Devil is in the details

Baptiste Compte makes emotion and function interact. The detail is the strength of this work giving birth to unique, terribly beautiful and moving pieces where you can dwell on every inch and discover all the talent of this young man.

   GOOD SESSIONS
Could you introduce yourself in a few lines?  Can you give us some information about your background, education, training formation. How did you come to what you do today?

   BAPTISTE COMTE
Hi, my name is Baptiste Comte, I’m French and I’m a artist/designer since this summer 2020, specialized in product making or we could call it functional art.

   GS
Can you give us some information about your background, education, training formation. How did you come to what you do today?

   BC
I started my education in France, towards law studies where I got a bachelor degree, and I didn’t pursue further. After that I took a year off which allowed me to discover deeper the design realm which made me understand what design was really about.

The year after, I’ve been accepted in the Design Academy of Eindhoven in 2016 where I’ve developed my creativity and where could it stands.

   GS
If you graduated from School, what do you keep from this experience (network, methodology/structuration,investigation).

   BC
As said previously, I graduated from the Design Academy of Eindhoven in the summer 2020. It has been 4 intense and rewarding years. This school is teaching you how to teach yourself I would say. Through their philosophy, you learn by doing and from what you are interested in. You are very free and need to find your way of thinking and doing. There is no template to follow or
much rules to respect, and I had to set a working structure by myself
and for myself.

But sometimes, I can’t hide that this freedom could be discussed, if you can do whatever you want, why would you go to a school then? Eventually, the school had brought me a very interesting and solid network throughout the different individual interests that it gathers. Therefore I would even say that my work is very much influenced by this network in constant
movement and development.

   GS
Are you a designer, an artist? Is it important to make a difference?

   BC
Some would consider me a designer, some would consider me an artist. I personally think that it’s difficult to make a clear difference between the two because their definition isn’t framed or precise enough to make one. Their boundaries are subjective and up to anyone, therefore an absolute definition wouldn’t be realistic. However I do think it’s important to know where you are standing and know how to define yourself through a relatable status. I would consider myself as a product designer more than an artist. What is important is to know what gather this title for yourself I would say.

   GS
Where do you find inspiration? What are the themes touched by your work?

   BC
My design practice focuses on revealing new responses beyond overlooked material properties through an intuitive and/or thoughtful investigation. I try to stretch the potential of a material to let its simplicity emerging. I would say that I believe that beauty hide into details waiting for their value to be discovered among already known properties. If a material has been known and seen 1000 times then I would like to take a look at it 1 more time in a way.

   GS
Can you highlight some of your influences and explain how it impacts your ideas? Are they evolving or changing with time?

   BC
I would say that my work is influenced by a certain style, movement or aesthetic constantly changing. My practice gather main focuses like functional objects materials interests, shapes but the aesthetic or style can be quite versatile somehow. I have been surrounded by and educated with a lot of different people from different places in the world and my inspirations are evolving regarding my surroundings and how this diversity is growing around me.

   GS
Is there a past or a personal interest that we should know to understand your work?

   BC
There is no past or personal interest in my work mostly, if people can see and receive what I’m trying to aim, it makes my work complete. But I don’t necessarily need them to understand but if they can appreciate with their own interest, it becomes also interesting I would say.

   GS
If you're now living in a different country than your original one, does this mix of culture have an impact on you, your work and ideas? Do you see any difference between these two countries and systems regarding art and design?

   BC
As I never had the opportunity to receive a French education regarding design and art I can’t tell much. I developed my design education in the Netherlands and of course I can feel a strong identity from the «droog» design. Even if the Dutch culture isn’t the most opposite to the French one, I can feel a different way of looking at art and design thanks to their different way of educating since the youngest age. Do I feel an influence of this culture in my practice ? I wouldn’t say so specifically. As I said I’ve been around a lot of people from all around the globe during my years at the DAE and I think I’ve been influenced more by this international network, producing a big design diversity, more than the Dutch design especially.

   GS
How important is the process in your work facing aesthetic or functionality?

