A Case For waste workshop
On Monday the 6th, Tatiana, Pippa and I ran a workshop with the title for our group A Case For Waste as part of our design intervention. The tool of a workshop was decided on because we felt it was the best way to interact with others about our topic and explore it ourselves. The premise for A Case For Waste was examining our current waste habits and understanding the role of biomaterials. The link to our Miro board which shows detailed process can be found below.
View Miro BoardPreparation before the workshop
In order to run the workshop, we prepared a presentation to use as a means for discussion, education, and to prompt us while we were talking. The presentation included takeaways and questions from our meeting with Anastasia, and open questions for discussion about personal waste, thoughts on biomaterials, how we live with our waste, etc. It included informational slides about waste specifically in Spain, what biomaterials are and could be used for, and recipes/breakdown of ingredients that we would be using. In order to have something to show participants and experiment with beforehand, my team and I each made 6+ biomaterials. We each had a different focus to try to get a wide variety, with Pippa focusing on food reuse, Tatiana with color, and myself with texture. We wanted the space to feel open and collaborative. We also created laser-cut wooden boards to display the ingredients and add a playful element to the workshop.
During the workshop
We ended up having 5 participants, 3 from Elisava and 2 from IAAC. Although they were all designers, each one came from a somewhat different background. As well, one was just starting her design journey and one was much further along on his academic path. While we were going through the slideshow and presenting information, it didn’t feel as though we were the teachers and them the students. It felt much more like an open dialogue which is what we aimed for. They all had valuable things to say and would jump in at points to offer their opinion. We ended up talking about large topics such as supply chains, our flawed designed waste and recycling systems, how much impact the consumer should/does have, varying types of waste, and what the realistic possibilities for waste replacement with biomaterials is. We then created a new biomaterial all together to put into practice what we had just learned.
After the workshop & reflection
The workshop overall, being the first one I had ever run, went very well. I was surprised by how smoothly it went and how the conversation went on. The group seemed really engaged which was nice and we definitely spent more time discussing the topics than I thought we would. The workshop went slightly different than I imagined, with more of it centering around discussions about waste than physically playing with/making biomaterials. We didn’t really use them to create “replacements” or sculptures like we were planning, however, I think it was ok as the participants still got to interact with the biomaterials. I feel that the workshop participants had a good time checking out the different materials we had made, asking questions about what we did to change the appearance in all of them. Upon reading the feedback participants gave us, I was happy to learn that they enjoyed and got insight from the talk and the more practical side of making.
