Categories
Out of Context / Matter Space Structure

Karl Salmonsson

TRASH/ TREASURE // DEAD OBJECTS // ONCE SOMETHING/ALWAYS SOMETHING

400 or 500 meters of thick mooring line that a friends-friend saved for his job at the harbour.

The vast landscape of architecture is not limited to building or city. In the city and the building, small components are put together to form a unity. It is not limited to architecture but to all creative professions dealing with physical space and matter. If picked a part they can seem like nothing. Their value can either be seen as decreased or changed. In a way, they are dead.

My project is my own collection

Set of rules for selection

Why? The selection will be an important step for this projects authenticity. What are dead matter/object? 

Found and not bought

If bought, it have to be a bargain. It have to be used by someone else. And from the time of purchase never used by me.

If used by me it is important that it has been found in a fair way. Not stolen or taken for the a specific purpose. 
The most worthy of matter/object is what I have found but not found purpose for.

Stolen matter/object must never been used for a specific purpose.

Gifts are accepted if not used but saved for a long period of time.


The Investigation

The sole object

In this first step I wanted to better understand the phisical elements of some objects. The traffic lights have a unique look to it and works both with form and function. Each element is dissected into this drawings of both whole and parts. The photography captures the objects movement, and also how each light tells a different story from its past. The way that the object has been broken of from the rest also make you think of its past. And how the broken piece thats left creates this heel which gives the object its tilt.

I am drawn to “the eyes and heads of the object”. That is what I want to call the small hoods that keeps the sun from dazzles the lights. The photo which is turned into this drawing points at these and the different directions that they take. 

They have a life of their own, beyond the traffic lights as a whole. It almost feels like they are looking for something together. Or as one captured through a motion or a nod.

The silhouette

The silhouette of the object and composition was introduced to me in the desk number of MacGuffin. The idea of looking beyond the color or appearance. In two ways I have taken this idea of the silhouette and captured it in these drawings. 

The outline and the joint shape.


The Presentation

Taking these exercises of learning about the objects forward I wanted to shift from this manipulation in Illustrator and Photoshop to the physical space itself. I found that working with these objects in the physical space added more to the process and my own understanding. 

With this in mind I have tried to create a tool of looking at the objects and also adding the translation between 2d and 3d. The installation begins with the 2d and with the 3d on top of it. In the projection the 3d is instead first with the 2d image applayed to the objects. 

The installation frames both the objects and the drawings that are put into it. With this I can draw two separate drawings in two layers. This also allows for the object to be placed on top of the image printed in the bottom with a distance. It is difficult to capture the effect of its materialized form. It reinforces the matter of the objects and how they phrase themself. 

This way of presenting the objects could benefit from an increasing of size. And could well be a way of showing the full collection of objects.


The Result

To move forward, and away from my own limitations for this project, I started seeing beyond the object as an artifact. Trying to see other sides of the geometry and shapes. 

Going back to this early dissection of the traffic lights above, I was still thinking about these different parts of the traffic lights. Instead of drawing the object I tried to make the façade of a building with four floors and these big windows facing the right side with caps to protect the inside from sunlight. 

This section tells a different story. Moving from one floor to another I wanted to incorporate different objects in my new design. Drawing these stairs from the shape of the bicycle handlebar made me think in terms of the geometry in an object versus the perspective of an object in photography. 

Looking from this direction you can clearly see the objects geometry. But if seeing this geometry from another angle it cannot be possible to see this same shape or maybe be able to recognize this handlebar at all.

In these collages you can see matter and objects together with this new architecture. With imagination one can see how these objects are transformed with new purpose after the alteration of scale. 

Back in 2018 I took these traffic lights from Linneplatsen in Gothenburg. It was on the ground, and I was passing by. To be fair to this magestic piece of geometry I wanted to again place it on Linneplatsen. But with the extention of my own archieve of matter and objects.

During this exploration of the archieve the still life has always triggered something for me. Peter Christensson asked my an important question, ”why do you keep these things and how do you sort them?”. It made me think about color, or value but to me it is mostly about the geometry and shape. Still life is one of the best ways of looking at objects in relation to each other. They belong together and here they are.