This archive website is part of design project Residents of Solar Space of Kato Herbots

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Residents of Solar Space explores and questions the relationship between humans and the sun through discursive designs.

The sun is a complex phenomenon that encompasses a wide range of matter and issues. Residents of Solar Space approaches this complexity from a design perspective. Using an exploratory working methodology, this design research project seeks to better understand our relationship to the sun, formulate design challenges and offer alternatives through design. This results in three typologies: archive, narrative and objects.

ARCHIVE
This archive website documents and communicates a mapping about the relationship between humans and the sun. In it, five sub-themes are identified: solar conditions, sun and energy, sun and technology, sun and time and sun and skin.

The sub-themes uncover relevant challenges for the design discipline and capture an initial exploration for a design project*. Throughout the design process, this website served as a tool for establishing, communicating and enriching insights. The reference material is enriched with hyperlinks to external pages and resources, and can be accessed by double-clicking. By making the research accessible to other designers, the knowledge this research brings together can be further expanded.

NARRATIVE
Drawn from the mapping, a thematic distinction is made on the subtopic of sun and skin. The narrative, a framing video work, explores and discusses this sub-theme in depth. The video brings together the frictions surrounding the theme in an accessible way and sets a clear design challenge for the objects. Using a beach towel as a narrator, the video explores the systemic influences that have shaped the current relationship between sun and skin. The beach towel as narrator highlights the role of material culture, and thus designers, in our relationship to the sun.

OBJECTS
The objects explore alternative approaches and materials in a new awareness to the sun. Too much sunlight can be a danger to our health, but so can a deficiency. In response, we protect ourselves with chemicals, or reach out to the pharmaceutical industry for nutritional supplements to supplement our lack of sunlight. In contrast, Residents of Solar Space explores the UV-behavior of materials. What if we replaced a cream with a piece of clothing? And a food supplement with a different approach to materials? What if our objects reminded us of power of the sun over time?

The exploratory working method based on archive, narrative and objects frames the theme on several levels. By informing, raising awareness and suggesting alternatives, the project encourages a new narrative between humans, sun and the environment
Reminding us - that we are radiant beings, on a radiant planet, residents of solar space.

*This exploration - through the lens of materials, objecttypologies and customs and rituals - is represented through symbols (ϟ, 𓁹,☂,〇, ⴵ). These reveal the personal associations within the multitude of reference material, as a starting point for relevant designchallenge. They were a valuable means of communication throughout the process.