METALLIC AFFECT | JORGE MINANO | 2016

Engineers and designers traditionally use metallurgical processes to develop particular properties of metal, like their mechanical strength or their high electrical and thermal conductivity. But extracted metals have other interesting peculiarities: they are very reactive to the environment, some can easily oxidate, rust or stress.The field of fine arts on the other hand has made use of these properties for a long time when producing pigments out of metal oxides, etching metal in printmaking or capturing images in the silver photographic process.

A new metallic material, created from non-utilitarian production parameters has never yet been developed. Inspired by chemical reactions similar to those found in construction materials like concrete, water is used as a catalyst for mineral crystallization that leads to a solid metastable aggregation of metal dust with emerging properties of it’s own. This research speculates on the vitality and potential of matter to affect and to be transformed by slightly changing the way it’s arranged.