MDEFest

​On June 19th, 2025, the final presentations of the Master in Design for Emergent Futures (MDEF) took place during MDEFest, a public festival hosted at Les Tres Xemeneies in Sant Adrià de Besòs. Alongside Ziming and Kevin, we formed a thematic cluster titled “My Body Will Tell,” inviting the audience to reflect on the intelligence of the body through three live performances exploring sweat, skin, and the gut.

Beyond presenting my own project, I was actively involved in co-curating MDEFest. As part of the team in charge of the exhibition design, we developed a system for mounting the flag series that introduced each participant’s personal stance. We engineered custom fixtures for flagpoles using 3D-printed supports and designed CNC-cut wooden bases to hold them upright. My main responsibility focused on the graphic identity of the pieces: creating the QR code stickers and the cut vinyl lettering displayed on the bases. I learned how to use the Silhouette Cameo vinyl cutter, an unexpected but satisfying hands-on skill.

The flag installation celebrated the diversity of perspectives within the MDEF program. Each student created a personal visual manifesto, answering the prompt: What do you stand for? My flag read “It’s Hot to Sweat”, reclaiming sweat as something powerful, visible, and unapologetic.

Our cluster opened the live performance series. We welcomed the audience together and guided them through a collective moment of introspection, before each of us performed individually. Throughout the session, visitors were invited to interact with a shared reflective canvas where they could draw, write, or respond physically to the experiences they witnessed. This canvas grew during the festival into a record of sensations, reactions, and thoughts.

For my solo performance, titled “Sweat Matters,” I sat under a heat cannon wearing a reactive T-shirt. My goal was simple but intense: to sweat live in front of the audience, to collect that sweat, and to talk about how this once-stigmatized fluid had become a source of design, healing, and empowerment in my project. As the heat increased, blue halos began to form under my arms, making visible what I once tried to hide.

Alongside the live reaction, I showcased my research and experimentation. One T-shirt hung nearby, covered in biomaterials and crystallized sweat, anchoring the months of testing that led to the final wearable piece. I also displayed a series of printed sweat cartographies, posters documenting the results of five different wear tests in varied physical and social contexts. Each map revealed how my body sweated in different situations, turning discomfort into data.

To close the performance, I used the sweat I had collected on stage to create a custom pigment mixed with BTB (Bromothymol Blue). With this color-changing ink, I invited the audience to contribute to the shared canvas. The act was simple but symbolic: sweat, once a source of embarrassment, now became a tool for expression and collaboration.