A project by "Design, Sustainability & Culture" students will be on view in the Gund Gallery teaching gallery from April 18 to May 21.
Traditional material libraries are archives of physical material samples used for design purposes. Most often created and used by architects, as well as interior and industrial designers, these resources allow creatives to better select materials for a project. The Design, Sustainability & Culture class took inspiration from this format to create an experimental educational resource — a digital archive (PDF) consisting of two distinct collections:
Samples
The samples archive features experimental and speculative materials for sustainable alternatives. These were created and tested by the students. Some of the materials in this collection are more feasible or ready-to-use than others, but all serve to expand our ideas of material possibility.
Specimens
The specimens archive is composed of raw, waste and/or single-use materials gathered from our local community (Kenyon College campus and surrounding areas). This collection offers a hyper-local snapshot of just some of the materials currently in circulation in our environment, and sheds light on both individual and collective habits of use.
For a short time, a selection of this archive will be available to view in person. All samples and specimens were created, collected and documented by the "Design, Sustainability & Culture" student-artists.