We are very excited to announce the launch of the Living Library project in April 2024. For two years, we will work with the medium of a temporary and circular material library and explore the possibilities of future-driven design and art in the context of regional material and manufacturer networks.

About the project:

Around four hundred students study and research in five interdisciplinary degree programs at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design. The artistic exploration of materials is an important part of the project study program of the school. However, working with sustainable, non-standardized and living materials is a young field for designers and artists and requires innovative strategies and teaching formats. The Living Library (LL) is a project funded by “Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre”, which aims to promote experimental teaching and learning methods in artistic project work with non-standardized materials, focusing on sustainability. Therefore, the focus will be on regional raw materials, producers and cultural techniques, which will become a source for practice-based teaching and research.

The innovative approach consists of setting up a hybrid material archive that is conceptually orientated towards the life cycle: The analog collection goes through the circular stages of "growth", "entanglement", "decay" and "restructuring". Material samples and specimens, including additional information, are collaboratively developed for the archive in seminars, workshops and excursions, activated and documented in the digital archive. At the end of the project, the results will be published in the form of an OA publication to ensure a sustainable transfer of knowledge.