project: Seeing with the Hands, Touching with the eyes
lecture and workshop: Maria Blaisse (NL)
co-author and organizer: Oloop
when: 6 – 10 October 2017
where: International Graphic Art Center (MGLC), Ljubljana, Slovenia
Maria Blaisse and the Oloop group met during a colourful October in Tivoli City Park. The International Centre for Graphic Arts in Ljubljana supported the project and offered working space surrounded by nature.
Artists from Oloop – as part of the project Seeing with the Hands, Touching with the eyes – hosted Maria Blaisse’s lecture entitled Emergence of Form and three workshops called Density of Lessness. Ever since participating in her workshop twenty years ago we have longed to offer the experience of Blaisse’s unique design approach to the Slovene public, young designers, architects and artists.
The method is based on tuning in to nature, its processes and the forms found there. So ideas for design are not created in our minds first, but through slowing down, by “listening one octave higher,” as Maria explained, sensing with the whole body, and focusing on what attracts our attention in nature. The creative process that Blaisse invited us to take part in is a method for becoming present and aware. In this sensitive state, we are able to learn from nature, and about how forms are emerging.
However, this is not only a way of creating design that is more in tune with nature, but it applies to our lives more generally and allows us to better connect with ourselves and with each other.
Text: Jasmina Ferček
Photography: Tjaša Bavcon
