Pillow Culture is a research based design studio dedicated to the development of innovative pillows using current material technologies relating to human comfort, beauty and well-being. In their ongoing collaborations with artists, scientists, and cultural historians, Pillow Culture investigates the research and development of new pillow prototypes that broaden everyday attitudes toward the pillow. To date, Pillow Culture has constructed, exhibited, and collaborated on pillows that include: a set of giant upholstered boulders, a 20-foot day glow pink inflatable, an elaborate sex cushion for the post-menopausal woman, and a public soft bench for the City of Boston. Their recent pillow installations with affiliated events include: TEST BED: a Modern Abaton, Aronson Gallery, New School University, foregrounding human sleep and the passive slumbering body as a site for new spatial paradigms, and New Circadia, Adventures in Mental Spelunking, Daniel’s Gallery, University of Toronto, speculating on differing notions of time and altering states of human consciousness.
FOUNDERS
Co-founder Natalie Fizer holds architecture degrees from Cooper Union and Princeton University. She is an assistant professor of architecture at Parsons the New School for Design. Her work and research has explored the production of both architectural and cultural artifacts that have resulted in the curation and design of various exhibitions including: Tailoring Form: a brief look at the history of the template, exhibited at the pinkcomma Gallery, Boston, traveling also to New York City and Toronto; Artificial Memory, an exhibit surveying the history of memory devices. Natalie is the recipient of two New York State Council on the Arts grants and a New York Foundation for the Arts grant.
Co-founder Emily Stevenson trained as an architect at Barnard College and London’s Architectural Association. She has worked closely as a materials consultant to artists and the trade exploring possibilities of materials beyond their industrial standard. Emily worked at the Guggenheim Museum for eight years in the Exhibitions Department where she also acted as the materials consultant for several exhibitions. Emily’s architectural training evolved into a focus on new material technologies resulting in her position as the first Materials Curator of the Donghia Materials Library and Study Center at Parsons. She currently works with art advisory services and has her own design practice and materials consultancy in NYC.
COLLABORATORS
Sutton Murray holds a BFA from Parsons School of Design in Product Design and was the university shop technician at NYIT specializing in wood fabrication, casting, and metalwork. Sutton is currently producing SUTT’s STUFF, an independent product line, and has collaborated with Pillow Culture since 2012. Starting with their winning competition, KNOTbench, a public bench in Boston’s city harbor, Sutton has been instrumental in the development of multiple Pillow Culture projects from concept through installation. His most recent collaboration has been as the primary generator of designs and templates for Pillow Culture’s TEST BED: a Modern Abaton and installation fabrication for New Circadia: Adventures in Mental Spelunking.
Natalia Vlachopoulou is a recent graduate from the Interior Design Master of Fine Arts program at Parsons, The New School. Originally from Nafplio, Greece, she received her Architecture and Engineering degree at the National and Technical University of Athens. Natalia is a designer and a scientist, a curator of diverse, aesthetically and disciplinary promiscuous worlds. She crafts narratives for spaces hosting versatile worlds inspired by diverse perspectives. Her specialty lies in experiential design and narrative environments. Natalia has taught Interior Design at Parsons, The New School and currently is a PIllow Culture design collaborator.
CONTRIBUTORS
Sean Barbe
Michael Cheung
J Junior Chun
Glenn Forley
Nancy Kim
Lauren Kogod
Yuki Nakayama
Eric Payson
Aura Phongsirvech
