ZHdK students are completing internships in Empa laboratories

(CONNECT) As part of the "Artists in Labs" master's programme, the ZHdK and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (Empa) have given two industrial design students in the Transdisciplinary Studies in the Arts programme the opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of scientific research. For two months, Madeleine Hykes was a guest at the Urban Energy Systems Lab, and Karya Anliak was a guest at the Cellulose & Wood Materials Lab. The goal of this programme is to foster an intensive dialogue between design and science.

Madeleine Hykes used art to make systemic issues in energy policy tangible. “Madeleine brought entirely new perspectives to our projects,” Georgios Mavromatidis, head of the Urban Energy Systems Lab, is quoted as saying in an Empa report. “Her artistic approach encouraged us to view energy and cities through a more human lens. She challenged us to think differently about the questions we ask and how we communicate our work.”

After her internship, the Hykes Laboratory invited her to supplement its academic presentation at a conference in Graz with her insights on sufficiency and sustainable transformation. “The effort required to integrate the art student into the lab was modest compared to the added value she generated,” Mavromatidis concludes.

At the Cellulose and Wood Materials Lab, Karya Anliak explored a concept she calls “microbial industrial design”: The Turkish-Luxembourgish designer combined cellulose nanocrystals available in the lab with living bacteria to develop a new material: “It challenges the negative associations we have with bacteria and their non-sterile world, and explores crafts, ceramics, and bacterial 3D printing as an embodied way of designing objects we use in everyday life.” Like Hykes, Anliak experienced a fundamental shift in perspective: “It’s about,” she says, “finding a common language in which we can communicate.” ce/mm