Sustainability and design: An interview with Catinca Tilea

I always wake up early and take more than one hour for coffee and reading, before I begin my work day. Reading in the morning is something that gives me a lot of pleasure, but it is also my little way of staying up to date as I find staying informed to be crucial in my practice. My studio is somehow my second home but I love being away and discovering other places, people, and ideas. Whenever I’m back in the studio I regain my quiet, for me it’s a way to re-balance I guess.

In the last years I’ve been influenced a lot by the Zero Group and Saburo Murakami’s artworks. Stepping into social design gave me a whole new perspective upon what is generally supposed to be good from the side of the designer, and what people actually perceive as good. I like the idea of leaving my audience the space and freedom for creativity, because I believe that art and design have a true potential to deem down conflict, frustration and this lays a good path to a more comfortable society.
3. What kind of projects have you been working? 
One of my recent projects – #1minuteLamp – is an interactive installation that uses light and technology in an entertaining way to show how creativity can influence social behaviour. This project was not developed together with the public, but rather made by me in order to be constantly reinvented by others.

4. We know you attended last year’s Fuorisalone in Milan, what kind of approach towards design did you discover? 
Being in Milan during the design week is an absolutely wonderful and inspiring experience where you can discover the latest of what is happening in the design world right now. Every year is a refreshment, from commercial projects, to experimental work or sustainable ideas: Fuorisalone gives enough space for new materials, new aesthetics and other types of experiments which constantly set new trends.
5. What kind of relationship is there between sustainability and design right now?
I think that culture in general – so not only design – is embracing sustainability to a high extent at the moment. Design, as well as art, have the great power to influence people and over the last few years many boundaries have disappeared, encouraging Design to collaborate with other sectors by creating different ways of looking at problems and hence to solutions. Again, this gives a great feature to a more sustainable future as many solutions towards a circular future cannot be taken as flat, generic or aesthetics-only subjects. When it comes to a circular economy future, I think that we seem to have enough technological development, intellectual resources, and any other resources we would need to put circular systems in action. Second-hand economies are a great contrast to Western consumption and Deesup is a great example of how we can rethink our choices.
6. Tell us about your future plans!
At the moment I’m preparing for the opening of the exhibition ‘IKEA Hacked. Our Products. Your Ideas’. This exhibition will launch on the 28th of April at the Ikea Museum in Sweden, and it’s a pleasure to be part of it!