Transition is something that pervades daily life: everything in the environment in which we live is, or seems to be, in a permanent state of flux and being constantly redefined.
The principal definition of the word transition is the passage from one situation to another and can refer to a variation in the state – or system – recorded over a certain period of time. When an object is actually “in transition” there is an emphasis on the condition of being suspended between what it is and what it might be, and also on the momentary state of uncertainty that makes it hard to determine its identity.
A transitory event involves circumstances that lead to a change from one imprecise state of equilibrium, through its reformulation, to a new configuration that may itself be intermediate rather than final.
Excluding the possibility of a variation in physical characteristics caused by wear and tear and the passage of time, the objects we use are often inert, stable, unchangeable; they rarely display a propensity for transformation and contain little, if anything, to suggest that they might at some point take on a different appearance or material quality.
However, some artefacts do seem to have this propensity for change built into them, and stand as specific reminders of the on-going state of mutability typical of natural cycles, taking on the role of active presences that are never at a standstill.
Potential indicators with a considerable expressive content, these objects have a clear metamorphic identity, and are able to record even imperceptible evolutions and involutions: they are signals, revealing objects that over a period of time demonstrate the development of conditions unlike those they originally had, offering food for thought on the incontrovertibly transitory nature of the human condition.
ROGIER ARENTS / KIRSTIE VAN NOORT
COLOR COLLISION (2012)
Color Collision is a work that demonstrates the ability of certain natural water-soluble pigments to change colour as the circumstances of the environment in which they find themselves change.
Anthocyanins are a class of dyes found in the plant world – particularly in higher orders of fruit, flowers and leaves – that are responsible for producing their typical colour, as is the case with aubergine, cherry and cornflower.
Thanks to the presence of these pigments, red cabbage extract changes colour when the pH value in the environment changes, turning it various shades of red, purple and blue: it is purple up to pH values of 7 and in the presence of acetic acid, changing to purplish shades of blue with the addition of ammonia and brown when the pH value is 12.
Having analysed the phenomenon, the designers applied red cabbage extract to a series of ceramic items, and discovered new, unexpected reactions when the two materials were combined, using changes in colour as indicators of the chemical and physical “collision” between coloured objects and the environment to which they belong.
Materials: natural pigments, ceramic
Rogier Arents and Kirstie van Noort, both born in the Netherlands – in Gouda in 1987 and Drunen in 1986 respectively – studied at the Design Academy in Eindhoven, the city in which they live and work.
Photo: Kirstie van Noort / Rogier Arents
MAARTEN KOLK & GUUS KUSTERS
MARINE SNOW (2012)
The term Marine Snow, coined by explorer and marine biologist William Beebe in around 1930, defines the continuous shower of organic and inorganic detritus shifting from the oceans’ photic zones – in areas of relative depth in which light can cause photosynthesis to take place – to the aphotic zones, where the water column reaches a significant depth to the point where light is unable to penetrate. This continuous movement of matter, including the remains of dead animals and clusters of algae, enables organisms that live deep down in the ocean to survive.
Taking their inspiration from this complex underwater process, Maarten Kolk & Guus Kusters made a series of porcelain plates designed to convey a sense of the intensity and drama of the natural cycle which maintains life on the ocean floor.
The porcelain is exposed to the movement of artificial tides reproduced in a glass tank that wash over the patterns on the plates and create vertical lines of copper oxide and cobalt, from which tiny solid particles are released that float in a slow and very gradual process of underwater decomposition that recreates the Marine Snow phenomenon in miniature.
Materials: porcelain, cobalt, copper.
Maarten Kolk and Guus Kusters, born in the Netherlands in 1980 and 1979 respectively, opened their studio in 2008 after graduating with full honours from the Design Academy of Eindhoven, the city in which they live and work.
Copper reacts to exposure to heat and oxidising gases such as oxygen, which produce a glimmering sheen on its surface. After processes involving the application of heat such as “re-firing”, to which copper is subjected to improve its mechanical and structural properties and its chemical stability, and depending on the atmospheric conditions in which these processes are carried out, the metal changes colour in a range of subtle luminescent nuances of yellow, pink, pale blue and violet.
The experimental study into the physical phenomenon that causes this chromatic transition is the main theme of the Iridescent Copper project, which exploits the reactive properties of metal oxides contained in the toners of standard printers to define the possibilities for the controlled oxidation of sheets of copper shapes as mirror-shelves.
Simply by making contact with sheets of paper printed in black and applying heat, delicate, polychrome patterns are transferred onto the surface of the sheets. The patterns are defined by the traces of oxidation and take on the distinctive features of abstract diagrams that display a poetic beauty.
Materials: copper, heat, oxygen
ENGINEERING TEMPORALITY (2012)
Engineering Temporality is a project that reveals the fragility of material substance, prompting a reflection on concepts of transience, impermanence, alteration and change over the course of time.
The process the project involved began with the alteration of a material component commonly used in the furniture industry: a piece of tubular steel, cut into tiny pieces, is transformed into sectors that are welded together to create a network of rings that are both solid and permeable, with which to capture the physical space occupied by various furnishing items. This metal “cage” is layered over the object in a way that follows its contours and partially covers it, expressing the space they take up and creating a kind of second skin around them that is diaphanous and insubstantial.
The separation of the two bodies, which only co-exist for a brief period, is brought about by fire, which burns the object inside and leaves behind the metal contour constructed around it, thereby highlighting the perceptible (though invisible) tension that opposes the perfect geometry of the series-produced item in question with the imperfect shape of its metal replica.
At the end of the burning process – a violent moment with symbolic significance – the filigree web of small circles remains, a charred reminder of what was, on the borderline between presence and absence, and indicating the tangible nature of what remains.
Materials: steel tubing, existing furnishings, fire.
Tuomas Markunpoika was born in 1982 in Jyväskylä, Finland. After graduating with full honours from the Design Academy of Eindhoven, he set up his own studio in Amsterdam.
Photo: Studio Markunpoika
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
The idea of transition essentially refers to the shift made by something physical from one state or stage to another. What aspect of this phenomenon fascinates you most and how do your designs relate to the effects of the passage of time?
ROGIER ARENTS / KRISTIE VAN NOORT
Color Collision is created for the “Conflict” exhibition of Dutch Invertuals in Eindhoven, 2012. We are inspired by the conflict of materials to their environment. Red cabbage has an extreme transition when the PH level of the environment changes: this instant change fascinates us the most. The moment of transition is captured in a movie and in photography. The end result is a porcelain side table which is protected with a coating, to prevent change or fading over time.
MAARTEN KOLK & GUUS KUSTERS
We’re always chasing the transitions in nature we’ll never be able to fully grasp. We try to translate the transparency of the clouds, the color of water or the poetry of Marine Snow into form and technique. We feel it’s a good thing that we’ll never be able to fully capture these poetic transitions; it makes one aim for the highest goal.
We focus on materials in many of our projects. The process of exploring the properties of them is very intense for us. This way of working and thinking often leads to different kinds of transition; in doing so materials lead us to new ideas and approaches in the design process. As a consequence, for us transition is a central topic in our work, which reveals the beauty of objects.
The most interesting phenomenon of a transition does not seem to be a physical one, but rather a metaphysical and psychological transition.
One of my earliest childhood memories comes from touching my grandfather’s old farm tool, worn out and smoothed down by meticulous repetition of a single act. They felt like silk under my fingers and constituted the fabric of the physical world, memories migrating into physical objects and curating my emotions and perception.