Thesis \ Deprogramming Material Minds

Shortlisted June 2022 for the John Byrne Award

‘During the Renaissance, Spanish sculptors who made mistakes while carving expensive marble often patched their flaws with cera - ‘wax’. A statue that had no flaws and required no patching was hailed as a ‘sculpture sin cera’ or a ‘sculpture without wax.’ The phrase eventually came to mean anything honest or true. The English word ‘sincere’ evolved from the Spanish sin cera - ‘without wax’.’




The thesis served to explore making and freeing our minds conceptually from traditional materials. The initial explorations served to explore material in an abstract sense, in this case using wax and how additives changed its nature. The approach, rather than use 'real' materials, was to look at materials at the margin of architecture. Calling on the conceptual approaches of artists, notably the Arte Povera movement, Eva Hesse, Pino Pascali etc, the very nature of an appropriate material was questioned. This sense of freedom or breaking loose will become more and more critical as the construction industry seeks carbon free materials.


The outcome can be regarded as a series of pieces almost sculptural in their physicality but the real lesson is in bringing a different attitude to specification; one that is more agile, more open to 'what if we...?'

Possibilities


31 samples. 31 samples made of wax. 31 different outcomes. If we can reimagine 31 different outcomes just in wax, lets imagine the possibilities of all materials. There is a whole new world of opportunities. Lets explore material.

Possibilities


31 samples. 31 samples made of wax. 31 different outcomes. If we can reimagine 31 different outcomes just in wax, lets imagine the possibilities of all materials. There is a whole new world of opportunities. Lets explore material.

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Perception


Removal and addition of colour and context plays with our perception of scale and understanding. Objects of the same size can be perceived as an entire landscape or as though we are looking through a microscope.

Perception


Removal and addition of colour and context plays with our perception of scale and understanding. Objects of the same size can be perceived as an entire landscape or as though we are looking through a microscope.

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Reveal


Just as the Spanish sculptors patched flaws melted, the thesis samples were melted in order to reveal the truth. To be sincere. To reveal the waste material that makes the wax go further; be it fabric waste, used coffee grounds, packaging waste or 3D printer plastic waste.

Reveal


Just as the Spanish sculptors patched flaws melted, the thesis samples were melted in order to reveal the truth. To be sincere. To reveal the waste material that makes the wax go further; be it fabric waste, used coffee grounds, packaging waste or 3D printer plastic waste.

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Application


The thesis culminated in a final model which was simply a site. A site which had been excavated and the volume removed re-used to create an enclosure. The excavated volume is stretched through the incorporation of waste material into each cast. The final model stands at 400x400x100mm and is 13.7kg of solid cast wax.

Application


The thesis culminated in a final model which was simply a site. A site which had been excavated and the volume removed re-used to create an enclosure. The excavated volume is stretched through the incorporation of waste material into each cast. The final model stands at 400x400x100mm and is 13.7kg of solid cast wax.

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