On Stage Design Indaba 2017: Nelly Ben Hayoun

Bounding onstage in an astronaut’s jumpsuit, the Nelly Ben Hayoun deployed her trademark ‘total bombardment’ technique as she presented her latest project, ‘The Life, the Sea and the Space Viking’. Both a space odyssey and a viking saga, the work merges the fields of astrobiology, terraforming and research of extremophiles as it prepares to document a submersible expedition 11km under the sea to uncover our ‘biological archeology’. Known as the Willy Wonka of design and science, Ben Hayoun uses chaos, curiosity and unbridled joy as a method of public engagement, to bring people as close to the experiences as possible. Known as the Willy Wonka of design and science, experience designer Nelly Ben Hayoun is a director and creator of the impossible.