Henriëtte

• Name: Henriëtte Waal
• Affiliation: Artist

Procedural starting point

The way I described my methods or process in my last funding application was: Ecosocial #mapping, a #practice-based approach combining material #ethnography, field #recordings, #testimonies of local knowledge holders, #fundamental science, #performative #action-research, and #prototyping. #Co-creation sessions with multi-species #builders, #designers and #activists explore alternative value frameworks beyond carbon accounting, rooting material applications—such as fish habitats—in ecological logics. Wetland plants are #repositioned not merely as a bio-based commodity but as a relational material linking soil, water, craft, community, and industry.

What I actually did was / what I usually do is: I left out #desk research, testing (trial and error that comes with the prototyping) and #educational_settings which I use to disseminate and collectively develop knowledge around the topics I work on.

My previous experience between 'academic' and 'artistic' work:

At Atelier Luma, I worked from initial field research to vision development, and from boundary work in innovation/science studies, from existing factory/infrastructure assessment to establishing the Atelier Luma laboratory — initiating and supervising collaborations between designers, farmers, craftspeople, industry, policymakers and scientists in embodied dialogue with the Camargue wetland ecologies. Currently I’m working with Veenweide Atelier on different multidisciplinary projects, for instance on scalable futures for reed, collaborating with a scientific lab in finding ways to apply reed fibers in non-woven textiles and bioplastics. The scientists work on finding ways to extract the fibers and theorize about the outcomes whereas the artistic research works with the extracted fibers to see how these fibers behave when working with it, using different techniques, combining them with bio-based resins and softeners, in the search for potential in a more intuïtive and experimental way. At the same time I organize hands-on workshops to hang out with reed cutters, growers and thatchers, foregrounding situated ecological knowledge and real-world material practices.