Mila Baumann
Internship: Giny Vos
milaluna.baumann@gmail.com, milabaumann.nl
I am a recently graduated furniture design student from the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague. Yet, I wouldn’t call myself a furniture designer, I would say: I create experiences to explore concepts.
In specific I am fascinated by interaction between body, mind and surroundings. I explore the intuitive with the rational and express the rational through the intuitive.
As a designer I want to create connections; between people, objects and opinions. This is why I enjoy working on the borders of disciplines and aspire to collaborate with people from different fields.
GRADUATION PROJECT
Flow State
'Walking forward I feel wooden plates pressing against my skin. Soft fabric touches my arms as I slide into place. My feet are planted firmly on the ground. I lean forward and feel them slip. I arch my back. The wooden plates lift me up. At the verge of falling I push my upper legs into the wood and allow my waist to rise. My feet no longer carry my weight. Instead I reach a balance in how my legs, waist and the wooden plates support me.'
If you are curious about my project, check out the "Flow State" page on my website. There you can find the full final movie, an explanation of the concept, my movement research and my thesis.
THESIS
A dialogue between Body and Mind
We live in a society of internet; of sitting behind a desk staring at our laptops; of lounging on a couch scrolling through our phone. At the same time we live in a society of sports schools; of an increased interest in yoga; of mindfulness. Personally I experience a clash between my rationality, broadly supported by our society through education, internet and books, and my bodily sensations, greatly underexposed as they are highly personal and hard to explain in words.
In this thesis I will explore how the body and mind interconnect and why it is underexposed in our current society. This research is in no way absolute, I search to create a better understanding of the subject, but this understanding is ultimately biased by my own views and preferences. To solve the problem I suggest design becomes a platform to discuss and explore our body-mind relationship. Allowing us to bring both body and mind into our daily lives.