Is pollution an external evil entity or a product of internalized cultural myths? This is one of the questions Rotterdam-based designer Gaia D’Arrigo poses through the fictional character CiucciaNebbia (literally translated as Fog-sucker). In conversation with Giulia Bellinetti, coordinator of the Future Materials programme, Gaia introduces the mythological figure of the Ciuccianebbia and the homonymous multimedia project. Following the Ciuccianebbia in its multiple manifestations, Gaia and Giulia discuss the potential of material research and multimedia storytelling in exploring the relationship between fiction and the plural realities surrounding consumerism, standardisation, and exhaustion.
Gaia D'Arrigo
is a Rotterdam-based interdisciplinary designer and artist originally from Milan, Italy. In her practice, she combines material research and storytelling to investigate anthropogenic environments, contaminated landscapes, and toxic phenomena. She researches the interaction of the environment, matter, and the human body, as well as cultural phenomena manifesting in the material realm. Her work is channeled through out unconventional material archives, functional art pieces, installations, and performances that challenge the relationship between design fiction and the narratives surrounding consumerism, standards, and exhaustion. Gaia contributed to the Future Materials Bank with her project CiucciaNebbia.
The podcast is part of a miniseries of Future Materials Encounters organized in the context of The Living Archive, the closing exhibition of the InnovatieLab programme, at the Dutch Design Week 2023.
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