Manon van Hoeckel - In Limbo Embassy - Man and Leisure
In ‘In Limbo Embassy’ Manon van Hoeckel looks at the perceptions surrounding asylum seekers. She worked with groups of people whose applications for asylum have been rejected, and delved into what their illegal status means on a social level.
In her embassy for the unrepresented, ambassadors – who are themselves refugees – create a space for dialogue, cultural exchange and even legal work. ‘Printed Matters’ is a confronting series of portraits of the embassy ambassadors. The portraits can be sold by people with no work permit under freedom of the press laws.
Olivier van Herpt - Functional 3D Printed Ceramics - Man and Activity
Olivier van Herpt is fascinated with manufacturing. He started by researching the differences between the man-made and the machine-made and then designed and programmed a printer/extruder to bridge this gap. By fine-tuning the settings on his machine, he can vary the textures, surfaces, shapes and sizes of the finished products.
Alix Bizet - Hair Matter(s) - Social Design
Tamed, shaved, dyed or straightened, hair is a material that has been long used by humans to construct a portrait. Human hair is shaped to be a social indicator between individuals to communicate their status and cultural affiliations. Although hair’s original state is characterized by richly diverse texture and colors, our idea of hair has been steadily standardized over the years by the beauty products industry, media, and social conventions, making it akin to a uniform.
Hair can also be thought of as a vector through which individuals fight time passing by concealing the onset of greyness and thinness, or a means to hide their heritage or even rebel against globalized notions of acceptability and beauty. The material qualities and styles of hair can place the individual in or outside norms via classification of the wanted or unwanted hair, these in turn can correspond to what is considered perfect or imperfect individuals.
While researching hair and its various structures, I tried to find specific techniques and scenarios for every hair type by creating designs where all hairs are wanted and needed for their specificity and structural qualities.
You can say we are in a time of crisis, in which intolerance and prejudice begin with judgment of one’s natural hair qualities, or style. This project offers hair as a platform for understanding, as a medium to talk about diversity of individuals and how it is essential to address the subject of democracy and an equality of all hairs in society.