Le Zhang 张乐
ABOUT
Le Zhang is an interdisciplinary designer, researcher, and freelance writer. With the matured skills of a designer and the insights of an anthropologist, she is dedicated to exploring material culture that crosses geographical boundaries and conducting investigations in a creative manner. Viewing design as a thought catalyst, her work encompasses multimedia content production.
After graduating from the Royal College of Art, she founded the cultural design studio Earth Buffet, focusing on geospatial food research, design, and investigation. She is also the co-founder of Outland Publishing Fair and the publishing group Aphakia. She now works as a researcher in Innovation Design at CAFA and as staff in the OTBT anthropology field school.
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Outland Publishing Fair
OTBT
Book & Workshop
Design
2021
Molding Black Box is a conceptual tool that aims to explore the production of man-made objects through the simulation of injection moulding. In this work, the injection mould is transformed from an industrial production into a 'blind box' that cannot be opened or examined. Faced with a series of injection moulds, the experiencer can only know the possible scope of their shape, but cannot determine or verify the actual casting result.
The human being is moulded in a mould whose contents cannot be determined, and the final product remains in the mould - thus, the miniature assembly line appears to be producing objects, but in fact it has been removed step by step from human cognitive intervention: moulding, from the "production of man-made objects" into a more purely "object-making" process, and purposive industrial production into a more "object-autonomous" generative process. The use of the 'black box' as a cognitive-behavioural tool enhances the perception of the infinite possibilities of material production and expression.