Encounter

Pollution

With

Recorded on 29 October, 2023 at the Jan van Eyck Academie

Is pollution an external evil entity or a product of internalized cultural myths? This is one of the questions Rotterdam-based designer ⁠Gaia D’Arrigo⁠ poses through the fictional character CiucciaNebbia, literally translated as Fog-Sucker.

In conversation with Giulia Bellinetti, coordinator of the ⁠Future Materials⁠ programme, Gaia introduces the mythological figure of the Ciuccianebbia and the homonymous multimedia project. Following the Ciuccianebbia in its multiple manifestations, Gaia and Giulia discuss the potential of material research and multimedia storytelling in exploring the relationship between fiction and the plural realities surrounding consumerism, standardisation, and exhaustion.