the unusual journey of a corn husk
about this contribution
The Unusual Journey of a Corn Husk is a film based on an investigation by Francesca Cozzolino into the production of design objects from corn cultivation in the state of Puebla, Mexico.
Using the medium of a visual narrative, this film presents the researcher’s fieldwork, and the data produced in the course of her ethnographic study, combining a local context (the decline of corn from Mexico’s semi-arid Mixteca region) to an event in contemporary global history (the NAFTA free trade agreements).
Narrated by an animated husk of corn which performs like a voice-over, the anthropologist recounts how Mexican designer Fernando Laposse, looking for a sustainable, local approach to design and a way to support a struggling farming community, successfully persuaded a group of families from the small village of Tonahuixtla in the state of Puebla to work the land using permaculture methods (milpa) and then take charge of processing the cultivated corn husks using semi-mechanical processes to produce an elegant coating material: Totomoxtle.
The voice-over, along with montage and 2D animation techniques, draws on the researcher’s photographic, video, and sound documents, as well as the creation of animated images, to convey the designer’s approach and the wider environmental issues this case raises.
Designed according to a three-voice approach, this film brings together an anthropologist, a documentary filmmaker specializing in the documentation of collective professional activities in the sciences, Coralie Maurin, and graphic designer Juliette Nier, who works with 2D animation tools to explore phenomena and confront realities that are difficult to grasp, sometimes incongruous or complex to explain.
The film explores the codes of fiction, documentary, and animation, giving viewers insight into a project positioned on the edge of crafted tradition and technical innovation. More broadly, the case of Totomoxtle raises the question of how a technique is conceived and passed on, in a context where the complex cultural, economic, political, and ecological hybridizations that characterize our contemporary worlds collide.
credits
authors: Francesca Cozzolino, Coralie Maurin, and Juliette Nier
production: Coralie Maurin
script: Francesca Cozzolino and Coralie Maurin
graphic design and animation: Juliette Nier
voice-over: Laura Flety
photography: Romain Courtemanche and Andrés Pulido Esteva
sound recording: Francesca Cozzolino
additional sound: Felix Blume
music: “Xochipitzawak,” Trío Colatlán de Don Heraclio Alvarado, Heracio Alvarado Tellez, Mauricio Juárez Joyner, César Juárez-Joyner, ©Mitote Digital 2022
rights and references
illustrations rights and references
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Pictures reproduced with permission:
Francesca Cozzolino, Coralie Maurin and Juliette Nier, Village 1, 2024. ©Photography: Andrés Pulido Esteva.
Francesca Cozzolino, Coralie Maurin and Juliette Nier, outils 2, 2024. ©Photography: Andrés Pulido Esteva.
Francesca Cozzolino, Coralie Maurin and Juliette Nier, outils 1, 2024. ©Photography: Andrés Pulido Esteva.
Francesca Cozzolino, Coralie Maurin and Juliette Nier, graines, 2024. ©Photography: Andrés Pulido Esteva.
Francesca Cozzolino, Coralie Maurin and Juliette Nier, épis de maïs, 2024. ©Photography: Andrés Pulido Esteva.
Francesca Cozzolino, Coralie Maurin and Juliette Nier, delfino5, 2024. ©Photography: Andrés Pulido Esteva.
Francesca Cozzolino, Coralie Maurin and Juliette Nier, delfino1, 2024. ©Photography: Andrés Pulido Esteva.
Francesca Cozzolino, Coralie Maurin and Juliette Nier, milpa2, 2024. ©Photography: Andrés Pulido Esteva.
Francesca Cozzolino, Coralie Maurin and Juliette Nier, P1033864, 2024. ©Photography: Andrés Pulido Esteva.
Francesca Cozzolino, Coralie Maurin and Juliette Nier, P1033814, 2024. ©Photography: Andrés Pulido Esteva.
Francesca Cozzolino, Coralie Maurin and Juliette Nier, P1033822, 2024. ©Photography: Andrés Pulido Esteva.
Francesca Cozzolino, Coralie Maurin and Juliette Nier, feuilles maïs, 2024. ©Photography: Andrés Pulido Esteva.
Francesca Cozzolino, Coralie Maurin and Juliette Nier, feuilles maïs2, 2024. ©Photography: Andrés Pulido Esteva.
Francesca Cozzolino, Coralie Maurin and Juliette Nier, série maïs, 2024. ©Photography: Romain Courtemanche.
Francesca Cozzolino, Coralie Maurin and Juliette Nier, série collection maïs, 2024. ©Photography: Romain Courtemanche.
