BIO
Diane Leclair Bisson was born in 1960 in Montréal, where she lives and works. She has studied design, humanities and social sciences, obtaining a M.Sc. in Anthropology, a M.A. in Museology, and a Ph.D. in Theory and History of Design (RCA, 2000). In keeping with this multi-disciplinary path, she explores spheres of creation where design and anthropology meet. For over 30 years, she has been a leading figure in Canada as both a practitioner and professor (Concordia, University of Montreal). With each of her design projects merge cultural research and experimentation with materials and technology to give products a socially and environmentally meaningful value. Previously recognized for her furniture design work in the 90s, she has been probing the world of sustainable food practice and nutrition since 2000, launching the pioneering Edible Container Project to reduce packaging waste. Bisson is the author of Edible: Food as material, les editions du Passage (2009). Her food projects has been the subject of numerous international exhibitions, including the 2005 World Exhibition, Aichi, Japan, and was winner of the Core 77 International Food Design Award in 2012. Diane Leclair Bisson is also pursuing fieldwork to develop sustainable funerary object design and associated service practices, bringing a user centered approach and provocative visual typologies to a traditionally conservative industry. Other current work includes ethnographic fieldwork and material research and development for diverse clients.
Member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
Member of the Quebec Industrial Design Association (ADIQ)
Member of the Board of Trade of the Metropolitan Montreal