   BC
I would say that process is as important as the outcome if there is one. One can’t go without the other. On my practice, the process is mostly intuitive and will define if the outcome will be aesthetic based, functional based or both at the same time. It’s important to me to let some doors opened in the process in order to offer a maximum of possibilities before to make choices for an outcome.

   GS
How do you make your choice of process, materials, aesthetic? Do you have a "method" like first the material then the process or the reverse...

   BC
Even if I don’t stick to a strict method on how to realize a project, I mostly work from a material, technique or an aesthetic that I’m interested in and then I develop the thinking/making research around this element.

   GS
How would you describe your work to someone who's not used to the art and design's world ? A complete newbie.

   BC
I would say that my work is about making functional objects bringing either an emotion or whatever interest in the object, materialized through a craft or a special technique. These last can be unique or in series regarding the type of object and project I’m working on.

   GS
What do you aim to say in general through your pieces? 

   BC
The topic is never the same, may work doesn’t focus on specific things but on things that I’m moved or affected at the moment. Most of the time, I try to reveal a part of a material or a technique that has been missed out in order to show the beauty or the sensitivity that surround us instead of taking them for granted.

   GS
What are you expecting from viewers to note when they see your work? 

   BC
Well, I expect them to feel something, whether it is for 2 second feeling or 10 minutes one. No matter what kind of feeling.

   GS
If they understand or feel something different than what you meant to say or suggest, is that a problem? What does it do or would do to you?

   BC
That’s exactly why I’m interested in the functional art. The interpretations are so broad from a functional to emotional perspective. It would be maybe pretentious to believe that people will feel the exact purpose of your work. If they do, then my job is complete but it will maybe not go further. If they don’t or interpret it differently, it brings other layers on the piece to discuss about. At the end, it creates a versatile approach on the work, asking to grow and evolve over feedbacks and opinions.

   GS
What relationship do you have with digital? 

   BC
I think digital is something we shouldn’t avoid even if for the makers. Within our generation of young designers, social medias are a good platform to provide and show our work. It became our public portfolio in some ways. So instead to fight against it, I try to know how to use the system to make it beneficial to the work. Digital becomes accessible to everyone and a lot of content is published on it, therefore it’s also difficult for any young creative to not drawn under the massive publication stream, (so is my situation).
Also, I sincerely hope that digital will not take over the physical if it’s not already the case. I want to believe that creative field isn’t only about liking pictures but objects. And that’s why I think we, as makers and craftsman, have an important role to play nowadays to make the experience of the
physical still exciting.

Discarded Ingots. Preparatory work.

   GS
As you noticed :),  the world is going through a global pandemic, does it have an impact on you, your work or project(s)? 

   BC
Of course it had an impact on my way of thinking and doing but I think everyone felt an impact in their practice, in a positive or negative way. Every worldwide crisis haste societies to question their own values and their way of functioning. As Lidewij Edelkoort said, this Corona crisis would bring us a new blank page to process and work further on. Indeed, this pandemic definitely brought forward new questions on the creative stage. This period interrogates our own practice and leave space to new answers to search for.
But we have to be careful to make a difference between the creative field using this period as a self promotion ground and providing a honest proposal to progress or collaborate with/on the situation.
Eventually, Covid_19 puts our societal achievements to the test and and reinforce the idea of a need to focus on what is essential to the well being of a person, and therefore a population.

   GS
Any piece of advice for young people to enter the world and system of contemporary creations? 

   BC
As I don’t have much experience yet to be able to bring clear and advanced advice to any young people, as I am one. But I would recommend to think always that the creative field works and can survive thanks to a network and a group of people. I believe that, in those times, it’s important to
stand with/a group of creative and bring solutions or proposal together in order to have a better impact on what you would like to achieve.

   GS
Do you have a new project in mind? Or a more global concept or vision you'd like to
investigate in?

   BC
For now I want to develop the project I’m already working on. Those projects were my graduation projects, and I don’t really want to stick to them but making them evolving.

   GS
Anything you want to talk about?

   BC
Just to thank you.