Ways of Altering

Design is not only about the end product. Production methods are just as important, as new ways of making things can open up unexplored terrain. This is what ‘Ways of Altering’ attempts to show.

Here, I modify mass production to allow for an alternative approach. The low-tech look evokes a possible distant past rather than a technologically advanced present or future. Like a thieving magpie, I intrude on the territory of others, hijacking existing objects to make new structures. Using a customised sandblaster to spray a mix of glue and sand into a solidifying coat.

Manufacturing leftovers, incomplete components or other scraps form material collages once bound together with this extra layer. This skin supports spontaneous constructions, consolidating materials that would otherwise remain separate, worthless fragments.

Suddenly, anything can become a possible building block.

Copyright: Design Academy Eindhoven

Photographs: Ronald Smits