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Introduction

“Could we classify the luxuriant growth of objects as we do a flora or fauna, complete with tropical and glacial species, sudden mutations, and varieties threatened by extinction? Our urban civilization is witness to an ever-accelerating procession of generations of products, appliances and gadgets by comparison with which mankind appears to be a remarkably stable species.”

— Jean Baudrillard, The System of Objects, 1968, tr. James Benedict, 1996, 2005

Heart of Glass is a research project led by ECAL’s Master Product Design department between 2012 and 2014. This project was set out over four workshops, all of which followed distinct objectives, yet which all aimed to question the potential of glass in contemporary art and design. Their pragmatic approach and simple proposals enabled the participants to produce extraordinary results. This project also provided an opportunity to set up a brand new model in the field of creative research with students at the heart of the process. Alexis Georgacopoulos, ECAL director, stresses that:

“The starting point for this research was to involve the students wherever possible as they are the ones which give the school its dynamism and identity! The specificity of this research project is that the process is as important as the out­come. Heart of Glass is an exploration in­tended for, and carried out by, the Master students, which opens up new, sometimes unre­strain­ed, perspectives on the world of glass.”