Artist Tessa Zettel from Sydney, Australia, gave a presentation about a residency project she just completed in Sicily, ‘Futurecraft Institute Akrai’. Tessa spent 4 weeks researching local craft practices relating to food and repair, and then experimented with ways of distributing and reinterpreting this knowledge, producing a series of artefacts and events presented by the fictional Institute, that incorporated drawing, performance and video. (www.zettelakrai.wordpress.com).
She also spoke about an ongoing project, ‘Making Time’, a travelling kitchen laboratory in which participants share strategies for preservation of food, and of oneself. We looked at the way this project played out in Finland and in Sydney, as an example of applied theory responding to the work of design philosopher Tony Fry (www.making-time.net).
Finally we discussed a large-scale collaborative project she is part of, ‘Yurt Empire’, described as ‘a rogue housing project and site-specific encounter’, involving 23 creative practitioners temporarily occupying a development site in Sydney. This project focuses attention on strategies available to artists for gaining access to land in the city, and for shaping the public imaginary about possible futures of a neighbourhood undergoing neoliberal development. (www.yurtempire.com)
Her personal websites are: www.oumopo.com & http://www.makeshift.com.au
Design for the Living World, HFBK 