Bamana 
Designed for Nov Gallery within the context of the 'Paper Trail' exhibition, ’Bamana’ is speculatively intended to be an alternative object to inflatable party balloons.

Party balloons are one of the top ten single use plastics* found in our oceans (by European bodies), whilst being one of the most deadly littered objects to birds and sea life. For an extremely short period of joy they can cause detrimental environmental impacts for years.

Instead Bamana is constructed entirely from recycled paper. The shell is paper pulp moulded, the fillings from recycled tissue paper and the colour is pigmented from natural food colouring.Thus the materiality is not only completely from waste resources, but is fully recyclable again, biodegradable and technically edible.

The totem-like design is a sculptural structure formed of confetti cannons which are torn from the assembly through the course of a party, causing destruction of the overall assembly; a temporariness important in signifying a celebratory event. The blow powered confetti cannons produce a mix of colours and can be exploded multiple times with varying effects, this augmentation creates toy like aspects to be enjoyed by anybody.

The biomorphic form is intended to ultimately create intrigue and fascination to the object, whilst its nature is to be environmentally safer. Each confetti cannon is inspired by a different natural source which ejects matter such as seeds, spores or pollen. The confetti is shape-optimised from maple seeds, this keeps the confetti airborne for longer through a helicopter motion, further augmenting the effect.

*The majority of latex party balloons contain stabilisation plasticisers and commonly accompanied by plastic cords.
‍

Fractions Exhibit
‍
An exhibition setup presenting the overall project ‘FRACTIONS’ which encompasses RUEI-01 and Washing Machine 01.
‍
The project examines the reality of object waste and recycling and is presented in three stages: 
‍
Research - including fraction material samples and video.
‍
Designing for Current Recycling Systems - including washing machine model and video.
‍
Designing with Future Toolsets - including RUEI-01 Prototype mounted on a robot with support material and video.
‍
The scenography is constructed predominantly of waste materials in line to the concept. The TV's being from waste sources, the table surfaces unable to be sold due to imperfections and the structure profiles being building waste.

Plastic. Remaking Our World

Research for the Plastic:Remaking Our World Exhibiton and book through curator Anniina Koivu.

Investigating topics on the sustainability of plastics including;

Plastics relationship with oil,
The history of plastic,
Plastics recycling - mechanical and chemical,
'Bio-plastics',
Plastics taxonomy.

Plastic: Remaking Our World exhibition is by Vitra Design Museum, MAAT, and the Victoria and Albert Dundee Museums.
‍

Currently exhibited: V&A Dundee Museum until 5th February 2023.

RUEI-01

By conventional recycling, objects arrive at facilities as unknown entities, with no communication of ingredients, they are fed into shredders smashing objects to smaller pieces which are then attempted to be identified and sorted by countless, painstaking steps. Infinite variations in the composition of objects make it impossible to identify exactly which materials are involved, especially in plastics where sub-variants and full colour spectra exist. This inaccuracy of separation results in recycled material of the poorest quality, unable to compete with virgin materials.


Shoes are standardly not recyclable, even by shredding, containing too many materials glued together. Recyclable shoe projects are starting to be released, all focusing on mono-materialisation for use with standard shredding recycling facilities. Their uniform material and colour allow for verifiable material output during shredding. Whilst this route and the projects are inspiring, shoes gain a lot of their function and durability from being multi-material assemblies, features which can be downgraded by mono-materialisation.

Instead, RUEI-01 utilises the use of new, contemporary tools for recycling. It is designed to be multi-material and recyclable with complete accuracy by use of robotics. All the object information is digitally embedded into it by design, including robotic g.code instructions and exact material information, even down to colour codes and factory sources. This allows robots to ‘unmanufacture’ the multi-material shoe, disassembling and separating materials with complete accuracy and providing all the necessary material information to be able to create recycled material of true accuracy.

Creating materials that are of high enough quality to compete with new materials not only reduces the growing amounts of waste and pollution associated with waste disposal, but also prevents the devastating impact on the planet associated with the extraction and production of new materials - especially plastics derived from crude oil.