Interview with Kieren Jones: beyond discipline, towards tangible change
We are delighted to welcome our third Advisory Board member - Kieren Jones - to Unbore’s team of experts aiding its development on a senior level. Kieren is the course coordinator of MA Material Futures at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London and the director of Studio Kieren Jones, a practicing design studio based in London.
Kieren's work as a designer and maker is conceptual and narrative-driven and often explores the relationship between craft and making in the contemporary context touching upon ideas of the amateur, radically sustainable solutions and the creative use of materials. He is best known for projects that explore and present alternative models for future living that respond to key issues of today’s society. These projects include The Sea Chair Project (2011), The Chicken Project (2008) and The Volcano Project (2013). Kieren's work has been extensively exhibited both in the UK and internationally at institutions such as the V&A, Somerset House, Design Museum, the Eyebeam Gallery in New York and at Gwangju Design Biennale 2011 curated by Chinese artist, Ai Wei Wei. Kieren has received a number of prestigious awards for his work and has been nominated for Design of the Year for The Sea Chair Project in 2012.
Kieren has shared his views on the design’s role in humanity’s collective future, why trandisciplinary approach is the key when it comes to current environmental and political developments and the tangible change brought about by creatives.
The Sea Chair Project by Studio Swine and Kieren Jones (c) Sea Chair, image link
Tell us about yourself. What’s your background and what brought you to interdisciplinary design research and practice?
My whole life I have spent wandering, wandering between different creative fields and trying to understand and master different disciplines. I initially left school to become a painter, although somewhere along the way I ended up on an experimental and very free design / craft course at Brighton University. I think it was the freedom that we were given on that course that meant I could never seem to commit to a single discipline in my professional career ever again. Over the years I have worked for fashion houses, architecture practices and in my own practice, a more speculative type of design, before finally leading and establishing the MA Material Futures course at Central Saint Martins, which has been my focus and passion for the last 6 years. What I love about Material Futures is that no two projects or methodologies are the same, it’s the inter and transdisciplinary nature of the work that I most enjoy and means I never get bored of the same discipline!
Why do you think collaboration between creatives, scientists and technologists is significant?
My belief has always been that if we are to ever meaningfully address the challenges of the future we have to look beyond our own disciplines. We live in extreme and un-predictable times, from Covid-19, mass global migration, rapid scientific and technological developments to radical shifts in the world’s superpowers, we are witnessing seismic changes to the way we live, work and survive, both as individuals as well as citizens. At no point in history has it ever been so critical that we work together to not just speculate or discuss change, but actually go about creating it. It is exactly because these issues are so huge and complex, and that no single discipline has the potential or knowledge base to even begin to resolve them, that we have no other option but to share knowledge and collaborate more meaningfully than we have perhaps done so in the past. There really is no other option!
The Chicken Project by Kieren Jones (c) Dezeen, image link
Why is it important that artists and designers work with science and technology?
I believe that we are on the cusp of major technological and scientific advances. From artificial intelligence and machine learning to synthetic biology and neuroscience, I believe that as much as electricity and the internet transformed and changed our lives forever, so too will the scientific and technological advances that are just around the corner. However, learning from history, it is clear that such changes cannot be left to science and technology corporations alone, and that artists, designers and creatives have an intrinsic role to play in this future. In my opinion, no one is better equipped to explore a sensitive, complicated and nuanced issue than a designer or artist. Creatives must not only be conduits to contemporary culture and behaviours, but also help navigate this new landscape and be as intrinsic to establishing what the future looks like as much as our scientists and technologists will.
Pure Human by Tina Gorjanc (c) The Artist
What do you think are the most pressing matters of today’s society that should be questioned and transformed? What are the problems that you personally tackle in your research?
Where to start...! I would have to say that it is the complete environmental and ecological collapse of our eco-systems that is probably the most pressing issue we face. As humans it is fair to say that we have exploited and damaged almost every square inch of the natural world, from our atmosphere, our seas, to our soil, fauna to the mass extinction of millions of animals, species and organisms and it is clear, to me at least, that if we have any chance of surviving the next century then we must fundamentally change our attitudes, cultures, consumption and our endless hunger for stuff and the way in which we currently produce it.
