Nature's Affair

Wes Firestone & Katy Wang

Through the symbol of rust, a poignant portrayal of nature's reclaiming power, we confront the love/hate dynamic we share with our environment. Witness a face mask, encrusted with rusted copper and entwined with resilient weeds, standing as a testament to the relentless forces of time and decay. The time-lapse video projection captures the mesmerizing journey of rust's embrace, reflecting on questions of coexistence and our profound impact on the world around us. Step into this immersive exploration of nature's transformative touch and the echoes of our shared existence.

Materials: Copper, weeds, dirt, vinegar, baking soda, salt, iron wires, paper, rice.

Process

The Mask

1.Mould - 3D Scanning and 3D Printing

(3D scanner handle, software Meshmixer and Rhino, Bambu 3D Printer, PLA)

2. Wax and Clay

(Bee wax, pot and heater, super light clay, oven, vaseline)

We first chose wax as the material but due to its fragility, even with the help of Vaseline we couldn't separate it from the mould in a whole piece. We tried different orientations and tools to cover the mould with the wax (pour/dip), and we tried utilizing wax in its different stages but none of the trials succeeded.

Then we tried to make another mould with super light clay so that we could utilize the negative space of the mould instead of the surface to make things easier. However, the inner side of the clay had difficulty drying, after waiting for 24h, we took it off but failed to keep the shape due to its flexibility.

3. Wireframe

(3 types of Iron wires, pliers, soldering machine)

After the failure with the soft materials, we tried to build a wireframed face by shaping the iron wires on the face mould. Though it was too difficult to make a dense enough surface to hold the dirt, we eventually used a wireframe as the main support for our final work.

Difficulties: Balance between the flexibility and the strength with different thicknesses of the material; Soldering only worked on thin wires.

4. Surface Decoration - Execution of the core concept

(Dirt, flour, weeds, moss, copper)

According to our research, vinegar is able to kill weeds and cause oxidation of copper which is the core of our topic about relationships with nature. Thus, we covered the mask with weeds and copper.

For the copper, we cut it in shapes with gaps in between to present a sense of cracking and fragilibility.

For the weeds, to make the dirt more sticky, we added some flour.

5. Paper Mache

(Rice, water, recycled paper, blender, dirt)

The final version of the mask was eventually made out of two layers of paper mache as we wanted to experiment with what we had learned in class and we ended up liking the special texture it offers.

The first layer was a traditional paper mache with leftover rice provided by the cafeteria and recycled paper in the lab. It was actually in pieces when we peeled it off the mould so we used the "paper mache paste" to connect them, but we also liked the gaps and cracked for their quality of fragility so we kept some of them.

The second layer was mixed with a huge proportion of dirt so it looked like a layer of dirt. Thus, we could put the dirt and the weeds in the space in between the two layers and let it "grow" out of the gaps on the first layer.

The Oxidation

We tried different methods to accelerate the process of oxidation with the help of a physics graduate student (name).

Final Recipe:

Vinegar, baking soda, Marcela's personal salt(sorry)
Immersed in the liquid first then exposed to the air

Electricity

Salt

Other ingredients

The Timelapse

1. The Temporary Activated Installation

As mentioned in our project proposal, our initial design was to execute the process of weeds dying and copper rusting by providing continuous vinegar dropping. We did successfully carry that out. However, this process lasted very long (as we wanted), which witnessed the space of the camera and the batteries of our phones running out time and again. Though paid close attention and was renewing the SD card constantly, the camera failed to capture the process of the changes but only the result.

IMG_9558.MOV

2. Oxidation of the Copper Sheet

In order to solve the problem we encountered with the dropping method, we decided to show the process of oxidation on a sheet separate from the face, just to capture the timelapse footage. With that, we were able to speed up the process by submerging the copper entirely instead of applying water dropping so that we could control the time to be within the capability of the electronic devices.

3. Video Projection

Thanks to the great editing by Wes, the magical but subtle changes on the copper were able to be seen clearly in the video. Even though many steps during this project did not go as planned, I'm very grateful that this result ended up in the most ideal projection we had pictured. Huge thanks to Monika for providing so much support in installation.

Reflection

What aspects of the project can you apply to the course/other areas of your work moving forward?

Experience-wise, this is the most hands-on project I've done so far. Accordingly, this is the project where I encountered more "failures" during the execution than ever. From this project, I learned how to be more considerate in terms of feasibility to reduce potential waste of time but I also learned that the time invested in iteration and experiments will never be a waste and uncontrollability is even one of the most interesting characteristics of hands-on work. These understandings can definitely benefit my future work.

Concept-wise, this project truly applied what we've learned in class, including the arrangement of art installation, attention to material usage and the topic of man and nature. It really enhanced my understanding of the theories and will serve as a guide for my other work.

Medium-wise, the combination of physical installation, video media and the process behind them is quite inspirational for what I'm working in another course: What is New Media. Hope this will help bring my understanding in that class further and deeper.

What would you do differently (materials, process, structure, installation, etc.) or how would you further develop the piece?

During our initial discussion when forming the concept, we were both interested in these subtle changes in materials. We tried to choose such an obvious reaction as oxidation but still had difficulty capturing it. Thus, I think maybe we can incorporate a microscope to further explore the changes.

If we had more time, I think it's also interesting to explore different types of oxidation. When we were researching how to manually speed up oxidation, we found many Youtube videos showing multiple ways to create "rust". However due to time constrain and material limitations, we chose the most simple recipe while missing richer reactions from the metal. But if we focus on that, maybe the other half of the face where we incorporate plants will be neglected.

During the exhibition, the audience discussed a lot about the existence or position of the mask. I totally see the points from both sides. I think we do see the physical mask as an important medium to carry the concept of "man and nature" and the process behind the video with very rich textures that people can/should closely look at so we do want to keep it. But at the same time, in order to avoid the two subjects distracting the audience from each other, I think there are two more things we can do:

1)Build more visual cooperation between the face and the video to make sense of them showing up together;

2)Set certain gaps for the video and interactive signs to invite the audience to take close look at the face. (I saw many people did it anyway even with the video playing, I guess because a human face itself as an element is intriguing enough in some way).

Are there aspects of the collaborative process that stand out for you?

I'd say mental support is the first thing that stands out for me. The amount of accidents that occurred in the hands-on project was unfamiliar and overwhelming to me. But with the support from my partner, I was able to accept "things like that happen", and continue with new trials and iterations.

And for sure there are many ideas that only occurred in such a collaborative process that I would probably never come across by myself. Without my partner, this project wouldn't have gone so far and such a busy midterm wouldn't be so fun and memorable to me.

I also received a lot of help from other classmates who were also working in the lab and shared their experiences with me to save me from more trouble. Huge thanks to Ran for teaching me how to use the heater, to Anny for teaching me how to use the blender, and to Ziyi for lending me the SD card.

Really really grateful for all these.

Exhibition

Exhibition.mov

Click for Full Video

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