How are we affected by the feeling of being neither inside nor outside a society, but in an intermediate state? And what significance does that in-betweenness have on our identity, our references and our design language? What exactly is ‘mellanform’?

I have experienced a kind of intermediate existence for a very long time.  A clear feeling of not belonging to a society or a culture. A constant attempt to fit in and navigate between different cultural, linguistic and social references. Not least when it comes to visual references and my own design language. Unfortunately, I have perceived it as a conflict rather than seeing it for what it is—a meeting, a hybrid language, an intermediate form.

What is a hybrid language? And above all, what happens if it occurs within a liminal space? If different references are combined and create something new, what does that look like? What is my Mellanform?

Based on Homi K. Bhabha's postcolonial theories on hybridity and Third Spaces, I have examined my own visual references that are based on my background, identity and my intermediate status. The visual reference library that I have gathered has created the foundation for my Mellanform, a textile work, in which everything from typography to colour, form and material, is informed by my own hybrid language.