At its core, Kinship Through Rice is not just about rice. It is about relationships.
Developed through a collaboration between Navetta Studio and Design Ecologies, the project explores how people, land, and knowledge systems are deeply connected. Instead of treating rice as a commodity, the project positions it as a starting point to rethink how we engage with ecology, culture, and design.
What makes this project stand out is its form. Rather than a fixed output, it exists as a living archive, continuously evolving through collaboration across disciplines and contexts.
When reality becomes part of the process
From the beginning, the collaboration was anything but linear. The process unfolded alongside real-world challenges, such as health issues, lost work due to technical failure, and even external disruptions like city lockdowns and environmental crises. During the project, Bali experienced severe flooding, caused in part by overdevelopment that disrupted traditional water systems such as subak, the very landscapes central to the project’s narrative.
Instead of stopping the work, these conditions became part of it. They reinforced the urgency of the project’s core idea. That current environmental crises cannot be addressed using the same extractive logic that caused them in the first place. What is needed instead is a shift towards relational thinking. One that values care, reciprocity, and long-term ecological balance.
Learning through rice
One of the project’s key approaches is storytelling through audio-visual work.
Rather than presenting knowledge in a conventional way, the team developed an audio-visual poem that brings together voices from different sources–human, environmental, and technological. In this format, knowledge is not explained, but experienced.
The process becomes collaborative in a different sense. Not just between people, but between bodies, tools, and landscapes. This approach reflects a deeper intention. To move away from dominant frameworks that treat nature as a resource, and instead recognise it as something we are in relationship with.
From collaboration to regeneration
As the collaboration deepened, it also opened up new possibilities.
One of the most tangible directions is the development of rice-waste materials. The idea is to transform agricultural by-products into valuable, circular materials that support both ecological restoration and local economies.
The project has also gained recognition through the Innovate UK Breakthrough Founders Programme, helping expand its potential into future applications and partnerships.
