How do we understand the concept of cuisine? What role is food playing in connection to our identity? Is it inseparably linked to nationality?


Food is an excellent medium to observe, examine and attempt to understand changes in society, especially in relation to the idea of nation-states and native cuisines. The project explores this thought further and questions our relationship with culinary traditions through an embroidered tablecloth and a dining experience. 


A tablecloth, and certainly one that is hand-embroidered by an ancestor, will often be passed on through generations and subsequently gain new layers of meaning. It serves not only as a carrier of information but with usage becomes a canvas and an artefact to record its history. The tablecloth in this project serves as the foundation of a dining experience which brings together six people and six variations of the same dish: Szałot, Salada Russa, Italienischer Salat, Macédoine, Francoska Solata and Mišrainė. Through embroidered patterns and recipes, written in six native languages, the project challenges the idea of the authenticity of viands, and instead shows the fluidity and intangibility of cuisine.
It stresses the importance of community and regionalities by highlighting what connects them regardless of political borders. The meal facilitates a conversation with a focus on traditions and rituals around cooking, eating, sharing, and not least the emotions that accompany them.  

The project was mentioned in “The best and most striking of the Dutch Design Week” article by Financieel Dagblad.

 

How do we understand the concept of cuisine? What role is food playing in connection to our identity? Is it inseparably linked to nationality?


Food is an excellent medium to observe, examine and attempt to understand changes in society, especially in relation to the idea of nation-states and native cuisines. The project explores this thought further and questions our relationship with culinary traditions through an embroidered tablecloth and a dining experience. 


A tablecloth, and certainly one that is hand-embroidered by an ancestor, will often be passed on through generations and subsequently gain new layers of meaning. It serves not only as a carrier of information but with usage becomes a canvas and an artefact to record its history. The tablecloth in this project serves as the foundation of a dining experience which brings together six people and six variations of the same dish: Szałot, Salada Russa, Italienischer Salat, Macédoine, Francoska Solata and Mišrainė. Through embroidered patterns and recipes, written in six native languages, the project challenges the idea of the authenticity of viands, and instead shows the fluidity and intangibility of cuisine.
It stresses the importance of community and regionalities by highlighting what connects them regardless of political borders. The meal facilitates a conversation with a focus on traditions and rituals around cooking, eating, sharing, and not least the emotions that accompany them.  

The project was mentioned in “The best and most striking of the Dutch Design Week” article by Financieel Dagblad.

 

Our contribution to “Mental health for all” in collaboration with the GGzE is a critical reflection on the topic of mental health within the consumer market and consumerist culture. The strong correlation between physical state and mental well-being has become increasingly commodified, characterised by a surplus of products entering the market under the label of remedial instruments. It is said that there is a tool for every inch of the body, however, it is legitimate to ask ourselves to what extent the production of these is justifiable, and if so, who can allow it?


The catalogue is a collection of 55 objects. It can be seen as a publication educating about the enormous amount of devices marketed using mental health-related tags. The objects are sorted through categories such as name; price; tags; connected body parts; materials; year of creation; the designer; claimed benefits and the existence of scientific validation to present a broad overview of the issue.

The installation emphasises the claim that a remedy tool exists for every inch of the body. The critique is not aimed at the existence of individual pieces. It is rather pointing out the concern over the amount, means of production and marketing methods. The projected animation consists of layers of those objects, sorted by price ranges. It invites the viewer to reflect on how the industry is playing with our fears and needs to make a profit. In our understanding, such an important topic as mental well-being deserves proper help and care. The overuse of connected terms in marketing can be seen as harming and trivializing the issue.


With our project, we would like to encourage GGze clients and workers to re-think their relationship with such tools and gadgets and critically reflect on consumerism within the topic of mental health.  

 

Memory is both a result of and an influence on perception, attention, and learning. The past is created by our subjective recollections, which are not an exact representation of the truth but rather our interpretation of what we see, feel and think. Each person will recall the same event in a different way with other details being their key to remembering. Scrolling through Lucia’s archive of Lucca evoked memories from my childhood. Remembering that I visited Lucca as a small child I aimed to retrieve them led by specific elements from the archive that made me wonder. Obtained images together with retrieved memories and reimagined possible variations of them are set with anchors of actual events: pictures from my family’s album from our trip to Lucca and a herbarium with preserved plants which I collected in Tuscany around 18 years ago.