©Fernando Laposse, courtesy of Fernando Laposse, 5M6A0598 copy copy “Panel Totomoxtle”, 2018
©Fernando Laposse, courtesy of Fernando Laposse, 5M6A4793 “Table Totomoxtle”, 2020
©Fernando Laposse, courtesy of Fernando Laposse, Denise with farmers.001, 2016
©Fernando Laposse, courtesy of Fernando Laposse, interior tiles, 2016
©Fernando Laposse, courtesy of Fernando Laposse, KZ7A1063 “vasos Tototmoxtle”, 2016
©Fernando Laposse, courtesy of Fernando Laposse, Legacy table curtain, 2018
©Fernando Laposse, courtesy of Fernando Laposse, table 1 copy, 2020
©Fernando Laposse, courtesy of Fernando Laposse, totomoxtle lamp, 2018
©Fernando Laposse,, courtesy of Fernando Laposse, Totomoxtle polygon mixed purples, 2024
All rights reserved:
Alfonso Carlos Arredondo The_front_gate_of_CYMMIT_in_El_Batan_Mexico, 2024
Sound under Creative Commons license:
Felix Blume, village-in-the-mexican-desert-wadley, https://freesound.org/people/felix.blume/
Felix Blume, wind-blowing-on-the-floor-and-shaking-the-bushes-slight-wind-and-gust-of-wind-at-times-a-bird-singing-soflty-cars-passing-on-the-road-recorded-near-new-mexico-plains-observatory, https://freesound.org/people/felix.blume/
Felix Blume, chicken-with-slight-water-stream-near-some-birds-and-distant-music-recorded-in-mexican-village, https://freesound.org/people/felix.blume/
Felix Blume, countryside-atmosphere-in-the-morning-with-bird-dog-donkey-tractor-far-and-farmer-voices, https://freesound.org/people/felix.blume/
Felix Blume, countryside-atmosphere-with-horse-grazing-far-voices-birds-road-hum-and-horn, https://freesound.org/people/felix.blume/
Felix Blume, slight-wind-on-the-bushes-with-muffled-wind-at-times, https://freesound.org/people/felix.blume/
bibliography and references
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Cassel, John B. and Susan V. Cousineau. 2018. “Permaculture as a systemic design practice.” In Systemic Design: Theory, Methods and Practice. Edited by Peter Jones and Kyoichi Kijima. Tokyo: Springer Japan.
Cozzolino, Francesca. 2021. “De la culture de la Milpa à l’objet de design. Relier les pratiques d’agriculture traditionnelle à l’innovation technique (Mexique).” In Techniques&Culture, no. 76, issue “WAZA in the move. L’art ineffable de l’apprentissage”: http://journals.openedition.org/tc/16902
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Lozada, Luz Maria. 2014. ”El espíritu del maíz, circulación anímica y cocina ritual entre los totonacos de la Sierra Norte de Puebla (México).” Nuevo Mundo Mundos Nuevos, 66812. https://doi.org/10.4000/nuevomundo.66812
Lupo, Alessandro. 1995. ”El maíz es más vivo que nosotros”. Ideología y alimentación en la Sierra Norte de Puebla.” Scripta Ethnológica 17, 73-85.
Marielle, Catherine. 2007. ”La contaminación transgénica del maíz en México. Luchas civiles en defensa del maíz y de la soberanía alimentaria.” Mexico City: Grupo de Estudios Ambientales, AC.
Stengers Isabelle. 2015. In Catastrophic Times: Resisting the Coming Barbarism. Translated by Andrew Goffey. Open Humanities Press.
Stengers Isabelle. 2019. Résister au désastre. Marseille: Éditions Wildproject.
Tsing Anna L. 2005. Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Warman Arturo. 1998. La historia de un bastardo: maíz y capitalismo. Mexico City: UNAM–Fondo de Cultura Económica.
to cite this article
This article is using Chicago format for its references
Cozzolino, Francesca, Coralie Maurin, and Juliette Nier. 2025. “The Unusual Journey of a Corn Husk.” .able journal: https://doi.org/10.69564/able.en.25025.feuilledemais
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MLA
EN
Cozzolino, Francesca, Coralie Maurin and Juliette Nier.“The Unusual Journey of a Corn Husk.” .able journal, 2025. https://doi.org/10.69564/able.en.25025.feuilledemais
ISO 690
EN
COZZOLINO, Francesca; MAURIN, Coralie and NIER, Juliette. “The Unusual Journey of a Corn Husk.” .able journal [en ligne]. 2025. Disponible sur : https://doi.org/10.69564/able.en.25025.feuilledemais
APA
EN
Cozzolino, F., Maurin, C. & Nier, J. (2025). The Unusual Journey of a Corn Husk. .able journal. https://doi.org/10.69564/able.en.25025.feuilledemais
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