Wunderbiz was the name under which Ilana Mitchell collaborated with both people and organisations to explore and create playful, alternative approaches to traditional business models and structures.
In order to expose ethical or practical conundrums, these were devised as genuine, workable alternatives that would offer real opportunities to customers and investors.
Every stage of the business process was considered and important, not just the final transaction, and – although their primary aim was not in reality profit driven – any money made was put back into non-profit-making artistic outputs.
As well as a number of ideas that never left the ground, 3 did have real life products and projects: Edicure, Sauna Nation and Good Feels Cool Friends, originally known as The Wunderbar Foundation.
Edicure
Edicure – the edible manicure: a biodegradable, delicious, unisex, non-toxic, non-permanent fashion accessory – an easy and fun-to-remove alternative to traditional nail polishes and extensions. Launched as a commercial product in 2018 following four years of live events. You can read more about it here, and it also has its own dedicated website
Sauna Nation
Sauna Nation explored the idea of home-built travelling saunas as centres for social interaction and for wellbeing. Read more about the inspiration behind Sauna Nation.
The original aim was to make a business of providing travelling saunas to festivals or conventions for socialising, or for summits and meetings to create a warm environment for discussing difficult issues.
While looking at possible uses, we would also be looking at the benefits of saunas. This also playfully explored ideas around the potential for saunas as offering an alternative to pharmaceutical therapies, as well as what a differing approaches to communal, social nudity show about the global communication of local customs.
There were two live events – a makeshift steam room in Generator gallery in Dundee, as well as a collection of wooden saunas built with University of Tasmania architecture students and installed in the city park in Launceston, Tasmania as part of a residency Ilana had at Junction Arts Festival.
