09.01.2026
Start Time:
13:00
End Date:
09.01.2026
On 9 January at 13.00 the peer-review event of Aman Asif’s exhibition Algal Phycosphere, will take place in EKA Valge maja, material lab. Exhibition is part of Asif’s practice-based doctoral thesis.
Supervisor. Kärt Ojavee
Reviewers: Marie Vihmar and Julia Lohmann
Aman Asif is an interdisciplinary designer and PhD-researcher interested in sustainable design practices that cultivate ecological wellbeing. The exhibition Algal Phycosphere marks the first peer review of her doctoral research.
Phycosphere frames the event as an inquiry into algal-centred relations. Asif’s research explores creative design practice as sites for attuning to microbial others. The works presented here emerge from her practice-led research, developed through ongoing encounters with algal in her home, the laboratory, and coastal environments in Tallinn. The exhibition includes material-led experiments and hand-crafted artifacts, as well as sensory probes developed in relation to algal.
Through this research, Asif traces a process in which meeting another living microbial presence reshapes how design is practised, and how relational negotiations at this scale can inform the values and conditions of designing amid concerns for ecological wellbeing.
Acknowledgements
Aman Asif would like to thank the many human and more-than-human collaborators who made this work possible.
She would like to thank Kärt Ojavee and Valentina Guccini for their guidance and sustained support.
She is grateful to Rameez Husnain, Pia Lindberg, Kim Janssen, Jaakko Kokko, Anjali VIjayan, Nashwa Attallah, Ero Kontturi and Sarvin Sefatyar for their collaboration and generosity at various stages of the work. Special thanks to Rando Tuvikene and his team at Tallinn University (TLU) for providing space, access, and support during the early stages of this research.
She would also like to acknowledge her colleagues Maria Kapajeva, Joanna Kalm, and the members of the EKA PhD cohort for feedback and shared thinking.
Finally, she would like to thank her family: Asif Latif Lone, Saima Asif, Shehryar Asif, and Danish Lone for always supporting her wellbeing and endless curiosities.
Photo credits: Sarvin Sefatyar