‘I am dust! People were created from the same particles as all other elements. Everything was created from dust and will return to dust. ’
Annemarie Piscaer is a researcher in the Biobased Art and Design research group, and tutor on the New Design and Attitudes study programme at St. Joost School of Art & Design.
Annemarie Piscaer completed a degree at the Design Academy Eindhoven (BA) and a Masters in Education in Arts at the Piet Zwart Institute Rotterdam (MA). Her design-activist research is focused on materials, with a love of dust.
She is the founder of Studio Dust, a participatory research-by-design studio founded on the principle that everything has value, even dust (“from dust to dust”), and she is a member of the Rotterdam-based, citizen-driven City Lab for Air Quality. In the last few years she has developed participatory design projects which use material research as a communicative instrument to connect unusual domains and disciplines. The outcome of forging these new connections is the creation of new knowledge and insights for the ecological crisis we are in.
Annemarie currently works with architect Iris de Kievith on the Smogware project. Together, Annemarie and Iris developed a tableware that acquired its colour from local air pollution. The project uses a participatory approach to make invisible air pollution materialize. It has been run in Rotterdam, The Hague, Amsterdam, Wijk aan Zee, Berlin, Kiel, Beijing, Changsha, Jakarta, Bruges, Milan and London.
Her educational practice, transcending boundaries between roles and disciplines, was ground for her master’s research at Piet Zwart Institute, where she explored hybrid learning environments and their potential in design education. It resulted in publications: AS A DESIGNER I’M AN EXPERT I’M AN AMATEUR (2017); and the follow-up, co-authored with Dr. Anne Nigten: Colliding Systems: Formal and real-life learning (2019).
In addition to her own research by design practice, Annemarie teaches at the Design Academy Eindhoven and (as a guest tutor) at Willem de Kooning Academy. She lectures at various (art) institutions and was external advisor for Creative Industries Fund NL (open call Citylab 2018-2020) and for Balance Unbalanced Conference 2018.
She will conduct a research project The Garden as a Living Learning Lab, a Living Sensor. The Garden that Sees, Smells, and Hears, in Caradt’s Biobased Art and Design group.
Photo credits: Roel van Tour
Research Group: Biobased Art and Design
The research group Biobased Art and Design capitalises on the role of artistic practice in unlocking the unique potentials of living organisms for everyday materials and communicating these to a broader public. In doing so, the group aims to instigate and accelerate our widespread understanding, further development and usage of such materials. The group’s research approach encourages tangible interactions with the living organisms, such as algae, fungi, plants and bacteria, to explore and understand their unique qualities and constraints through diverse technical and creative methods taking artists, designers and scientists as equal and active partners in the material creation.
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‘The dynamic relationship between humans and living artefacts will continue to evolve reciprocally with mutual care.’
Elvin Karana 
‘In my work the concept of time is a recurring theme.’
Xandra van der Eijk
‘It is through the “not-knowing” that a stimulating and caring environment can be created to confidently share vulnerability.’
Risk Hazekamp
‘Bacteria, Fungi, Humans, all part of the same experiment.’
Ward Groutars
‘I’m interested in how we can implement situated learning within design education.’
Sarah Lugthart
‘Digital media help me to envision future interactions with living materials’
Jose Martinez Castro
‘I believe a collaborative and efficient lab can address both educational and research demands.’
Serena Buscone
‘Exploring and integrating novel perspectives to our everyday through the eyes of fungi.’
Wasabii Ng
‘I am eager to explore how unique qualities of ‘living materials’ can transform the way we think, feel and act.’
Hazal Ertürkan
‘Nature is a perfect example of an iterative design process. It is inspiring and full of exciting solutions.’
Clarice Risseeuw
