Rare Earthenware

Unknown Fields is a nomadic design research studio led by Kate Davies and Liam Young that investigates global industrial ecologies. A collaboration with the ceramic artist Kevin Callaghan and the photographer Toby Smith produced ceramics and a video that have the extraction of rare earths as their theme.
China produces more than 95 percent of the rare earths that are processed worldwide. They are used today to make batteries, solar panels and electronics for entertainment. Unknown Fields used toxic mud, a waste product from the extraction of rare earths from radioactive lake in Inner Mongolia, to produce three vases. The size of the vessels exactly corresponds to the quantity of waste that arises in the production of a smartphone, a laptop and the battery of an electric car.