Led by Oscar and Mariana third term's second design studio continuing on alternative presents; triggering's tommorow's tommorow.
Alternative presents give designers the key to opening escape routes to the present continuities, offering space to radically imagine discontinuities that would offer different outcomes in favor of more optimistic future scenarios than the ones we are being presented as the most plausible results of our current business as usual practises.
Nicolás Viollier first-year MDEF alumni held a talk about his final (ongoing) project 'Regenerative Design'. Nicolás's project started with collecting cigarette butts initiating the question 'Why do we create materials from nature that cannot be returned to it?'. Nicolás figured that 'hacking' mycelium to decompose cellulose of cigarette filters cause a 99,78% decomposition of the nicotine. A major downside of the process was that it required to be executed fully in a sterile environment. Trying to apply it at home, did not work, in first instance because it tends to be contaminated easily causing the mycelium to die. For that reason Nicolás started a sequel in which he created a bioremediator and promotion for remediation for a large audience. Nicolás admitted that despite big efforts and promotion, post-MDEF the scenarios he shared were not always welcomed as hoped. In the past years he joined forces with Fablab Chile in the project called Fungicero; a incubator that brings what happens in the forest into your hand. By this playful, educational way Nicolás kept his project alive (quite literally) over time. Nowadays Nicolás continues to work on the Fungicero together with partner Felipe and in addition to that works for La Fragua, as educator for a future waste lab.
In the following we held a short presentation round in which we explained to commonly our project proceedings and upcoming steps. Interesting thoughts and takeaways on our updates mentioned during this: