Aesthetics of Tangibility

What material am I made out of?

This was a project to use a “found material” (from my immediate surroundings), to create an object people felt compelled to pick up with their hands, and then irresistibly keep it in continuous motion within their hands. My solution was to create an object that inspired intrigue through mystery. Because of curiosity, the user would approach the object, visually inspect it, then pick it up and work it with their hands to try and discover what the hidden truth was. In addition, I created interesting surface features and textures to increase the tactile sensation while handling the object.

When I was creating this piece, I explored several potential sources of ‘object mystery.’ The first, was visual balance. By making an object with a unique center of mass, aka an abject that balanced in a way that’s totally unexpected, I could pique the viewer’s attention. However given my ‘found material’ was a candle, I could not insert enough mass on one end without upsetting the candle’s expected visual balance.

My next take was creating intrigue through unexpected material visual properties–this attempt turned into the object illustrated above. I did this by disguising the expected waxy visual of a typical candle with a highly glossy and apparently glassy surface. However because glass figures typically have a highly refined smooth surface, i created a surface with small hills, crevices, and textures. Additionally, different layers of the melted down candle created different material ‘layers’ within the object to further mystify the audience. The following pictures provide a brief introduction to the creation process.

  Copyright © Scott Fisher