The Crit #26: Ori Orisun Merhav
Looking for unfiltered reflections from designers on their own work? Then The Crit, a podcast by Disegno, may be the show for you!
Each fortnight, Disegno’s editor-in-chief Oli Stratford invites a leading designer to Kef Music Gallery to review their own work. Our guest reveals what worked best; what failed; what pushed their career to new heights; what feedback most shaped their practice; and what they feel needs to be redesigned.
At the end of each episode, to complete their crit, they’ll be asked to give themselves a grade for their career to date: fail, pass, commendation or distinction.
It’s a design-school crit, delivered every fortnight! Subscribe to the show here, or sign up wherever you get your podcasts from.
Our twenty-sixth guest on The Crit is Ori Orisun Merhav, accompanied by show host Oli Stratford.
Episode #26: Ori Orisun Merhav
Ori Orisun Merhav is a material researcher and designer whose work focuses on forging new, bioinclusive relationships with the environment and other species.
Trained at Design Academy Eindhoven, Orisun Merhav came to prominence through her Made by Insects project, an ongoing research programme exploring lac, a natural polymer produced by insects. By exploring different treatments of the material, from printing to blowing, Orisun Merhav creates objects whose materiality and assembly recalls the structures produced naturally in nature.
During her crit, Orisun Merhav explores the challenges and opportunities of material research, and the potential for new avenues of making to open up by learning from other species. She also examines the value of communal practice through her work with the Aygo design collective in Brussels, and the liberation she has found through object-oriented ontology.
Show Notes: Ori Orisun Merhav
Best design: Something yet to come within Made by Insects
Worst design: The daily failures of material research
Most successful design: Lac chandelier for Design Sediments
Most impactful feedback: Nacho Carbonell’s advice to “Become the insect”
Dream design: A space and mindset to encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration in material research
This episode of The Crit was recorded at KEF Music Gallery London.
The Crit’s graphics were created by Leonhard Rothmoser.
The Crit’s music was created by Yuri Suzuki and Team Suzuki.