Mutant Matter: Materials and making for our supernatural future

Humankind used to take the materials nature offered and make them into something new. Now, there’s a new stage in the cycle, as nature takes human materials and transforms them once more. The making materials of today become the mined resources of tomorrow. Plastics are written into the fossil record. Industrial waste steams decay into intriguing new substances. We have entered the Anthropocene era – a new geological age where human making has realigned the processes of nature, forever blurring the boundaries between the natural and the man-made.

Experimental design collective Dutch Invertuals are collaborating with FranklinTill on Mutant Matter – an exhibition of radical design concepts and investigations into possibilities of our new material future.

Showing at Spazio O’ in Milan’s Isola district, Mutant Matter marks Dutch Invertuals’ 18th appearance at the Salone del Mobile, and one of the most progressive and intriguing shows on this year’s programme. Bringing together two of the most dynamic and forward-thinking organisations in contemporary global design, the exhibition proposes not just a new collection, but entirely new ways of thinking about what making means in the modern world.