Materials and methodologies

The Workshop’s methodologies were closely tied to the materials used, which were primarily pre-selected from refrigeration systems and household appliances available at Interecycling. To establish a common ground for collective work, the Workshop started with two Studio Sessions: Session 1 introduced a series of performative exercises created to explore negotiation and perspective-taking. The main exercise was a speculative personification game, in which students, divided into pairs, embodied various landscape situations as well as human and non-human entities, voting on key decisions from the perspective of their assigned entity, and creating a network of uneasy shared positions and interdependencies rather than a linear problem-solving approach. This uncomfortable ’embodied role-playing’ helped define key questions and operative concepts, leading to a common ground for the future collective project development. Session 2, built upon these questions and concepts, guided students through a new set of exercises such as mapping similarities of concerns, concept sketching, voting, and collective negotiation. Through a structured yet open-ended approach, the group arrived at a shared understanding and collaboratively defined the direction for a single collective project.

Results and observations

Given the condensed four-day timeframe, which also included the final exhibition setup, all Studio exercises were created to quickly align, over two morning sessions, 10 students (from four different international schools, with varying levels of experience) around a shared set of concerns and understandings, rather than initially focusing on a specific design or project outcome. The emphasis was placed on the public experience the project aimed to provoke, rather than on a singular formal resolution. Only in the subsequent phase did experimentation emerge at the intersection of shared concerns, pre-selected materials and objects, and the exhibition space. At this stage, students were granted a high of autonomy, making independent decisions regarding the final installation, while the coordinator’s role was primarily to manage time and facilitate minor interventions in group discussions. Through collective discussions and hands-on experimentation, the final installation organically emerged, mapping and interweaving narratives of concern, exploitation, consumption, and indifference.