KOOZ The School of Phyto-centred Design, this year’s Design Campus summer program in Dresden, Germany, invites participants “to discover and get inspired by the vegetal world and to imagine new design approaches that could benefit all beings without distinction.” Studio d-o-t-s, how do you aim to explore the decarbonisation of the practice of design throughout the program?

STUDIO D-O-T-S Inherently human-centric, all design-related industries—from fashion and product design to furniture making—rely extensively on extractivist and monocultural production methods that cause environmental pollution, waste and destruction. This system does not respect, in any way, the ecosystems or the communities—of humans and other-than-humans—who depend on their good health to live and thrive. The School of Phyto-centred Design advocates for approaches that are more respectful and sincere towards other animals, plants and landscapes and promotes a holistic vision of design that adopts a multi-species perspective. The six hands-on workshops and the three lectures that compose The School of Phyto-centred Design curriculum are about raising awareness on our interdependency through explorative & critical thinking. The summer school invites participants to be curious, slow down and think twice.

In terms of the decarbonisation of design, we are sceptical. Whether it is the practice of buying CO2 credits or the efforts—sometimes, simply the declarations—of companies to reduce their CO2 emissions, the truth is that design industries operate in a globalised market that pushes them to over-produce, over-waste and over-exploit. Instead, we believe in activism and education and in the implementation of small-scale and diversified practices that favour strong local and multicultural networks, both human/human and human/non-human.

KOOZ Beyond The Manifesto of Phyto-centred Design, the exhibition Plant Fever, which will be on display on-site during the summer school at Kunstgewerbemuseum Dresden, examines the hidden potential of plants through the presentation of around 50 international projects from the fields of product design, fashion and new technologies. How does the selection challenge disciplinary boundaries and lay the framework for the multidisciplinary, multicultural, and collaboration the workshop advocates for? Could you maybe isolate 1 or 2 case studies which impacted the way your approach design in its broadest sense?

STUDIO D-O-T-S We conceived the exhibition Plant Fever between 2017 and 2020, with multidisciplinarity, multiculturalism and collaboration in mind. The exhibition features projects by designers, artists, and engineers whose research was nourished by biologists, philosophers and anthropologists from different geographies—Slovenia, Poland, The Caribbean area, India, Mexico, Italy, The Netherlands… The idea was to showcase a variety of perspectives on the plant kingdom. The online journal that accompanied the exhibition was also a platform to expand further this plurality of perspectives. The School of Phyto-centred Design naturally follows this attempt.

KOOZ Emma Bruschi, your intervention titled “The Harvest” will unfold during the first term of the programme and will see you and the participants “conceive and produce garments and accessories using raw plants collected in the vicinity of Pillnitz Park & Palace.” What is for you the value in taking such “simple” local materials and transforming them into wearable elements?

EMMA BRUSCHI To use raw materials found around us already has a strong educational aspect. We often overlook the fact that garments have their origins in plants and animals. The complex processes involved in creating a garment tend to overshadow its natural beginnings. I think we need to put nature back at the heart of textiles. Understanding how to use the resources around us is a good way of doing this. You soon realise that by learning a few primitive gestures you can already create volumes and surfaces. It's also a huge creative opportunity, as you can choose to create your own fibres and materials, leaving the field wide open for creativity.

KOOZ Fernando Laposse, within the first term of the workshop, “Avocado Legacy” will focus on the “globalised” market of the avocado to piece together the complex elements of the current environmental crisis. What is the value of looking at the avocado in a context as that of Dresden? What is the importance of understanding the global systems of food production and consumption?

FERNANDO LAPOSSE I think that if you can get a ripe avocado in Dresden at all times of the year it shows how far-reaching our food supply chains are in today's hyper globalised world.

To truly understand global food systems you have to look back at colonial history. Our modern-day food trade flows in the same direction as they did centuries ago, Latin America and Africa—"the Global South"—continue to be the pantry of Europe and the USA—"the Global North”. Let me tell you this, you will never find a potato from Dresden in a Mexican supermarket! I believe this post-colonial unchained capitalism is unfair, cruel, violent, and detrimental to us all. The last massive ecosystems are still in the global south, and we are losing them at an unprecedented rate. One of the biggest causes of deforestation in Latin America is agricultural production, yet most of this food is exported to richer countries and much of this produce is non-essential novelty crops. The avocado is the ultimate example of this, as it has become a sort of conspicuous luxury, a wealth indicator denoting that one has the means to eat healthy exotic fruits from across the globe. Without a deeper understanding of the complexity, destructiveness and violence of this trade it is easy to become part of the problem, perhaps it's something to think about on your next Sunday brunch...

KOOZ The second term of the workshop will be dedicated to “Shifting Perspectives” and participants will engage in participatory practices to explore a diverse relationship with nature. How do “Greenhouse Grooves” and “The Embodied Garden”—through sound and performance, respectively—seek to question the canonical perspective of the vegetable world whilst reframing our relationship to this?

