• DATES

    February - November 2025
    Online Sessions
    Every Monday or Wednesday
    18:00 CET

  • MAIN LECTURERs

    Alberte Holmø Bojesen
    Sarmite Polakova
    Benedetta Pompili

  • GUEST LECTURERS

    Yussef Agbo-Ola
    Sara Martinsen
    Michael Marder
    Tobias Øhrstrøm

  • GUEST CURATOR

    Announced Soon

  • LOCATION

    Online (February - October)
    In-person Gathering (announced soon) in November 2025

  • fees

    2600€ per participant

  • submissions

    Open until December 20th, 2024

    LOCAL BIO-BASED MATERIALS

    MAIN LEARNING BLOCKS 

    I. GROWN MATERIALS
    Lecturer: Alberte Holmø Bojesen
    This phase consists of six sessions dedicated to material development, covering biomaterial essentials, methodologies, and technical/technological support for material creation. Some of these sessions focus on group discussions, fostering collaboration and enabling students to learn from each other's work and experiments.

    II. FOUND MATERIALS
    Lecturer: Sarmite Polakova 
    This phase is designed to broaden participants' perspectives on post-production waste, found materials, and their artistic processes. Throughout this phase, we will explore the various roles waste streams can play in material concepts. We will delve into mapping and sourcing, investigate local material flows, and conduct material experiments.

    III. EXCAVATED MATERIALS
    Lecturer: Benedetta Pompili
    Together with Benedetta, we will explore the possibilities of working with clay, soil, plaster, and ceramics, approaching the process like travelers. We’ll investigate unfired clay, creating it together using water, soil, clay, and other local materials, experimenting with different mixtures, understanding the drying process, and learning techniques for shaping and impressing objects or relevant vocabulary entries into the clay. Our focus will include studying both hard and soft materials based on each participant's unique narrative and practice.

    IV. PROJECT DEVELOPMENT
    The main objective of this phase is to provide participants with in-depth knowledge and independent tools for material development and research, empowering them to initiate their own conceptual and project development. Participants will choose an area to focus on—biomaterials, post-production waste, or unfired clay—and will receive mentoring sessions from their selected field (Alberte Holmø Bojesen, Sarmite Polakova or Benedetta Pompili).

    V. IN-PERSON GATHERING & SHOWCASE
    Together with our guest curator, Dominique Petit-Frère, we will prepare, organize, and showcase students' final projects in a thoughtfully curated space (to be announced soon). Our goal is to raise awareness about material-based research, design, and art in a broader sense, inspiring meaningful conversations and fostering a deeper understanding of our educational platform.

    COURSE CONTENTS

    USEFUL INFORMATION

    FORMAT

    —Weekly online sessions: every Monday or Wednesday from 18:00 to 20:30 (CET).
    —Final In-person gathering/Showcase: announced soon
    —All sessions and lectures will always be recorded and available online for reference or in case of absence.
    —There will be access to digital study materials folders.
    —All sessions will be in English.

    SELECTION OF STUDENTS

    Approximately 12/15 participants will be selected to join each class of our international program on Local bio-based Materials. The selection will be based on students' profiles, previous projects/creations, and intent. We are committed to group diversity and coherence throughout the selection process.

    Prospective candidates should submit the following documentation using the online submission form:
    —Resume of your practice (artistic, theoretical, scientific, pedagogical...) with a maximum length of 500 words. It can be around an ongoing or new project.
    — Research or artistic portfolio.
    Submissions will be accepted until December 20th, 2024

    SUBMISSION PROCESS

    Once you submit your application through the online form, you will hear from us within two weeks. If selected, we will email you with the final steps to complete your application. After you review and agree to these terms, your application will be confirmed and we will issue your invoice. Payments should be made between January 1 and January 6, with proof of payment sent to info@thematerialway.com. 

    IMPORTANT DATES:
    Submission of applications | Ongoing until December 20th, 2024.
    Notification of admission | Applicants will receive feedback within two weeks.
    Payment and enrollment | Full payment or first installment due January 1–6.

    FEES & PAYMENT TERMS

    FEES
    The fee for each International program (Bio-based Materials & Natural Materials in Ceramics) is 2.600€ per participant (VAT incl/exemption for educational events).
    The fee includes registration, online sessions, course presentations, and final showcase production. It doesn't include Ingredients/materials to develop your projects, shipment, and insurance of works to final showcase & participants traveling costs and insurance.

    PAYMENT TERMS
    When you accept your seat, you automatically agree to our payment terms.
    The course fee can be paid in a lump sum or in three installments.
    If payment is done in three installments:
    First installment: 900€ from January 1 to 6.
    Second installment: 900€ by the end of April.
    Third installment: 900€ by the end of June.
    If payment is done in a lump sum: 2600€ (100€ discount) from January 1 to 6.

    PAYMENT METHODS
    Payment should be done by direct debit/bank transfer. For alternative methods, please contact info@thematerialway.com.

    CANCELLATION OF APPLICATION & REFUND POLICY

    If, after applying, being accepted, and accepting our terms, you wish to withdraw from the course, the following terms apply:
    If you decide to withdraw from the course, you will not be entitled to any refund and will be responsible for the remaining installments, except in cases of medical emergency.

