This project was initiated in 2012 by Sabine Schulz Blank, photographer and geographer living in Berlin. Sabine is currently enrolled in a M. Sc. in Geographical Development Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin, where she is also employed as a student research assistant at the Department for Sustianable Development, Governance and Geographic Gender Research. She obtained a B.A. in Photography at the Arts University College Bournemouth, UK and has since then continued to work on documentary and landscape photography projects, which have led to publications and exhibitions. While in England she worked as account executive for the image library Gallery Stock as well as a freelance photographic assistant. Sabine also obtained a B.Sc. in Geographical Sciences at the Freie Universität Berlin. Durnig her studies she was employed as an assistant at Studio Olafur Eliasson as well as a student research assistant at the Leibnitz Institut für Regionalentwicklung und Strukturplanung. During her studies in Berlin she organized a self-determined university seminar in Tunisia with a group of fellow students, documenting the changes to the public sphere in the aftermath of the Yasmine revolution. Sabine's B.Sc. thesis in Geography forms the analytical and theoretical framework for the Brazil nut briquetting project, it will be published in 2015.
In 2013, the brazil nut briquetting project entered its empirical phase of field research. Two new members joined the project:
Jan Bovelet studied Architechture (Dipl. Ing.) and Philosophy (Mag. Phil.) at the Technische Universität Berlin. During this time he was employed as a student research assistant at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, as well as a research associate at both the project Shrinking Cities and the Bauhaus Dessau. After Graduation he worked as aresearch associate at the Faculty of Design at the Libera Universtá Bolzano (Italy) and the Department of Architectural Theory at the Technische Universität in Berlin. Jan is doing a variety of freelance work in the fields of design, film set building, curational projects and art education (e.g. Seminar at the Faculty of Design in Potsdam or the Deutsche Schülerakademie). He has been part of the collective The Anxious Prop and Urbikon. An extensive summary of Jan's involvement and projects can be found at the site Stadtinnenarchitektur.
Wolfgang Ramisch did a B.A. in Fine Art Photography at the Arts University College Bournemouth, UK. After his studies he worked as a freelance photo assistant. Taking pictures all over the world, he was on a sailboat trip, sailing approx. 12000 miles from the Carribean Sea to the Islands of Fiji. One of the latest projects Wolfgang was involved with was the Unreal Estate House, which was a project initiated by Van Bo Mentzel. The project took place at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich in summer 2013. Currently living in Berlin, Wolfgang is working as a carpenter in order to be able to continue his photographic work.
Building a mill for the grinding of brazil nut capsules in Oriximiná, Brazil. From left to right: Sabine, Wolfgang, Jan. December 2013