Studio grant holder in Stockholm 25 May – 12 June 2020 (Grant holder for Helsinki Design Residency*)

Through sculptural pieces, architectural spaces, exhibitions, texts and films, Mikaela Steby Stenfalk reflects upon reproduction and archival processes in the age of the internet, as well as our growing relationship to digital landscapes and the ties to public life. In Mikaela’s proposal for a project within Helsinki Design Residency and its theme “Intelligences” she is looking at YouTube as an archive of practical knowledge where immaterial cultural heritage is being collected and displayed. She will use the residency to highlight a contemporary amateur design; YouTube tutorials. The aim is to define and analyse tutorials as a design practice and reflect on the role this format and collective intelligence plays within design.

Photo: Mikaela Steby Stenfalk

Mikaela holds a double-diploma in Architecture from KTH Royal Institute of Technology (SE) and Man & Communication from Design Academy Eindhoven (NL) and moves fluidly between the fields of architecture, design and art. In 2017, she joined ArkDes as Curator for Contemporary Architecture and Design, where she worked on the conceptualisation and realisation of the museum’s new gallery space Boxen, as well as curated its inaugurating show Modellarkivet. Displays of her artistic work includes Ung Svensk Form (2019), Venice Art Biennale (2019), Dutch Design Week (2018), Waag Society in Amsterdam (2019), Copy Collection in Galleri Gerlesborg (2020).

*) Due to the Covid 19 situation Helsinki Design Residency is in its first period set as a online based residency. In this period Iaspis is therefore hosting Mikaela Steby Stenfalk withinh the Stockholm based residency programme.