Outro

Proposals for Next Level

When we assess and combine the output of each individual artistic research project, the full project becomes an indicator of how knowledge development on material aesthetics, digitalization and sustainability relate and could be analysed from a joint perspective in terms of reaching a ‘next level’.

Designers’ ability to build relatable and engaging narratives through material aesthetics is a key factor if we are to succeed in prolonging product lifetimes, optimizing usage, minimizing resource use and reducing overconsumption, and here digital means and expressions will grow in impact and blend with traditional ones. Therefore, explorations into linkages between digital means and possibilities, aesthetic narratives and sustainable strategies are relevant to pursue for the future. In this pursuit, designers and companies have a dual responsibility: they must re-direct aesthetics from its role as a tool for promoting a buy, use and throw away culture in order to appropriate aesthetics for a buy/borrow/lend, use, love, keep or share culture. Furthermore, they must realize and address that any material decision has a potential impact on the world. Materials come with consequences, somewhere and for someone, when they are extracted, processed and transported globally.

On a practical next level, we find that establishing a materials explorations laboratory between ECCO and Design School Kolding, a kind of ‘Minding Materials Space’, could anchor the joint ambition within material innovation and design, which obviously exits on both sides. The space could function as a place for securing, hosting and studying material endeavours and activities and making them visible to the world online and through direct engagement.

References

Material Pathways

[1] Ræbild, U., & Hasling, K. M. (2019b). Shoe Matter—Shoe(s) Matter(s). In Love Shoe. Hate Shoe: Design School Kolding + ECCO. Designskolen Kolding

[2] Hasling, K. M., & Ræbild, U. (2017). Sustainability Cards: Design for Longevity. Proceedings of PLATE 2017 – Product Lifetimes and the Environment, 166–170. Delft, the Netherlands.

[3] Ræbild, U., & Hasling, K. M. (2018). Sustainable Design Cards: A Learning Tool for Supporting Sustainable Design Strategies. In K. Niinimäki (Ed.), Sustainable Fashion in a Circular Economy (pp. 128–151). Helsinki: Aalto University.

[4] Cooper, T. (2005). Slower Consumption—Reflections on Product Life Spans and the “Throwaway Society.” Journal of Industrial Ecology, 9(1–2), 51–68.

[5] Ræbild, U., & Hasling, K. M. (2019a). Experiences of the Sustainable Design Cards: Evaluation of applications, potentials and limitations. Fashion Practice: The Journal of Design, Creative Process & the Fashion Industry. https://doi.org/10.1080/17569370.2 019.1664026