For Shore by Florence de Keijzer
BA Design student Florence de Keijzer uses design to explore her passion for the ocean and to project a sustainable future.
For her final year Degree Show project, de Keijzer has created four objects which are inspired by natural processes and materials from the ocean, each addressing a key human survival need.
In the context of rising sea levels, the project explores the question of how we can continue to support ourselves as a species, sustainably living alongside and interacting with the ocean.
Bridging various sectors, from economics and politics to social and environment ideologies, it seeks to prove that by recognising the systems around us (both human and in nature) and by ‘hacking’ these for human use, a positive future can be achieved for both people and planet.
My project envisions an interdependent future through objects that bridge, or ‘hack’, nature’s designs – fish gills to marine grains – with human’s survival needs – breathing to communication – to encourage belief in design-driven positive ocean futures.
Florence de Keijzer
The human gills mask
A ceramic water filtration system
Research was central to the project, and de Keijzer talked with professionals from a variety of different fields to inform the designs.
Using a range of techniques including woodworking, ceramics, textiles and sound, de Keijzer created four items which theoretically could be recreated from ocean-derived materials.
The human gills mask, made from recycled materials, addresses the threat posed to humans by not being able to breathe underwater, and imagines a future where human gills are possible.
A plate shows a reimagination of the traditional nutrition chart, adapted to focus on marine produce to consider alternative diet options, and a jug filtration system speculates how to filter water for drinking.
What’s great about this course is that you get to test out everything. Nothing is impossible.
Florence de Keijzer
A plate shows an alternative nutrition chart, reimagined for marine foodstuffs
A solar-powered floating radio addresses the need for human communication
Addressing the human need for communication, especially for survival in events such as floods and extreme storms, is the radio, which would be solar powered and able to float. This item is accompanied by an audio piece, including a futuristic shipping forecast, poetry and soundscapes.
De Keijzer's work is shown as part of the BA Design Degree Show, A Wild Goose Chase to Catch A Flying Fish, open 19 - 23 June at Copeland Gallery in Peckham, South East London.