Julie Merlino is an interdisciplinary designer and material researcher. Her practice lies at the intersection of design, craft and scientific research and focuses on materiality, ecosocial thinking and experimental processes. In her work, she explores how traditional techniques and contemporary technologies can coexist, not in opposition, but in dialogue.
With a background in textiles, she finds in working with materials an infinite field of possibilities, stories and questions. She approaches design as both a conceptual and a physical practice, viewing it as a space for research, where uses, meanings and narratives can be questioned, displaced or reinvented.
Over the past few years, her research has focused on the interactions between light and matter, and how these phenomena can reveal hidden processes and relationships. Light, by its capacity to activate, energise or transform materials, becomes a key for exploring physical and symbolic transitions, from photosynthesis (EcoDial), to refraction and iridescence (A Change in Frequency), to energy transfer (Solar Matters).
Through these projects, she addresses contemporary ecosocial questions by observing and interpreting natural processes and human practices alike. Her work aims to propose new perspectives where material becomes a medium of dialogue, between nature and technology, humans and non-humans, craft and science, present and future.
With a background in textiles, she finds in working with materials an infinite field of possibilities, stories and questions. She approaches design as both a conceptual and a physical practice, viewing it as a space for research, where uses, meanings and narratives can be questioned, displaced or reinvented.
Over the past few years, her research has focused on the interactions between light and matter, and how these phenomena can reveal hidden processes and relationships. Light, by its capacity to activate, energise or transform materials, becomes a key for exploring physical and symbolic transitions, from photosynthesis (EcoDial), to refraction and iridescence (A Change in Frequency), to energy transfer (Solar Matters).
Through these projects, she addresses contemporary ecosocial questions by observing and interpreting natural processes and human practices alike. Her work aims to propose new perspectives where material becomes a medium of dialogue, between nature and technology, humans and non-humans, craft and science, present and future.
EXHIBITIONS
2026
Biennale Objet Textile, La manufacture de Roubaix (FR)
2025
z33 Museum (Hasselt, BE)
2024
Texture Museum (Kortijk, BE) Wonder Festival (Kortrijk, BE)
2022-23
The Energy Show - Het Institut (Rotterdam, NL)
2022
Van Pasvorm tot Polygon,
Centraal Musuem (Utrecht, NL)
AWARDS & FuNDS
2026
MIRA - Institut Français
2024
Stichting Stokroos - Seed Grant