Young Minds Bring Climate Conscious Design To The Forefront At Stockholm Design Week

Young minds bring climate conscious design to the forefront at Stockholm Design Week

STOCKHOLM, (Pakistan Point News - 12th Feb, 2020) Sweden is no stranger to innovative design. However, this year's Stockholm Design Week brought young individuals with ground-breaking, thought-provoking design and art concepts to the forefront of Swedish design.

The Ung Svensk Form (Young Swedish Design) is one of the many events that highlights the contributions made by young artists to the Swedish design sphere.

First launched in 1998 by Svensk Form, the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design, the forum is an annual juried award and a travelling exhibition whose purpose is to broaden and deepen knowledge about young and innovative Swedish design.

Artists utilise various concepts, merging sustainability, technology and traditional arts and crafts to bring to attention impacts of climate change and the future of possibilities.

One particular project that caught spectators' attention was the 'Pink Chicken Project' by the young duo Leo Fidjeland and Linnea Vaglund of 'Nonhuman Nonsense.' The metaphoric project proposes genetically modifying all chickens in the world to have pink bones and feathers, using novel biotechnology called 'CRISPR Gene Drive.' According to Fidjeland and Vaglund, "This intervention, somewhere between utopia and dystopia, would modify the geological trace of humankind - colouring it pink!"

Speaking to the Emirates news Agency, WAM, the artistic duo spoke about partnering with a synthetic biology lab in England, and a working group in the anthropocene, to enable individuals to think for themselves.

Citing risks of ecological collapse and the ongoing destruction of the biosphere, the project claims to "Re-occupy the Rock Strata", aiming to send a message to future generations on the inequitable liability of the anthropocene disaster.

Fidjeland said, "The project doesn’t tell people what to think, but rather encourages them to ask questions like how the violence of turning all the chickens pink compare to the violence we’re already inflicting on billions of chickens on factory farms?"

It’s trying to reveal the "unseen impact" of industrial farming on the sustainability of our planet, Fidjeland added.

Vaglund explained, "It also sheds light on what kind of ancestors do we want to be [for future generations]?"

Industrial meat chicken farming is reportedly one of the biggest causes of animal suffering globally, with around 60 billion chickens are reared for meat. According to World Animal Protection, 40 billion chickens are raised in dismal conditions, suffering from heart, skin, lung and bone problems.

The Nonhuman Nonsense duo also noted their project reached the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity meeting which took place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt in November 2019. Discussions involved whether the release of organisms carrying gene drives - a genetic-engineering technology designed to spread mutations rapidly through a target population – should be made legal.

Such involvement by young artists like Fidjeland and Vaglund, who question the correlation between social and ecological justice, only highlight the importance of youth participation in global forums and meetings covering issues that impact the future of our world.