Field Trip to the Jan Van Eyck Academie

This April, together with HIAP and Bioart Society, we went on a field trip to the Jan Van Eyck Academie to explore the renowned Future Materials Lab. This project, dedicated to sustainable materials and material knowledge, features both an online database and a physical archive of material samples at the Academie’s premises, which reopened earlier this year. Food waste, fungi, human hair, potato starch, algae, gelatine—these are just a few of the raw materials that might serve in the future as sustainable alternatives to mass-produced materials like silicone, glass, or leather.

We took part in a workshop on natural dyes and pigments, explored labs and workshops at the Academie, and brought back small metal souvenirs. You can now also find Future Materials Lab leaflets at SWAMP.

For this trip supported by Culture Moves Europe, we used surface-based modes of transportation such as ferries and trains to journey from Helsinki to Maastricht and back. Thank you Emma Beverley, Dana Neilson, and Yvonne Billimore for being such great co-travelers!