Hey there everyone! \ud83d\ude42\u00a0<\/p>\n
My name is Janek, i’m 28 years old, born and raised in Cologne. I’m in the 9th semester at KISD right now. Most of my works contain ecological,\u00a0sustainable and social focus. I’m in love with culture and by time it drives me crazy seeing how this planet loses it’s roots, it’s cultural heritages and diversity over e.g. industrial and economic growth. I see design as a way to keep this heritage, adapt it. You can say i’m quite “oldschool”, which doesn’t mean i’m not interested in new achievements or possibilities, but i’m always thinking about the costs and losses it takes concerning our global cultural diversity, and of course, our roots, mother nature and its finite resources. So i rather stick to real nature and what our eco-system is giving us than to computers or machines and the human-made history which is implemented to us as “nature”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Due to my projects, i actually did quite a lot of research and experiences on food-topics over the last years. 2018 i did a project facing urban gardening and the consequences of industrial food production, including a trip to Cuba. I learned a lot about their urban gardening culture and had the feeling i tasted tomatoes and cucumbers for the first time in my life \ud83d\ude00 So unbelievable tasty when produced organic and without pesticides!\u00a0Check it out here<\/a><\/p>\n I connected with local urban gardeners and got into the “slow-food” topic. 2019 i adapt this knowledge and worked on an “environment-ID” for kids, containing topics like food-miles and regional & organic growing, but also packaging and the emerging plastic-waste, re-use this trash and use for example the school yard as a space to grow goods. I think it’s very important to teach and reach! the upcoming generations on these topics. Unfortunately i did it in german, but you can check it out anyways if you like \ud83d\ude42\u00a0\u00a0Click me <\/a><\/p>\n I also joined the project “we are what we eat” in 2018 – coming up with a zine about “food & medicine”. The question i asked myself was:<\/p>\n Is there a way to resolve the conflict between health, culture and environmental conservation through a new interpretation of producing alternatives?<\/p>\n Main aspect of this zine was the fact that more and more animals facing extinction due to the “medical myths” all around their body and organ parts. It also has a lot to do with cultural beliefs and heritages. So i presented 2 designers, poineering in their fields of food design and try to safe nature through their upcoming and innovative alternatives.\u00a0Check it out!<\/a><\/p>\n All in all i really don’t like the financial exploitation of this life-essential sector. Well, and even though I did a lot of works by now facing alternatives to this, unfortunately i don’t have an answer yet. Speaking on food crisis, everyday thousands of people starving even though we actually have enough food for every human being on this planet, and so on… I don’t really have expectations as i am totally unaware about where this project will lead us all \ud83d\ude42 But i’m totally curious and full of anticipation regarding the exchange with PolyU and all of your views and thoughts on this emerging, huge global topic and issue we’re facing right now.\u00a0<\/p>\n