TALK: Materials Club with Ashley Fontan
Materials Club Talks invite practitioners to share new and interesting materials practices. Each month a guest speaker joins us to share their materials practice. Their presentation will be followed by an open discussion that will delve deeper into our guest's personal values and motivations for their work, with a focus on materiality and our current global context.
The fifth speaker to join us is Ashley Fontan, Fungal Materials Specialist and Co-founder of Osmose Studio, Osmose Labs and Mykko.
Ashley and STEAMhouse member Matt Gale will lead a holistic conversation around all things fungi-materials related: how they grow, how they interact with their environment, and most importantly, why there is such a strong interest from multiple industries in studying mushrooms and mycelium to solve our most critical environmental and health issues. Discussing the mycelium design landscape, they will talk through how we can work with this incredible material across art, architecture, homeware, interiors, and fashion.
Where is this event?
This event will be held in-person at STEAMhouse. A short presentation by Ashley will be followed by an informal conversation facilitated by our evening's co-host Matt Gale, with plenty of opportunities for questions.
Who is it for?
Anyone can join us at Materials Club, so if you are an individual, business, artist, designer, materials scientist, student, academic, maker or anyone else in between, you are welcome.
What is Materials Club?
Materials Club has been active as a community-led research group in Birmingham since 2019. Now in its fourth year, it has become a creative-led research space exploring questions related to our ecological future through deep material practices.
We support and cultivate projects that look to use materials in new, different, and sustaining ways. This includes working with waste, nature, and within the values of circular design. We encourage collaboration and open conversation allowing new knowledge to be shared and developed collectively. This is a space to be inspired, learn, engage, and become part of a growing community.
How else can I get involved?
Keep an eye on our Instagram page @materials_club or drop us an email to find out more.
Come and join the community!
