Studio Dust was founded in 2014 by Annemarie Piscaer (NL), whose practice is inspired by dust—tiny particles that drift invisibly through the air, forming ever-changing clouds. Through situated design, the studio uses materials as narrative tools to make invisible phenomena and complex systems tangible, exploring how knowledge emerges through material engagement. Studio Dust develops design experiments and research-by-design projects, both self-initiated and in collaboration with others.
Annemarie is a designer, researcher, educator, and PhD candidate in the Doctoral Programme at KU Leuven and LUCA School of Arts (Genk), within the Unfolding Ecologies research department. Supervised by Dr. Vrancken, Dr. Claes, and Dr. Van Dartel, her PhD project, Aerial and Airing, a Situated Design Approach: Mapping Environmental Data through Material, is part of JUST ART: Creating Common Grounds for Climate Justice Through Artistic Research, funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). She is also affiliated with the Avans Centre of Applied Research for Art, Design and Technology (CARADT), within the Situated Art, Design and Technology Research Group.
She holds a BA from the Design Academy Eindhoven and an MA in Education in Arts from the Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam. Her master’s research, As a Designer I’m an Expert, I’m an Amateur, explored real-life learning networks such as City Labs, focusing on the shifting roles of designers as both professionals and amateurs.
Annemarie teaches and develops educational programmes and workshops. At St. Joost School of Art & Design she co-developed the minor Material Ecologies, and previously contributed to the Biobased Art and Design research group through the project The Garden that Sees, Smells, and Hears (2022–2024), investigating more-than-human learning environments in design education.
Previously, she lectured at St. Joost School of Art & Design (2018-2025) the Design Academy Eindhoven (2018–2023) and Artemis Academy (2014–2016), and has been a visiting lecturer at institutions including the Willem de Kooning Academy (Rotterdam), the Design Campus Summer School at the Kunstgewerbemuseum Dresden, LT Ranch Summer School (Lithuania), Weissensee Kunsthochschule Berlin, and the Institute of Creativity and Innovation (ICI) at Xiamen University (China).
She has served as an external advisor for the Creative Industries Fund NL (Open Call City Lab, 2018–2019), the Crafts Council Nederland (2025–2026), and the BKRK Award Bokrijk (2026), and as a jury member for the Henry van de Velde Awards (Craft & Design, 2026). She currently serves on the supervisory board of the EKWC, the international post-academic research centre for ceramics.
Annemarie was co-founder of Lab AIR (until 2025), together with Iris de Kievith, a design collective dedicated to exploring air-related issues. Their project Smogware (2017–2025) transformed air pollution into ceramic tableware coloured by captured smog particles.
Between 2015 and 2020, she was an active member of the Rotterdam City Lab Air Quality (Stadslab Luchtkwaliteit), a citizen initiative exploring air quality through spatial interventions and collective knowledge production. The City Lab received the Job Dura Prize in 2018.