Sharing Elements is a project by Christien Meindertsma, that we developed together for Dutch Design Week 2021 and that is continuing further over the coming years. It’s about how we as people are connected to everything around us via elements, from nature to food, clothing and products. We are not above matter, we are matter.
With Sharing Elements Christien Meindertsma researches how much we are physically connected to the world around us. What am I made of? Where do my elements come from, and where do they go to? And how do I relate to all these elements of matter around me? These questions are the starting point of the installation.
Together with interactive designers Joel Gethin Lewis and Reza Ali, Meindertsma designed an interactive installation that blends the analogue and the digital to create a visualization of the elements that make up all of our bodies. The installation is a place where visitors can see themselves reflected as an interactive cloud of elements that they are made of – from the abundant elements like Oxygen, Carbon, Hydrogen and Calcium, but also rarer elements like Phosphorus and Copper. The digital installation is accompanied by an exhibition that visualises the elements in our bodies, how much we need as human beings and how much of these elements is available on earth.
I invited Christien Meindertsma as one of the ambassadors of Dutch Design Week 2021, to develop new work that deals with the relation between people and objects, to reflect on the subtheme of this year Things that Matter.
Design: Christien Meindertsma
Commissioned by: Dutch Design Week, Lisa Hardon
With special thanks to: Joel Lewis, Reza Ali, Bart Grob, Plastic Soup Foundation