores how this waste stream could be utilised to replace another problematic Chinese waste product: the single-use plastic rain poncho.