Interview with Elodie Stephan; a young French independant designer and award recepient of the CLU Foundation contest’s Original Distinction Prize.

Tell me about yourself

I’m 25 years old and I am an independent designer. I graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Art of Nancy in France. Since the beginning of my career, I have worked on an interdisciplinary design that mixes town planning, architecture and landscape. In 2008, I joined the workshop in Paris entitled Autobus-imperial (www.autobus-imperial.com) where I participate as a project manager specializing in signage systems with architecture workshops (Ateliers Jean Nouvel, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Toyo Ito, K-architecture, X-Tu, Koz architectes, Projectiles, etc.). For several years I have also been collaborating with young landscapers, architects and artists, by getting involved in various projects and contests related to public space, territory and landscape.

What led you to work in industrial design?

Design appealed to me as a nice way to rethink about our practices concerning our immediate environment. It offers the opportunity to take a stand as far as the world around us is concerned, to help improve it and to put stories into it … The answers that I propose assert themselves as objects-installations, and I feel closer to being a  mix of a designer and a visual artist than an industrial designer. I do not position myself in a process of production, but I try to channel the existing world and transpose it in a new form. The catalytic role of my projects often finds its purpose in small series, in situ.

How would you describe your style? What differentiates you from others?

My detachment from the productive dimension allows me to develop concepts using existing systems from nature or human. That’s what makes the uniqueness of my projects: to make sense of a question rather than responding to a functional need. Finally, I first and foremost want the messages that I slip in my projects to be clear: the objects that I propose are often didactic and / or participatory, simple to understand.

What motivated you to participate in the CLU Foundation contest?

In 2009, I participated in a competition for the Festival des jardins (Garden Festival) of Chaumont-sur-Loire (France). It was a landscape installation using the vegetable energy of the potato: the device, interacting with the public, fed the LEDs suspended in a vegetable landscape (see the project « Jus de patate » which means potato juice on www. elodiestephan.com). This work experience was very stimulating. The proposed theme by the CLU Foundation was for me the opportunity to repeat the experience of light in a spirit of “low-tech”, with the desire to surprise by the origin of the light source used.

The jury wanted to point out the originality of the project entitled Survivances. What does this statement mean to you?

This statement is very encouraging for me and I am proud to know that Survivances was qualified as original. I think it is important to give a voice to prospective projects and hence open new perspectives about our practice in the city space and the way we perceive it.

Where came the idea for the project Survivances and how did it evolve?

Light pollution has harmful effects on humans and ecosystems. Reflecting on this issue and the lack of darkness in the urban world, I thought about the bioluminescence present in certain living species. I wanted to find a way to make the urban lighting more alive and more intuitive when I thought of creating a firefly observatory. Quickly, I realized the need to involve in this concept the optical technology in order to make the installation viable. Matters of form naturally came from the different components of the project: between the constraints of the lighting beings, the shape of the lenses and the desire to integrate the system into city parks, the device naturally drew itself.

How would you react if this project becomes reality?

I would be thrilled! Of course, Survivances is still unrealistic as the current state of most of our cities would not allow to reintroduce this type of insects so sensitive to pollution. In an optimistic future, the project could be developed as an experiment in collaboration with entomologists and scientists. But with this prize and the fact that it is being talked and written about, Survivances is already a reality by the credit given to this type of alternative approach.

How would it change the city environment?

By removing the lamps in favour of moving lights, Survivances would help limit light pollution found in urban parks. The senses are awakened: between the sky and the earth, the elements return to their natural conditions and firefly observatories getting the spotlight reveal the poetic force of a surprising bright landscape … This project would also help change the way we shape the future: to deal with what nature gives us in changing its principles with intelligence and respect.

What have you learned working on this project?

Of course, I did extensive research on the fireflies and I learned a lot about these insects … This project experience has also reinforced in me the belief that it is by teaming with nature and drawing on its way of working that we can invent systems that are poetic as well as clever.

What is your vision for the future of street lighting?

At the city level, I see it scattered, subtle, parsimonious, and above all treated in harmony with the city and its components. I see it more integrated in development projects, as much in its lighting function as in the development of the nocturnal landscape and also as its general design. For lighting but also for the urban furniture in general, I am not convinced by the systematic approach that generates the ranges of furniture in place in cities: they homogenize and impoverish rather than sublime.

Where would you like to be professionally in ten years?

I would like to see my current projects take shape, and work on more and more collaborations. I would like to expand my current business as a designer/visual artist by working on experimental projects.