Christie is an artist and researcher whose practice evades a set medium. Christie thinks through making and through different methodologies. Christie is currently mixing textiles, carpentry, digital modelling and animation to explore how ways of making can change how we perceive the climate crisis, and in turn questions how traditional methodologies within art, design and politics have co-produced the issues which we now face. Christie has an undergraduate degree from the University of Cambridge in Architecture, and studied Environmental Architecture at Master's level at the Royal College of Art. Throughout the studies, Christie sought to understand the institutional knowledge as it exist, but tinker with experimental methodologies as means to transgress and transform the status quo.

Project title: Future Topographies

Learning from the traditions of community quilt making and muralist paining, Future Topographies' multimedia output (utilising the maker facilities of the JRC alongside accessible method of art-making such as painting and needle-work) will map out and record the myriad perspectives on the local environs of Ispra as it exists now and how citizens and researchers perceive its potential future. The production process of engagement with JRC researchers and local residents will be documented through video and recorded interviews, as well as the production process being documented through film. This will be used to produce a digital documentation of the making process complementing the physical outcome.

Dewi Brunet is an artist specialised in folding, based in Brussels. By combining art, science and technology, he applies folding to a large range of purpose. His work focus nowadays at the intersection of ecology and technology by making “Oribotics”, bioinspired folded robots. With a transdisciplinary background in social science, Dewi loves to collaborate with others. For his Oribotics, he worked with scientists from the Universities of Lille, Namur and Brussels. Dewi has also been very implicated in the fablabs of Brussels, where he cultivated his skills and values as an artist. He co-managed the fablab OpenFab for a few years and gives workshops at GreenFabric and Fablab’ke. Thanks to the Vulca European Program, he was also able in 2021 to make a residency in Ljubljana at fablab RogLab.

Project title: FluxFoliage

This project seeks to explore the convergence of art, science, and technology by creating bioinspired artwork. Drawing inspiration from Ernst Haeckel's mysterious world and Paul Bury's kinetic art, Dewi aims to infuse biodiversity into his signature Oribotics to craft new pieces that address pollinator issues. The primary goal is to deepen sensitivity toward the coexistence of life and machines, highlighting the importance of biodiversity. By combining folding techniques with both mechanical and digital fablab tools, the project emphasises our relationship with non-human species. Inspired by ecological philosopher Baptiste Morizot, Dewi views the ecological crisis as a crisis of sensitivity, urging a renewed connection with ecosystems and their inhabitants. With a focus on pollinators, the project seeks to merge art and technology to unveil the hidden complexities of ecological systems and interplay between species.

Lars is an artist interested in the expeditions and the discovery of the Arctic region, since one of the planes in which Amundsen landed at the North Pole was designed by his great-grandfather. As a child and as a descendant of aviation & weaving machine engineers, Lars was always drawing and wanted to become an artist. During art school, Lars chose weaving as a major as he was intrigued by the technique and its strong philosophical implications towards themes such as time, machinery, ecology, society. To not only work on a surface, but to create it in the first place, from nothing, is still profound to him. Lars is deeply invested in structures, contexts and research on the materials, topics and methods he employ. What he makes is based on a strict conceptual foundation and every decision counts towards the credibility of the outcome. This is also why he often adopts new methods of making to realise his ideas.

Project title: Stories of the Arctic 

In the spring, during an artist residency in Norway, I began to study the Arctic.  I was particularly interested in expeditions and the discovery of the region, since one of the planes in which Amundsen landed at the North Pole was designed by my great-grandfather. I am also researching cartography and mysterious speculative designs of the Arctic before its actual discovery. Furthermore I find the region fascinating because of its oil deposits and related issues, and the more I learned the more almost surreal relationships emerged between mysterious old maps, oil deposits, and issues like global warming. For example, at one time it was believed that the North Pole was just a huge mass of water that could be crossed by ship. Now that the North Pole is melting, this misconception may soon come true. Another old map shows a mysterious gigantic magnetic black rock surrounded by a whirlpool of water. According to the notes of a monk, it promises immense wealth. Centuries later, large quantities of oil, black gold, are discovered there. I would like to work with these stories and realize an exhibition that brings this past into the context of current and future issues like climate change. I would like to reconstruct these stories around the Arctic, the planes, explorers, maps, rocks and oil magnates and draw new maps for a different future.