Haze
Waste materials from Tokyo are simply treated with our hands regarded as vernacular materials
Haze is a series of objects that attempts to reframe the relationship between humans and materials, which has become inadequate and too complex. Discarded copper wire, a symbol of modern civilization, was collected in Tokyo and repurposed in this artwork. Copper, the first metal utilized by humans, formed the foundations for modern electrical civilization and telecommunication. This project returns to the roots of our relationship with materials – “using vernacular materials and shaping them by hand” – and imagines Tokyo as a mineral deposit where copper can be made with less energy to explore new values for copper wire beyond its original functions and utilities. Haze is part of we+’s ongoing research project, “Urban Origin.”
Project Details
Product
Process
Increasingly complicated manufacturing, from resource extraction to manufacturing and disposal
Human activities have had geological effects on Earth and are now known as the Anthropocene. Mining has developed worldwide without regard to natural cycles, and manufacturing processes have become very complex. As a result, understanding an overall picture of resource extraction, manufacturing, and disposal is extremely difficult, and people have yet to find a way out of the current situation. Copper, the material of Haze, has also been over-mined around the world and manufacturing processes have become very complex. According to some estimates, copper’s current reserve-production ratio is around 30 years.
