Laureen Mahler

Biography

Laureen Mahler is a designer and doctoral researcher at Aalto University. As part of Aalto's Bioinnovation Center, she focuses on the creation of origami tessellations using alternative sources of cellulose with applications in sustainable packaging. Her interdisciplinary research takes a practice-led approach to the investigation of materials, structures, space, and their significance in designing. Prior to joining Aalto, she was the co-founder of a design and printmaking studio, as well as a faculty lecturer at the San Francisco Art Institute and the Berliner Technische Kunsthochschule.

Photo credit: Karina Hagemann

Material, Transformation, and the Fold

Symposium participation

This interactive presentation combines dialogue about practice-led research with the act of folding. Participants will create a cocotte-en-papier, with the physical fold reflecting the transformative. Drawing from Deleuze, Ingold, and others, this presentation illustrates the fold as a material operation capable of opening, externalizing, and making space for entanglements.