PASSEPARTOUT DUO The idea that sound is everywhere has been put at the forefront of a lot of music practices since the 20th century, maybe in a most renowned way by John Cage. While thinking of new ways to build more respectful relationships with plants, it seems natural to look at their sonic dimension, not by instrumentalizing them but trying to learn from them. For this reason, the work of the duo has shifted in recent years to using other kinds of frequencies, for example in the electromagnetic world, something that we have been exploring with sound installations and by building functional musical instruments. To think about plants has brought us to think differently also about our music tools, not as mere objects but as performers that accompany us on stage, on travel and more. During this workshop, we would like to explore some natural materials, some textile fibres but also some electronic elements to try to imagine new alliances of the plant and music world. We are also intrigued by the ways that different people’s imagination has been employed to visualise imaginary plants and their supposed behaviours. By exploring similar visual material from the Museum’s collection, we will create a group performance using the creations.

KOOZ The final term will be focused on giving back. Specifically, the project “Weaving Nettle Tales” will practise this balance between extraction and returning through the making of teas for the soil and for yourselves. ERBA, beyond the ritual of the tee, how does the workshop seek to reframe the traditional understanding and execution of design as a discipline which is focused on the satisfaction of human needs and wishes? To what extent does the workshop question the very practice of design and agency of the designer?

ERBA When we love something or someone, we care for them and protect them. Sometimes we wonder, do we forget to love the soil? Within our practice we strive to include the environment as an active component in design decision making. How will our decisions be influenced when we listen to the soil, its inhabitants, their needs and desires? Following the example of seasonal cycles, we propose a re-consideration of our relation to abundance and scarcity. In times of a seemingly constant acceleration and accessibility of produced goods, we would like to unfold those acts of extraction and recover the reciprocal relations that lie at its roots. In the workshop we explore different needs and desires through experimentation with the embodied practice of brewing, making use of smell and taste as our core tools. We will also visit local community gardens to observe ways of sharing soil, care and protection. Together we host a gathering in which our considerations are composted, combining layers of old and new knowledge in which listening, nourishment and wonder about otherness are continuously celebrated.

Bio

d‑o-t‑s is a nomadic curatorial practice founded by Laura Drouet [FR] and Olivier Lacrouts [IT/FR]. The duo’s investigations focus on the diverse and questionable relationships that – through design – human communities establish among themselves, with other animals, plants, and landscapes. Defined by the participatory and interdisciplinary approach, d‑o-t‑s’ work spans writing, exhibition-making, hands-on workshops, and design commissions. Their on-going and upcoming projects include: the touring exhibition Plant Fever (Kunstgewerbemuseum Dresden, 2023 & 2024); the book Greenhouse Stories (Onomatopee, 2023); the short movie & publication Stork Fictions (summer/​autumn 2023).

Emma Bruschi graduated from the Haute école d’art et de design (HEAD) in Geneva with a Masters in Fashion and Accessories Design in 2019. As fashion designer, she won the 19M Prix des Métiers d’art de CHANEL at the 35th Festival international fashion, photography, and fashion accessories and Hyères 2020 with its Almanach collection. Raw materials, craftsmanship, know-how, transmission, and experimentation are at the heart of Emma Bruschi’s work.

Fernando Laposse (Mexico) is a designer with a degree in product design from Central St. Martins. His practice is material driven and focuses on transforming humble natural fibres such as corn husks, sisal, or loofah into design pieces and new architectural materials.

Simone Kenyon (UK) is a Scottish based artist and movement practitioner. Her transdisciplinary practice embraces the complex interrelationships of movement, people, and place. Her approach and practice works with ideas of expanded choreographies; encompassing dance and performance, ecologies and the more- than-human, cultural geographies, and walking arts.

Passepartout Duo’s work investigates the way in which we listen to and connect with sound. Reassessing the tools they use to create music, the group is continually developing a specialized and evolving ecosystem of handmade musical instruments that have ranged from analog electronic circuits and conventional percussion, to room-size textile installations and found objects.

ERBA is a moving food studio initiated by Austrian designer Philipp Kolmann and Dutch artist Suzanne Bernhardt which unfolds narratives of smell and taste surrounding the culture of sweetgrasses. At the heart of ERBA’s research lays the sweetgrass family and the various communities that all around the globe base their sustainability and growth on grains.

Federica Zambeletti is the founder and managing director of KoozArch. She is an architect, researcher and digital curator whose interests lie at the intersection between art, architecture and regenerative practices. In 2015 Federica founded KoozArch with the ambition of creating a space where to research, explore and discuss architecture beyond the limits of its built form. Parallel to her work at KoozArch, Federica is Architect at the architecture studio UNA and researcher at the non-profit agency for change UNLESS where she is project manager of the research "Antarctic Resolution". Federica is an Architectural Association School of Architecture in London alumni.