Toronto Design Offsite Festival (TO DO)

The Toronto Design Offsite Festival (TO DO) is Canada’s largest cultural celebration of design with over 100 exhibitions and events forming Toronto’s design week. We take design out of the studio and into the city, bringing people together to celebrate design in Canada, January 15-21, 2018.

Matter

Recycled materials have tried-and-tested properties, such as endurance and strength…They bear within them a value, perhaps even a spirit that can be passed on to new structures.

Detritus, Waste, Salvage, André Guillerme surveys the afterlife of debris in Paris

Recycling is a daily act for the modern civic-minded citizen. Its intrinsic value instilled following the “3Rs” campaign of the late 1970s, we diligently sort our waste for processing elsewhere. But the methods, proximity, scale, inputs, and outcomes of recycling processes are massively diverse.

Matter explores acts of material transformation and change. It considers the possibility of material memory in which use leaves a mark, whether visible or invisible; the history and future of recycling processes from a personal to a global scale; and the mundane and ritualistic aspects of material use and applications. Matter asks the question: what happens when we take a long-term view of material life?

Call for submissions

Matter invites submissions from artists and designers working in all mediums and formats. We are open to projects expressed in 2- or 3-dimensions, digital or analog, whether they be object- or concept-based.

Submissions of existing work or realized projects are preferred; however, we will consider submissions of speculative  work and projects that have not yet been realized.

Work and projects will be exhibited during the Toronto Design Offsite Festival (TO DO), January 15-21, 2018.