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Detritus

An artificial continuously changing environment based on trash, salt, human will and hot water bathing. The piece consists of a few tons of salt and a mechanism that is suspended by four cables. By varying the length of the four cables the mechanism is able to move to most locations within the room. The mechanism has the ability to extrude crude representations of average objects from salt. These objects can be things like old chairs, toilets, tires, washing machines and many other human specific objects we take for granted as part of our world. The viewer was able to view these objects being created from the comfort of a hot water tub.

We as a collective species are continually reshaping our world to suit us. We are filling it with things that have importance and meaning to us. While we strive for permanence thankfully the mechanisms that govern the universe beg to differ. Things we make are not permanent and forces beyond our control are constantly making simple the complex objects we devote ourselves to. This piece will be a reflection of that process abstracted and combined with processes of geology. Things will appear that look like things we recognize but due to the fragility of the salt crystals used to make the piece things will be deteriorating at the same rate they are built.

The piece is an attempt to create a vantage point that is impossible in the real world. A vantage point that both condenses and speeds up time and provides an abstracted overview of the detritus we value.

Reviews

Jonathan Schipper's Ever-Changing Salt Installation Kristen Boatright, Ashton Cooper in Blouin Art Info

I Watched a 3D Printer Create the End of the World from a Hot Tub in Brooklyn by Brian Merchant for MotherBoard - Vice

An interactive salt-based art installation by Hans Aschim in COOL HUNTING

AT THIS SPA, WATCH 3-D PRINTERS CREATE A CITY WHILE YOU SOAK IN THE TUB BY Joseph Flaherty in WIRED

DETRITUS: WATCHING A SALT-PLOTTING ART MACHINE FROM A HOT TUB by Kyle Petrevcik in Animal NY

The Zen and Cool of Schipper's Salt Cityby Brian Miller Son in Seattle Weekly

 

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Construction

Detritus was designed and built over the course of a year.  A small model was first created.  All the parts where designed and cnc cut in my shop.