During Dutch Design Week 2024, WhiteNoiseDada celebrated its fifth anniversary with a retrospective exhibition at Piet Hein Eek in Eindhoven. For the occasion, one of the spaces was transformed into a small gallery presenting a selection of works from the studio’s first five years.

The exhibition brought together a wide range of projects, from compressed artificial plants and the plastic waste of The Load to the MING vase, Shutter Light, the glass works developed with local makers in Kampala, pieces from the BLING exhibition, and the Order Now! lamp. Alongside these works, we presented new experiments with discarded plastic, developed using our own heat press.

Seeing the works together offered an opportunity to look back at five years of making, experimenting, and questioning. The materials and techniques vary widely, but a common thread runs through the work. We are interested in existing things, materials, and objects, particularly those that have been overlooked, discarded, or reduced in value through mass consumption.

Rather than hiding their previous lives, we often make them more visible. Plastic waste becomes a new material, artificial flowers become still lifes, and everyday objects are transformed into collectible pieces. Each work starts from a different story, but all of them explore how material, context, and perception can change the way we understand value.

The retrospective was a moment to see this diversity together for the first time. Five years of WhiteNoiseDada became one exhibition, showing not a fixed style, but an ongoing practice of experimenting with materials, ideas, and the stories objects carry.