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In this new Future Materials Encounters, we talk with artist and designers Jessie French and Kate Scardifield about algae and their use in the field or art, design, industry, and academic research. From Jessie’s and Kate’s stories, algae emerge as materials who can shift boundaries between disciplines, bridging different social realms and distant ecosystems. In this episode, you will learn about the embodied knowledges that are developed through a prolonged engagement with algae; about the ethics of scaling up artistic research; about the ways in which algae offer precious insights not only into environmental, but also into the cultural systems in which art and design operate.

Future Materials Encounters are a series of workshops and conversations around the materials of the Future Materials Bank. Each event in the series focuses on a specific material, staging a conversation between the maker and the audience.

The Future Materials Bank is an archive of materials that supports and promotes the transition towards ecologically conscious art and design practices. It is part of Future Materials, an initiative of the Nature Research department at the Jan van Eyck Academie.

www.futurematerialsbank.com