Jesse Butterfield

Jesse Butterfield is a designer and researcher based in London whose practice investigates the entangled relationships between material cultures, places, and the systems that shape them. Engaging with hands-on-making as both method and inquiry, his projects often unfold through the dynamics of material behavior, embracing unpredictability as a site of knowledge. His presented objects have emerged from an exploration of sheet steel’s malleability and its capacity to behave like paper. Beginning with a series of maquettes, the research focuses on scaling up the naivety of the paper prototypes into steel. In its transition from paper to steel, scissors give way to laser cutting and tape become welds maintaining the cartoonish charm of its original maquette.