rimming observations

Observations and thoughts of as well as experiments with a thermoplastic elastomer: A material that is super versatile, because you can constantly reshape it just by heating it up with relatively low temperatures and therefore also interesting when talking about climate change. In it’s cool state it is white and solid and as soon it is heated it gets transparent and soft so that you can start shaping it.

I designed a setup that puts this phenomenon on to display. the setup consists of eight heating coils that are triggered by a built in temperature sensor and an added randomness – the higher the temperature the higher the chance that all eight coils are heated – every time you turn the device on it is relatively uncertain how many coils will heat up. A magnifying lens is added to the setup with which one can observe and analyse the changing material from up close.

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tasks: concept, design, observing, experimenting, construction, electronics, programming
2021 / Berlin University of the Arts