2021 – DIPLOMA SUMMARY
At the beginning of the project I choose to base my research on a raw material, ash. Ash is a material produced by the combustion of organic material. It’s volatile and friable. Visually, it looks like powder. These qualities give to ashes the status of a dirty material. Ash is also shapeless, it doesn’t have any contour so we can’t associate a scale to it. Ashes are coloured in different variations of mat and shiny grey. The meaning of the ash is linked to the semantics of fire. It is an ancestral knowledge of humanity, it brings heat and light to the house and allows their owner to cook. However, it is also related to desolation and destruction when it is uncontrolled. This association can be explained by the importance of ashes in funeral rites. There are different types of ashes. First, there is industrial ash produced by thermal plants. These are reused in construction materials or as fertilizer. Then, there is domestic ash. It comes from fireplaces, stoves, barbecues or organic waste from fires. This raw material is produced by people or restaurants. In my project I use the domestic ashes because they are not accepted and they are considered as waste material.
Thus, I asked the following question: How can the designer produce a material from ashes by experimenting with it ? The goal of this project is to create materials which can be employed as new ways of self production for designers. These materials will have to show the visual and sensitive aspects of ashes.
