Beeswax Luminaire. Copyright: Junpyo Kwon, Pelin Asa, Karola Dierichs / MoA, MPICI, KHB
New Publication on Sustainable Lighting Through Materials Design
Biogenic materials like beeswax have potential for sustainable manufacturing by reducing environmental impact. An interdisciplinary team from the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Ajou University in Korea, the Cluster »Matters of Activity« at Humboldt-Universität in Berlin and the Department of Biomaterials of Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam-Golm introduces »Beeswax Luminaires«, a sustainable lighting solution made from natural beeswax and water via ice-casting. Their findings are now published in the latest Issue of »Materials & Design«. We congratulate the first authors Junpyo Kwon and Pelin Asa as well as Mourad Jaffar-Bandjee, Shahrouz Amini, Peter Fratzl, and Karola Dierichs.
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Latent Accumulations: Walking Along Paraffin Pollution at Nida Coastline. Film still: Anna Luise Schubert 2025
Exhibition, Roundtable and Workshop
Paraffin pollution is a recurring concern in coastal environments, yet one that is inherently difficult to detect and classify. The exhibition »Latent Accumulations« at Tieranatomisches Theater Berlin traces the elusive activity of this material. It gives insights into site-specific research processes that connect material investigations with local experiences and memories of shifting landscapes.
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Pieces of Paraffin collected at the Curonian Spit in Lithuania, 2025. Copyright: HU Berlin/Stefan Klenke
Article on Léa Perraudin's and Iva Rešetar's »Latent Accumulations« Project
The project »Latent Accumulations« examines paraffin, an elusive material, from its accumulations on the Baltic coast of the Curonian Spit in Lithuania to its pressing environmental and geopolitical concerns. This article presents the project by Léa Perraudin and Iva Rešetar in detail.
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Tracing paraffin accumulations. Fieldwork on the coastline of the Curonian Spit in the Neringa Nature Reserve, Léa Perraudin and Iva Rešetar. 2024. Copyright: Iva Rešetar
Fieldwork of Léa Perraudin and Iva Rešetar on the Coastline of the Curonian Spit in the Neringa Nature Reserve
In their ongoing fieldwork in Nida, Lithuania, Iva Rešetar and Léa Perraudin are concerned with the scales and phases of paraffin (re-)distribution in this seemingly pristine natural environment. Latent Accumulations focuses on the ecopolitics of paraffin pollution, engaging the material as unsettled in its movement and energy exchange. They argue that it is precisely the process of phase transition that gives rise to this uncertain ontological status – between solid and liquid, slow and sudden, and between events of pollution, their materialization and maintenance.
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