The goal of this project was to explore and develop methods for open archiving of socalled “new naturals”. “New” or “other” naturals are not a thing (yet). But we can see this concept being used in material archives, as container category for materials that don’t fit the traditional material families of wood, hide, metal, glass, plastics, stone, etcetera. New or other naturals is a left-over tag to indicate composite or otherwise hybrid materials made from renewable natural resources such as food waste, plant fibres etcetera.
The outcomes are threefold:
1) a number of documentation tools and templates that help us ask new questions when developing processes and combining materials;
2) a curated selection of recipes from best practices in labs all over the world, that offer a comprehensive starting point for exploring “new naturals” in e.g. (informal) learning contexts;
3) suggestions for structuring and building on this knowledge in open, collaborative ways, with critical considerations of technical, sensorial as well as cultural, historical and ecological aspects.
Final Project Fabricademy 2019-20 | #materialarchive #local #circular #biomaterial
