MATERIALITY.
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RODUCTION This project is entitled Materiality, it deals with textures and materials and process, but also with what is concrete, tangible, with the Real.
Materiality is an exploration on paper, its values, history, meaning and possibilities. Paper is a vector of ideas and imagination. It helpt to convey messages, thoughts, propaganda. Paper as a medium, participated to the freedom of the people, to the rise of religion and to the knowledge of our own history. Paper as a material is now part of our daily life. Home, work, street, transports, everywhere paper is present and used. It is one of the most important material of our era, and a symbol of the consumerism. Food packaging, tracks, throwable vessel, commercials, countless products are made out of paper and designed to be used only once then thrown away. We have been used to this unsustainable way of life and we are trying to find alternatives like recycled or tree free paper. However, I believe the best solutions to our endless consumption have to be found in our behavior and the care we have for the things which are surrounding us.
TO PRODUCE 1 TONE OF PAPER WE NEED :
163 kg of salt cake
97 kg of lime
34 kg of soda ash
90850 L of water
1672 kg of wood 3
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Recycling paper is not a circular process, it is impossible to recycle paper more than seven times. The fibers of the material are getting shorter at each step which makes the paper lose its quality everytime it’s recycled. Many recycled paper are therefore a combination of used and new fibers.
FOR 1 TONE OF PAPER WE HAVE TO DISPOSE OF :
16 kg of water pollutants
80 kg of solid waste
38 kg of air pollutants
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CONC
CEPT I discovered that paper cups are not recyclable because of a polyethylene layer that we add inside the cup to make it waterproof. It would be possible to dissociate the plastic from the paper but this operation is too costly and therefore all the cups are simply discarded. Although we all think paper cups are recyclable, it is actually one of the most polluting product we use in our daily life. This is why I decided to focus my research on a new way to reuse them. As a symbol of the consumerism I chose to burn the cups I found and use the ashes to mix them with a tree resin called Damar. The paper ashes combined with the damar act as pigments and give a complete new aesthetic to the resin. The material becomes full of black particules creating an irregular and unique pattern. Also the use of a natural tree resin is for me a way to finally create a circular process of recycling paper.
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I decided to create a bowl and a cup using silicon molds and rotative molding. The shapes are extremely simple in order to focus the attention on the materiality of the two objects. The Damar is waterproof and very hard which makes the bowl and the cup very fragile. My idea was too design something that people have to care about when they use it. By burning a daily life and unnoticed object I wanted to create something precious and valuable. An object influencing our behavior and bringing some awareness about our consumerism.
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JOHAN
VILADRICH