Expedition Æqualis

Expedition Æqualis is an ongoing research project by Dutch Invertuals in collaboration with The Future Laboratory, a London-based future forecasting consultancy, and Reon Brand, principal designer at Philips. The project builds on a study called ‘Co-emerging Futures’, published in 2019 by Reon Brand, and a future scenario where humanity learns to adopt an ecocentric way of living, placing the health of planetary ecosystems above its own.

Dutch Invertuals sees design as a powerful tool to rethink and rebuild the world we live in. Together with designers, researchers, and other makers and thinkers the expedition aimed to research and learn from how nature operates, inviting designers to create speculative design objects that function according to these mechanisms. Ten principles were outlined, providing a set of guidelines to adopt a post-anthropocentric mindset.

Exhibited during Dutch Design Week 2022, Expedition Æqualis’s second showcase featured the work of eleven designers invited by Dutch Invertuals to explore and learn from nature. Guided by Dutch Invertuals, they translate its principles into tangible design manifestations. The exhibition features work from Johanna Seelemann, Dae Uk Kim, Delphine Lejeune, Edhv, Moonseop Seo x Katharina Sook Wilting, Anna Resei, Studio ThusThat, and Audrey Large x Theóphile Blandet.

POST-EGO

Embarking on eco-centric design can only be impactful if we can dismantle the monolithic human ego and accept a state of interbeing. With Cosmic Balance, Studio Edhv shows the smartphone, symbol of our progress and technological advancement, as a future fossil. Overgrown by copper crystals, these smartphones remind us of the ephemerality of our existence on Earth.

“No matter how advanced our technology, it will not outperform the cosmic balance of nature”

Remco van de Craats, Design Director of studio Edhv

INTERCONNECTEDNESS

Nature is based on inter-relationships and symbiosis, with no single element existing in isolation. How can we extend our design scope to include different perspectives than our own?

Guided by Dutch Invertuals, Delphine Lejeune explored the pollination mechanisms of flower species that blossom in the dark. Her work Insecta Spectra is an olfactive installation that invites visitors to experience the flowers behaviour and mechanisms to attract pollinators. By stimulating our senses, she pushes us to experience this from the insect’s point of view.perspective of the insects.

REGENERATION

Nature does not pursue endless growth, unlike human economies based on profit and material exploitation. Nothing is abundant or wasteful, everything is assimilated and exchanged.

Within their research into the industrial production of metal, Studio ThusThat discovered aluminium crust, a byproduct of the casting process. Useing these sheets of metal they created a series of objects that reveal an unexpectedly raw backstory, challenging our aesthetic expectations of aluminium.

DIVERSITY

Nature is based on inter-relationships and symbiosis, with no single element existing in isolation. How can we extend our design scope to include different perspectives than our own?

Guided by Dutch Invertuals, Delphine Lejeune explored the pollination mechanisms of flower species that blossom in the dark. Her work Insecta Spectra is an olfactive installation that invites visitors to experience the flowers behaviour and mechanisms to attract pollinators. By stimulating our senses, she pushes us to experience this from the insect’s point of view.perspective of the insects.

“Can we view human diversity as part of nature? What can we learn from nature’s richness and fluidity?”

Dae Uk Kim

For Dutch Design Week Dutch Invertuals designed an exhibition concept using the 10 principles as guide. The concept built upon the idea of equality and circularity, trying to creating as little waste as possible. Therefore, the works were all displayed at the same height, laying on simple circular pedestals on a sand-covered floor. Built with locally sourced sand, which was later returned, the exhibition became a live performance with visitors using specially designed tools to take care of the space:  raking it, flattening it, and becoming aware of their presence and noticing every footstep left behind.