shadi el asaad

I’m a Lebanese-Belarusian designer and visual artist based in Berlin, Germany. With an academic background in psychology, I've cultivated a deep understanding of my own humanness, which I use to create functional art objects that communicate with the viewer on a reflective level. I see design and psychology as complementary disciplines: one studies humans while the other creates things for them.My artistic practice unites my passion for speculative design and psychology. In my latest projects, I've chosen chairs as my blank canvas to explore playful combinations of forms, materials, emotions, memories, and stories. In other words, chairs are the vehicle through which I convey my message.Objects, like people, take on their unique personalities, evolving over time and eventually revealing their stories. I am curious about the questions and insights that emerge when deeply exploring a single design object over an extended period of time, such as, how do constraints become catalysts for design innovation? Beyond their primary function, in what unexpected ways might chairs interact with or influence their surroundings and users? In an age of rapid technological advancement, how might traditional objects like chairs reinvent themselves or adapt? How might the transient nature of human emotions be captured or reflected in static objects like furniture?