Chantelle Baistow
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About
Chantelle Baistow is a UNSW PhD candidate and Masters of Design graduate with a background in interactive design and community leadership on the Central Coast, NSW. Her research focuses on socially engaged design and critical digital ceramics, bridging industry and community perspectives. Through innovative workshops and events, Chantelle has developed participatory approaches that enhance community discourse on matters of care. Her methodological work has included experimental design workshops at the Country Women's Association (2018), as part of the Powerhouse's Sydney Design Festival (2019) and with the Coal Ash Community Alliance
(2022 - 24), consistently exploring ways to increase meaningful participant engagement.
Chantelle’s research critically examines designers' potential to address complex societal challenges, particularly in communities experiencing energy transitions. Her co-design workshops have investigated wicked problems at the intersection of environmental and political issues and community engagement, focusing on approaches to energy transition in regions moving away from coal-fired power production. Previous workshops demonstrated the effectiveness of critical digital ceramics in developing environmental stewardship, exploring themes of hyper consumerism and waste, leading to her expanding her methodology to broaden stakeholder involvement and incorporate polluting materials like coal ash into design artifacts.
Artist Statement
From Waste to Care: Material-based Participatory Design in the Remediation of Coal Ash Dams
This paper explores coal-ash reuse in clay and the remediation of polluted sites through material-based participatory design. I am concerned with the aftermath of waste produced by coal-fired power generation in my local area of the Central Coast and Hunter regions in NSW, Australia. My research introduces creative and socially engaged approaches to addressing the effects of coal ash waste through a discursive design approach to catalyse the co-production of new knowledge. Ash is an ancient ceramic material forming some of the first glazes. The participatory design workshops comprise a drawing game that collects data on participants' observations of pollution, jobs, and new opportunities connected to energy transition industries and a 3D-printed clay activity reusing coal ash waste. The lens of political care, described by Maria Puig de la Bellacasa, frames my interpretation of historical approaches to recycling industrial waste in clay and counters human-centred design approaches to sustainability.
Drawing on Bellacasa’s definition of notions of care as remediating neglect of the environment, I include research on the remediation of communities and environments where coal ash waste is deposited and offer novel thoughts on the potential for socially engaged design workshops exploring materials-based participatory design as a viable approach for localised environmental remediation. The research repurposes and recycles coal ash in 3D-printed ollas, tiles, and pots designed by the participants. Ollas are environmentally beneficial objects; ancient unglazed pots can be used for refrigeration and irrigation in residential settings. The manufacture of these pots, among other items, has the potential to be scaled up and more ash to be used.