However, for me personally, I am most interested in the role that the creative industries can have on our political and cultural landscape. Some of the most exciting work to come from Material Futures are the projects that not only propose alternative materials and artefacts, but also tap into a current political discourse. Some examples could be Tina Gorjanc’s project whereby she created Alexander McQueen Leather to raise awareness of the lack of legislation around the human tissue act, or Maël Hénaff’s work where he uses technology as a tool of empowerment for some of the most vulnerable communities in the UK today. As Material Futures evolves, I am becoming increasingly interested in how we can more meaningfully collaborate within the political field as this is an area that I feel could lead to more meaningful and real-world change.
Democratising Technology by Maël Hénaff (c) The Artist, image link
Where should someone who wants to learn more about design, life sciences and technology intersections start? Could you recommend artists or designers to follow, engaging reading, other curious finds?
Material Futures of course!
Ok, so I am clearly bias. However, given that we are still the only real Master of Arts programme in the UK that is truly transdisciplinary, and our students really do come from a whole range of different disciplines and backgrounds - from science, engineering to art and fashion - I honestly believe that if you really are interested in learning more about the intersection of art, science, design and technology, then Material Futures (the course and the graduates who have come out of it) would be the ideal place to start. Visit our website for more information.
Democratising Technology by Maël Hénaff (c) The Artist, image link
How about someone working in the field? What was the last most intriguing thing you read, saw or experienced?
In my position as an Honorary Research Fellow at the Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, I was fortunate enough to attend a series of lectures curated as part of a radical sustainability marathon. The one that really got me thinking was a lecture by Prof. Mark Post, the scientist who first developed in-vitro meat, or rather, first ate a lab-grown burger on television in 2013. What was interesting was not that we can actually grow meat in a lab (this has been well established and understood for a long time), but rather how he envisaged and talked about a future in which meat, or what the ownership and patenting of meat technology, could look like in the future from a commercial and real-world perspective.
This is also a clear example of how, in my opinion, there is a huge need for artists, designers and creatives to be involved and explore topics outside of conventional design. Whilst I am very much pro in-vitro meat, I am really sceptical about individual corporations monopolising and owning meat production - we must find a fine balance between democratising such technologies that could lead to immense sustainable gains, as much as we are developing them.
I also hope that if there is one positive to emerge from the global Covid-19 pandemic it is that it means we can actually imagine a world that is very different from the one that we currently occupy. Who would have thought that there was even a possibility of governments simply closing down and ceasing to trade on the global stock exchange, or finding and accelerating treatments that would otherwise have taken eighteen years to come to market. What has emerged is that where there is political will, what would otherwise seem impossible can become a possibility.
The Volcano Project by Kieren Jones (c) Dezeen, image link
Tell us more about your future plans. What are you working on in 2020?
One of the things I am currently working on is setting up a Material Futures Research Lab. As a course, Material Futures is a fantastic platform for developing work that currently can’t exist anywhere else in the world, but as with all educational bodies, I see for myself the challenges that emerging designers face when trying to find a place for their design propositions in a real-world context.
I hope that the Material Futures Lab will be a place where graduates, policymakers and organisations can access to collaborate and act as a catalyst for more experimental work that would otherwise not get the funding that it perhaps deserves because of the lack of commercial interest.
What are your expectations and aspirations for being an Unbore Advisory Board member?
My aspirations for being an Unbore Advisor is to try and advance work that is disobedient and challenges what we currently understand and accept to be the future as we know it.
I don’t claim to know what the future looks like, but I do believe that if we have any chance whatsoever of navigating what I believe is a fundamentally broken world then we must start with an investment into real (and not just gestural) cross-disciplinary practices and drawing from completely different fields of knowledge altogether. I hope and look forward to participating in Unbore’s future programming and longer-term future.
Check out Material Futures website to stay updated with their latest projects as well as check out Unbore’s article on how six bio-designers from Material Futures course made DIY Biolabs at home during the lockdown.
Stay tuned for more interviews from our Advisory Board members!