Craft in the Anthropocene is a speculative design project which raises questions and stirs a debate around the novel theory of the Anthropocene. Through our collective actions, we have become over time a global geophysical force intertwined with the most powerful forces of nature. We spread specific elements in nature, rare in the pre-human era, which will become prevalent sediments, building up the future planetary strata. Observing this shift, I catalysed this slow geological phenomenon to manufacture human-made minerals out of the most distinctive materials of our epoch ( plastics, aluminium, steel, concrete, glass, textiles, bones...).
Having developed a collection of anthropogenic materials, I created three objects around speculative scenarios based on real anthropogenic facts and events:
– A pestle made out of Cumbria bone marble resulting from the 2001 foot and mouth disease in Cumbria, UK.
– A mortar made out of PPC (Pacific Plastic Crust). The scenario envisions the current plastic pollution of the Pacific Ocean as a future resource.
– A aluminium vessel, pointing our prolific aluminium industry and its spillage in the Thames river.

Yesenia Thibault-Picazo, born 1987 in Paris, is a London based designer. She graduated from the MA Textile Futures course at Central Saint Martins in 2013.