A collaboration with Hank Beyer
Throughout the past year, we explored parts of Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan and New York in search of regional material sources and their associated processes, people, history, politics and values.
Products around us are often optimized for universal appeal, aesthetics, usability and industry which suggests an only means to provide value in an idealized consumer life. This project seeks to spur discourse and challenge common preconceptions of materiality within everyday objects by displacing the notion that materials best for industry are best for humanity.
During the course of these firsthand inquiries into materials and their origins, we sought to investigate not only the physical, but also the emotional. By presenting materials and using storytelling in a way that celebrates intangible values, we can imagine a more preferable material future tha