A collection of experiments, speculative projects, and writings that explore possible futures in food, material ecologies, and augmented sensing.
Fermenting the Landscape
I participated in a week-long residency at Domaine de Boisbuchet, where I foraged edible ingredients from the immediate landscape and explored how to integrate them with local market produce through various fermentation techniques. Some of the techniques included lacto-fermentation, simple pickling, and growing koji as the base culture for dishes,
At the end of the week, after many iterations of prototypes, I hosted an interactive dinner experience, where participants were invited to taste, smell, and touch the ingredients.
The motivation of this project stems from my interest in fermentation as a process of working with bacteria to create microbiomes of preservation and highlight the porosity between organisms on a macrobiotic level. Fermentation can also be understood as a practice of preserving human cultures, passed down through generations.
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In collaboration with Signe Ferguson
Beyond Food: Exploring Future Food Scenarios, Domaine de Boisbuchet
This was an experiential installation that asked people to reconsider their relationship to water through the exploration of future scenarios around water harvesting and distribution systems.
The experience culminated in three rituals. For the first ritual, participants walked across a bridge activated sonically by bells towards an altar of water purifiers hung on tree.
The second ritual involved evoking scent and touch through a cleansing ritual. Natural incense made from foraged herbs in the surrounding landscape were burned throughout the ritual.
Finally, the third ritual centered around offering. Using water in an all its three states—liquid, gas and solid. The third was about solidifying, hence liquid waters in the shape of rocks were presented to the participants on a leaf, distributed on log podiums around the site.
Material Futures [Ongoing Explorations]
The New Food Chain
Every year, 6.4 million tons of plastic gets thrown in the ocean and micro-plastics have been found in 114 aquatic species, causing brutal deaths and genetic mutations. The New Food Chain is an experiential design project that tries to evoke awareness in the participants about the urgency of the earth’s plastic crisis, humanity role in this ecological destruction, and the interspecies harm that ultimately impacts us, too. The pop-up experience uses immersive gaming, food, and cross-modal experience design as touch points for raising these questions.
Poetry of Decay
Poetry of Decay is a conceptual look-book of textile prints inspired by the dilapidated yet beautiful interiors of the Ballhaus Grünau—an abandoned dance hall in East Berlin, built in 1890. This work is an exploration of the relationship between space, memory,
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In collaboration with Lauren Kim
Visions of the Chthulucene [Collage Series]
Palate Palette [Product Design]
In collaboration with Dianne Kim
Food Pop-ups, Lady Marmalade Studio
RMB CITY: Between Real and Fictional Urban Spaces
[Read abstract here]
Beijing East Village
[Read abstract here]
Spatial Refraction
Spatial Refraction is an installation piece that is structurally inspired by the fractal properties of muqarnas, a form of ornamented vaulting in Islamic architecture. The hand-cut mirrors in the walls of each fractal structure creates visual distortion. The viewer becomes aware of their perception in relation to
the installation through the reflections
and refractions of space through
the mirrors.
Cerebral Prosthesis
Prosthesis is defined as an artificial device to replace or augment a missing or impaired part of the body. This piece examines the transformative and enhancement possibilities of the prosthetic. It is a helmet with ridges that visually represent brain waves, that one can adjust in accordance to mental state, in efforts to calm anxiety.
Color and Spatial Study of Workplace Design, Bjarke Ingels Group 2016