 

What is the essence of Silessianness? Is it possible for
a region, mostly known for its mines, to lose its selfhood after its closure when the industry had such an immense influence on its history, culture and values? The installation consists of four videos, each of them touching different aspects of what Silesian identity and mining culture mean to its inhabitants, how it affected their lives, and explore how the way it is perceived has changed over the decades. By contrasting archival, nostalgic videos with fragments of recent interviews with Silesians and a soundtrack by a local hip-hop artist who aimed to redefine its musical heritage, history, and the possible future of the region is set into a different perspective. Will the future become Silesian-less?

made with found archival footage
muisc: miuosh x zespół śląsk
interviewee: Adam Kowalski, Gerda Sobieraj, Ewelina Pieczka, Irena Twardoch

 

“Od kuchi” is a unique Japan travel guide focussing on the country’s cuisine and culture. This project won in the 19th Edition of Graduation Projects – an International Design Review of projects created by graduates of design studies from Central Europe and will be exhibited among 30 other winners at Zamek Cieszyn. It consists of a publication design, photo essay and texts – I am the author of all of the above. The idea to create this book was formed when I noticed the lack of desirable guide on the market and by combining my biggest passions – graphic design, traveling and food. I decided to create a practical, functional publication that will also explore social and cultural context as well as engage the readers. Japanese cuisine was the inspiration and a pretext to begin my story. It became the key to my guide which promotes conscious traveling.


The designing process was preceded by: analysing existing publications, verification of the need, collecting data, writing the book content, preparing photographs, determining and rethinking design foundations and problems. Earnest architecture of information helped me in dividing publication’s complicated structure into divisions, chapters, and subsections. Book’s layout was especially designed to help the reader cope with a big amount of information. It makes the navigation easy by clearly dividing the page into sections – informational and the body. It also provides a proper size of photographs. Pictograms and themed sections enable selective reading. Because of “what?” and “where?” segments it is easy to find appealing topics and locations of depicted places. Dictionary, map and table of contents are an additional help. The paperback book is perfectly binded and contains allonges that frames photos to direct attention to detail.
 

 

Photobook that sets pictures taken
in the United States in correlation with ones
from a village in Poland, my family lives in.  

Everyone around the world heard and possibly wondered about the American Dream. Especially in Poland, the USA is glorified as a place where everything is better. Comparing it with a small, uneventful place in our country aims to humanize this unrealistic dream.

 

Book design created during typography workshop for a publication which accompanied
an exhibition at Zachęta – National Gallery of Art.

The year 1968 is a time of the culmination of
a great number of wildly different political and social tensions, therefore it was crucial to layout this book in an eligible and logical way.
The persona I designed this publication for was an ambitious young adult who willingly decided to broaden his knowledge. To keep his interest throughout the immense amount of information and complicated literature I have planned a special column which highlighted the most interesting parts. Keywords before each chapter help with
the navigation and introduce the topics.

Researching and retrieving proper illustrations
and photographs, together with data acquire
was an important part of this task.
 

 

Silesia is undergoing transformation, with certain areas falling into disrepair.

"Było" ("Was"), a photo essay that examines the human connection to these abandoned places. Through a blend of digital photographs and Polaroid snapshots, the project captures individuals exploring these forgotten spaces.  

 

The opening sequence for Rosamund Young’s book The secret life of cows.

Stop motion animation about cheerful, happy cows living their everyday yet extraordinary lives under the watchful eye of our flashlight. Drew in Adobe Illustrator and post-produced in Adobe After Effects.

Music: Noah and the Whale 5 years time 

Poetry in motion
 

An animation, delving into the interpretation of Ludwig Wittgenstein's thesis number 5.634 from Tractatus logico-philosophicus: "Everything we see could also be otherwise." This thought-provoking concept is accompanied by Sergei Prokofiev's "Dance of Knights" from Romeo and Juliet, creating a captivating visual experience.

The animation unfolds in three distinct parts, each playing with the viewer's perception of dimension. It begins with a simple 2D portrayal, but as the object starts moving, so does the camera, leading to a more complex visual journey.

To add depth and enhance the overall impact, Adobe After Effects and TouchDesigner were employed  in post-production. The result is an exploration of alternate perspectives and the malleability of what we perceive.

Inside outside
 

Visual exploration of Bitamina – Total Kaos.

 

Riso graphic at Onomatopee, Eindhoven. 

 

Prints made in the litography studio at Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice.

Typology

typology /taɪˈpɑːləʤi/ nounplural typologies
formal: a system used for putting things into groups according to how they are similar : the study of how things can be divided into different types

How do people see?

archival photographs: "Okulistyka Współczesna" red. Witold Orłowski

etching

Aquatint and aquaforte eatching made in graphics studio at Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice

large format photography

Large format photography made at photography studio at Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice.

Designing National Cuisine  

The thesis examines whether the notion of national cuisines can be seen as the outcome of a deliberately designed system. At the same time, it challenges the understanding of the concept of national dishes. Based on the case study of Israel, it investigates how mechanisms and narrations employed by the Zionists and later the Israeli government around food, food culture and culinary practices were used to achieve a sense of national identity and unity as part of building a new nation.

The research drew on the examples of claimed ancestry, social constructs, government campaigns, cookbooks, propaganda and cultural appropriation to understand how those structures were created and shaped. Examples from different countries and cultures show how the main case study reflects a broader global pattern.

The thesis argues that the idea of national cuisine is used as a powerful political tool to influence citizens and their dietary habits, which therefore can be seen as a designed illusion. its purposes and success are debatable, but the conclusion stresses the importance of regionality, communities and how they nurture tradition and customs for generations often disregarding any political borders.