Platform Project 4
The fourth Platform Project from February till June 2025 dives into the intersection of material science x future fabrics.
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Team
In this interdisciplinary project, 8 students from 7 different cultural backgrounds from TU Delft and WdKA in Rotterdam are collaborating with artist Laura Rodriguez.
Platform Project
The project began with a series of three three-week researches, each probing a different side of material science and future fabrics. These researches functioned as laboratories for testing ideas, methods and intuitions. As the research unfolded, individual interests began to emerge. The team examined these ideas, identified points of connection, and developed a conceptual framework. This process laid the foundation for the direction of the final artwork, Re:Subjected.
Research
The first research went into material science in nature, in cooperation with SIGN, an innovation platform initiated by Glastuinbouw Nederland. Over the course of three weeks, the team researched the possibilities of biomaterials not simply as substitutes, but as collaborators. From this, concepts emerged centered on bio-based material use, each grounded with nature as a partner in co-creation.
The second research dove into the future of fabrics, which got drawn into the speculative ecology of textiles. Questions like: Why are our clothes not alive? Why do we always want new things? Why do we not eat our clothes? popped up. Following the speculative “why”, the research shifted towards the “how”, translating ideas into material experimentation. Exploring a wide range of fabrication techniques but primarily 4D-printed textiles.
The third research marked a new phase of the project. Supported by the Amarte Foundation, the Platform Project teamed up with artist Laura Rodriguez. Together investigating alginate as a living interface, studying decellularized plants and uncovering their cellular architectures. This phase embraced speculative design, using fiction and thought experiments to envision future ecologies and new modes of coexistence with the more-than-human world.
The research and findings during these researches are presented at the end event on the 25th of june at the Onderzeebootloods Rotterdam in a lab style format.
Artist
Through an open-call hosted by the Amarte foundation and Emergence, an artist was selected to join the Platform team. Starting in the last research phase up until making the final artwork. The selected artist is: Laura Elidedt Rodriguez.
Laura, born in Mexico, has a Bachelor Degree in Biotechnology Engineering and a Master's degree in Molecular Biology and in Art and Science. Since 2022 she works and in lives in the Netherlands being a resident artist at V2_Lab, attended the Science & Art Summer School of organ transplantation in ScienceGallery (NL) and participated in the BioFeral.BeachCamp (BFBC) as a TTTseer in Greece.
As an artist she explores the impact of technology on culture and identity. Laura combines scientific processes with storytelling, and emotional expressions. Her work explores themes of the subconscious, empathy, posthumanism and exploring ourselves in the techno-world. What does it mean to be human and non-human?
Concept
The research phase served as the conceptual foundation for the artwork.
In our current system, we have become disconnected from materials. It is extracted, used and thrown away. Materials are being denied presence and meaning. As we ignore the mutual relation and their inherent value, the world grows more fragile, less habitable, and less connected. This is having a significant and immediate impact on us. This installation invites a shift in perception, inspired by the philosophy of animism, which understands all matter as alive, responsive, and interconnected. We ask: What if materials are alive?
Re:Subjected
The matter of matters
A speculative and futuristic installation on material relations and consumerism
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To translate these words into something tangible and experiential two vitrines are created. Inspired by museum displays and shop windows, spaces where objects are framed, valued, and often objectified. This installation reflects on the fast fashion cycle, where the desirable of today is discarded tomorrow.
By inviting visitors inside the vitrines, the act of display is reversed. You no longer only observe, you are also observed. The boundary between subject and object blurs, prompting a simple but unsettling question: how does it feel to become the object on display?
From object to entity.
Each material in the installation plays a role within a constructed living system, an ecology of function and symbolism. The bones are presented as 3D printed skeleton, muscles are bio_latex, soul is the code, the skin is auxetic patterns and the organs are actuators.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
The installation serves as a window into the speculative future where materials are seen as alive. This isn’t a finished invention; it’s a question posed in material form. It suggests that the future may not be built through domination or control, but through care, attention, and mutual adaptation. This shift in perspective prompts us to reconsider what it means to live with entities we have long regarded as objects and are now Re:Subjected.
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This is not a product.
This is not decor.
This is not stuff.
This is an entity, a different configuration of life and matter.
