Matter of Time

Exhibition
Research

A design exploration of material memory and transformation

by Dutch Invertuals
07.10.2010
Eindhoven, NL

Materials carry traces of time, history, and human interaction. Matter of Time explores how design can reveal these stories and give them a new life.

In 2010, Dutch Invertuals presented Matter of Time during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. The exhibition explored the relationship between time, material, and transformation through a unique material with a long history: 600-year-old oak wood that once formed the foundation of the Eindhoven city entrance.

‘After being underground and sealed off from air and erosion for more than six hundred years, the wood comes to life again.’

Edhv

Excavation site at Woenselse Poort, Eindhoven 2007

For Matter of Time, we researched how the traces of time embedded in a material can become a source of inspiration for new design perspectives. The ancient oak wood became a carrier of history, memory, and transformation, revealing how materials can preserve the traces of time. The exhibition showed how something from the past can be reinterpreted and given new meaning in the present.

Through experimentation and research, the designers translated the symbolism and aesthetics of the 600-year-old wood into contemporary design projects. The concept of time became both a starting point and a design tool: revealing the material’s natural decay, its craftsmanship, and its potential for a new life.

The wood has been revised by old crafting techniques, its transience is visualized, it is getting a second life as a foundation and it is transformed into time pieces, sound images, interaction instruments and sensorial objects.