    PROGRAM RESPONSIBLE

    BONNIE HVILLUM

    NATURAL MATERIAL STUDIO
    Founder of Natural Material Studio, a Danish cross-disciplinary design company that drives toward expanding our collective understanding and relation to materials. The studio works from a renewable and circular point of view, with both science, biology, technology, design and art as the building blocks to create the new normal for sustainable living.

    MAIN LECTURERS

    ALBERTE HOLMØ BOJESEN

    GROWN MATERIALS
    Alberte Holmø Bojesen (b. 1996) is a textile and material designer educated at The Swedish School of Textiles, Borås, who explores the intersection between material and human, emphasizing sensory experiences. She is currently researching alternative materials from kelp, aiming at making this a key player in a more ecocentric design system. With a background in Fabricademy, her work prioritizes regenerative processes and interdisciplinary collaboration. Bojesen has presented her research at the Design Research Society conference Textile Intersections in 2023 and has exhibited at Southern Sweden Design Days 2024, Design March 2023 (Iceland), Dutch Design Week 2021 (Netherlands), and Form and Design Center 2021 (Sweden).

    SARMITE POLAKOVA

    FOUND MATERIALS
    Studio Sarmīte is a material design and research studio. Led by Latvian designer Sarmīte Poļakova, the studio work focuses on transforming industry waste and various by-products into new closed-loop concepts. Material and product lifecycles take a central role within the designer’s work resulting in unique concepts that emphasize circularity over plain longevity.
    The studio’s design practice consists of hands-on experimental research with the manipulation of existing designing and production methods. This playful approach leads to surprising findings that question our collective ways of producing, consuming, and discarding.

    BENEDETTA POMPILI

    EXCAVATED MATERIALS
    Benedetta Pompili is a social designer based in Amsterdam. A dedication to materials with a focus on their narratives and environmental impact identifies her practice. She rethinks manufacturing techniques and their aesthetics toward circular making. Her research aims to share knowledge, motivate care, and retrace tradition by thinking and acting in an interdisciplinary way. In parallel with her own studio practice, she is a technical advisor and glaze professor at Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. 

    GUEST LECTURERS

    YUSSEF AGBO-OLA

    Olaniyi Studio

    Yussef Agbo-Ola is an artist and architect living between London, Lagos, and the Amazon Forest. Born in rural Virginia in a multi-heritage Nigerian, African-American, and Cherokee household, his work reflects hybrid identities and relationships to different landscapes, ecologies, and cultural rituals. Agbo-Ola’s multidisciplinary artistic practice is concerned with interpreting natural energy systems, through interactive experiments that explore the connections between an array of sensory environments, from the biological and anthropological to the perceptual and microscopic.
    Olaniyi Studio is an innovative design studio that thrives on multidisciplinary relationships to actualize ideas around themes of environmentalism. It operates as a studio and the artistic practice of Yussef Agbo-Ola. They question how art, architecture, and anthropological research can create experimental environments that challenge the way we experience geological conditions and living ecosystems. Their core mission is to expand environmental awareness through design creativity, collaboration, and speculative imagination.

    TOBIAS ØHRSTRØM

    CO-FOUNDER OF Søuld.DK

    Co-founder Tobias Øhrstrøm, a trained engineer and architect, has gained broad technical knowledge and an understanding of designers' priorities through 10 years as a project architect at high-end Danish design studios.
    He ensures Søuld’s eelgrass products are buildable with high design and materiality standards and has driven the development of Søuld’s materials throughout their lifetime.
    With his strong sense of design and materiality, Tobias controls the creative direction of Søuld and oversees the strategic collaborations that Søuld enters into—latest the Søuld´s international collaboration with American MillerKnoll.

    SARA MARTINSEN

    MATERIAL RESEARCH / FOUNDER OF phytophilia.dk

    Sara Martinsen is a Danish designer working in the cross field between art and design creating edition pieces from bio-based materials. From her Copenhagen-based studio, solid wood, veneer, plants, and plant fibers are weaved, layered, and arranged into visually strong and intriguing compositions. From small free-standing objects to large wall—and ceiling-hung formations, she creates pieces within a larger architectural context.
    Sara's work is sculptural with a distinct rhythm and tactility encouraging the user to touch, look, and smell the piece, promoting awareness of its qualities through beautiful compositions.
    Aside from investigating materials and their potential Sara advises companies on responsible solutions and is the founder of the digital plant library at www.phytophilia.dk

    MICHAEL MARDER

    Research Professor iof Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country

    Michael Marder is IKERBASQUE Research Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU), Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. His writings span the fields of ecological theory, phenomenology, and political thought. He is the author of numerous scientific articles and monographs, including Plant-Thinking (2013), The Philosopher’s Plant (2014), Dust (2016), Energy Dreams (2017), Heidegger (2018), Political Categories (2019), Pyropolitics (2015, 2020), Dump Philosophy (2020); Hegel's Energy (2021), Green Mass (2021), Philosophy for Passengers (2022), The Phoenix Complex (2023), Time Is a Plant (2023), and, with Edward S. Casey, Plants in Place (2024). For more information, consult his website michaelmarder.org.

    GUEST CURATOR

    COMING SOON

    CURATION/SPACIAL DESIGN

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