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Charred Wood is a research creation project that re-frames and regenerates material by understanding our relationships with the land, material, and ecological narratives within communities. Charred Wood is a multidisciplinary project led by Material Matters involving designers, artists, scientists, and a local BC community. The project’s research creation activities and material developments provide insight and understanding of forest fire impacts on local materials and communities.

Material Matters affiliated faculty, students, and community stakeholders began working with wood biochar adjacent to the expertise of scientists. Designers, artists, Indigenous knowledge keepers, and scientists worked together to address our evolving relationships with woodchar and the land. This was an opportunity for knowledge creation in our respective disciplines. Community Elders provided wisdom, knowledge, and direction, scientists contributed specific material expertise as designers and artists explored possibilities of reconstituting charred wood for new print mediums and diverse applications through iterative prototyping and print tests. Our collaboration with our UBC colleagues (BPI + CERC) afforded new material insights and ways of approach.

Material Matters Research Team: Helene Day Fraser, Keith Doyle, Aaron Oussoren

Material Matters Research Assistants: Shayla M Giroux, Naga Lakshmi Sreya, Connor Simpson, Eden Eisses, Shelly Kositsky, Luke Dunn, Ophir Barzilay, Jose Kuribrena

Project partners: Chief Mike Campbell, The Boothroyd Band; Dr Orlando Rojas, Scientific Director, BioProducts Institute (BPI), UBC; Dr Xiaotao (Tony) Bi, Director, UBC - Clean Energy Research Centre, (CERC) UBC; Dr. Elena Erfanian- Post Doc, BioProducts Institute (BPI), UBC; Dr. Peyman Alizadeh- Post Doc, UBC - Clean Energy Research Centre, (CERC) UBC; Alexander Babin - PhD Graduate Research Assistant, Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC), UBC