The design project "What Has Been, Is, and Could Be" aims to change how we view nature
Students from the Design + Change programme are participating at Stockholm Furniture Fair with the exhibition "What Has Been, Is, and Could Be". Using the forest as an example, visitors are invited to engage in dialogue about our relationship with nature.
Through visualisation, the students demonstrate the communication occurring in the forest, or rather the communication that is hindered due to human impact on nature.
"The first thing one notices is that something is missing, which evokes a sense of sorrow over something that has been lost. However, by engaging in dialogue with the audience, we hope to transform this feeling of sorrow into something else, hope. Hope for what the future could look like, hope for how we can coexist with nature", describes Amanda Mattison, student on the programme.
The idea is to contribute to change through design.
"By using design as a tool, we create a platform where important topics can be discussed, and these dialogues can open up new perspectives and ideas on how we can contribute to a better future", Amanda continues.
See pictures from the opening
With this exhibition, the students want to highlight the need to reshape our relationship with the forest and to recognise that there may be more forms of communication in nature than we realise.
"Our goal is to create hope for a future coexistence with nature, by recognising the difference between 'being in nature', the nature that surrounds us, and 'being of nature', the nature that is us and who we are", Amanda explains.
The project was conducted as part of a design and pedagogy course and lasted for ten weeks. Now, the group looks forward to representing their programme and showcasing the hard work of these weeks.
"We are very proud of how the whole group has cooperated and how professional we have been in our commitment to creating a successful project. We are delighted to present our project at Stockholm Furniture Fair", Amanda concludes.
Students talk about the exhibition
Stockholm Furniture Fair runs from 6–10 February.