Thomas Ballouhey

Department: Contextual Design
Website: thomasballouhey.com

Ways of Altering

Design is not only about the end product. Production methods
are just as important, as new ways of making things can open
up unexplored terrain. This is what Thomas Ballouhey shows
in ‘Ways of Altering’. Here, he modifies mass production to allow
for an alternative approach.
The low-tech look evokes a possible distant past rather than
a technologically advanced present or future. Like a thieving
magpie, he intrudes on the territory of others, hijacking
existing objects to make new structures. He uses a customised
sandblaster to spray a mix of glue and sand into a solidifying
coat. Manufacturing leftovers, incomplete components or other
scraps form material collages once bound together with
this extra layer. This skin supports spontaneous constructions,
consolidating materials that would otherwise remain separate,
worthless fragments. Suddenly, anything can become a
possible building block.