Jillian Bruchera’s concept for her Thesis Project will have even more traction after the exhibition is over next spring. Her Mobile Mill, an automobile outfitted with machinery to enable hand papermaking production, is designed in the vein of the recent surge in DIY and Pop-Up artistic sites, performances, and events. Like mobile canteens that bring food to where the people are, Bruschera’s studio-on-wheels will take creative making out of the traditional classroom or studio, and out into the world.
“My studio-on-wheels has such great potential as a site of connection,” says Bruschera. “I’m hoping to generate a type of community interaction that considers a larger human ecology. As a moving-space able to interact between edges, The Mobile Mill considers art-making – in my case, the making of paper – as a way to engage in a variety of communities and dialogues. With a focus on experiential learning and community outreach, The Mobile Mill is a space for physical, social, and artistic interaction.”
Bruschera sees her moveable paper studio as providing a creative space for new learners, practicing artists and potential collaborators, with a focus on repurposing materials. “The Mobile Mill has the potential to create new forms of engagement between peoples, spawn civic responsibility, and offer platforms for societal problem-solving.”
To finance the construction of the Mobile Mill, Jillian has launched an online IndieGoGo Campaign. With just under sixty days to go, pledges to the campaign will help her acquire the hardware and machine parts she’ll need to retrofit a truck into a mobile paper making studio. The truck itself will also purchased with funds from the campaign. “As a portable space that can make both scheduled and spontaneous pit-stops, there are endless opportunities for collaborations and locations are perhaps infinite,” says Bruschera. To see more schematics for the retrofit, and track the plans as they develop, click here.
To make a contribution to the campaign and to “share” it online and spread the word, click here.
