Zoë Chinonso Ene is a designer, design researcher, and experienced daydreamer trained in Industrial Design and working as a Sr. UX designer at Microsoft. As a Ph.D. candidate at the Royal College of Art’s School of Design, she researches heritage engagement methods in and for design/making processes within the Nigerian context, using Igbo historical material and creative culture as a starting point. Through her award-winning design studio and research collective, Homenkà, she explores an approach for creating and co-creating new objects and experiences that honor the historical past by synthesizing with the present to materially continue culture in the Nigerian context. Her latest ongoing research study, The Replica Project (TRP), blends photogrammetry, replication, and the design process to investigate questions of our proximity to heritage, with one of them being: In what other ways can repatriated or displayed objects in African museum archives find new life? By exploring the exact replication of a historical object steeped in a rich cultural context that makers can have direct access to, Zoë plans to observe and record the methods and ideas generated through proximal engagement and start a conversation with the creative community and public about stepping “beyond the museum glass” to encounter material history tangibly, playfully, and with more agency. TRP explores the untapped value of historical material culture within archives and by using replication to encourage proximal engagement for designers and makers who create the things we interact with daily.
The Replica Project
