S105 - Exploring hair as a material
(2018) In Diploma work IDEL01 20181Industrial Design
- Abstract
- This process and material driven project was from the beginning focused on wast materials. The fact that the world population is rapidly increasing made me think of it as a possible source of material, instead of just an outlet of waste. With an interest in the controversial, I decided to work with human hair.
The key structural material in hair is a protein called alpha-keratin. Early hopes of processing this into an alternative to petroleum based plastics resulted in several experiments, and ultimately the realization that it was not the optimal goal to pursue in this project.
Over time, hair has played an important role in expressing emotional, political and religious values around the world. Discussing the use of hair as a material... (More) - This process and material driven project was from the beginning focused on wast materials. The fact that the world population is rapidly increasing made me think of it as a possible source of material, instead of just an outlet of waste. With an interest in the controversial, I decided to work with human hair.
The key structural material in hair is a protein called alpha-keratin. Early hopes of processing this into an alternative to petroleum based plastics resulted in several experiments, and ultimately the realization that it was not the optimal goal to pursue in this project.
Over time, hair has played an important role in expressing emotional, political and religious values around the world. Discussing the use of hair as a material brought up the second world war and what role hair played then. Today some organisations repurpose cut off hair for various good causes. The uses of hair are many, and often profitable, though some of them are rarely spoken of. Those include hair as additives in the food industry, and how people are exploited in the wig industry. The increasing demand for long hair has resulted in gangs assaulting victims and cutting off their hair to sell. Reading about the exploitation of innocent people also led t research on the animal industry.
Discovering how little I knew about industries related to hair, I realized the project might make more of an impact if it was focused on raising awareness rather than finding the optimal practical used of hair, and the brief was updated accordingly.
Early on in the project I started collecting hair from hairdressers around Malmö. As soon as I had some I started experimenting with it. The first concept was to contain the hair in blocks, but that changed after I took a step back and reviewed the purpose of the project. I decided to present the hair raw, without modifying it with another material.
At a spinning factory me and the owner tried to make yarn out of the hair, but the machines were not suitable for the course hairs. From there I moved on to a spinner who would do it by hand, whom had experimented with a lot of different kinds of fibres. We succeeded in making human hair yarn.
I wanted to present the hair in simple piece of furniture, something most people would recognize as an everyday object. The first chair was not a good match with the yarn, but reading about how some other furniture designers used alternative, abundant materials, gave me new ideas. In order to let the hair be the main attraction I made a simply constructed stool of ash wood, with a woven seat of yarn.
Upon reflection I realised that my determination in focusing on hair mainly as a material might have prevented me from exploring even more interesting topics, like that of the wig industry. I also learned that compared to previous projects I have done, this one was a challenge in how there was no obvious result or solution, but instead an open ended process. These valuable experiences will streamline my future projects. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8956500
- author
- Salomonsson Garde, Mikkel
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- IDEL01 20181
- year
- 2018
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- publication/series
- Diploma work
- report number
- ISRN: LUT-DVIDE/ EX--18/50397-SE
- language
- English
- id
- 8956500
- date added to LUP
- 2018-08-20 16:23:51
- date last changed
- 2018-08-20 16:23:51
@misc{8956500,
abstract = {{This process and material driven project was from the beginning focused on wast materials. The fact that the world population is rapidly increasing made me think of it as a possible source of material, instead of just an outlet of waste. With an interest in the controversial, I decided to work with human hair.
The key structural material in hair is a protein called alpha-keratin. Early hopes of processing this into an alternative to petroleum based plastics resulted in several experiments, and ultimately the realization that it was not the optimal goal to pursue in this project.
Over time, hair has played an important role in expressing emotional, political and religious values around the world. Discussing the use of hair as a material brought up the second world war and what role hair played then. Today some organisations repurpose cut off hair for various good causes. The uses of hair are many, and often profitable, though some of them are rarely spoken of. Those include hair as additives in the food industry, and how people are exploited in the wig industry. The increasing demand for long hair has resulted in gangs assaulting victims and cutting off their hair to sell. Reading about the exploitation of innocent people also led t research on the animal industry.
Discovering how little I knew about industries related to hair, I realized the project might make more of an impact if it was focused on raising awareness rather than finding the optimal practical used of hair, and the brief was updated accordingly.
Early on in the project I started collecting hair from hairdressers around Malmö. As soon as I had some I started experimenting with it. The first concept was to contain the hair in blocks, but that changed after I took a step back and reviewed the purpose of the project. I decided to present the hair raw, without modifying it with another material.
At a spinning factory me and the owner tried to make yarn out of the hair, but the machines were not suitable for the course hairs. From there I moved on to a spinner who would do it by hand, whom had experimented with a lot of different kinds of fibres. We succeeded in making human hair yarn.
I wanted to present the hair in simple piece of furniture, something most people would recognize as an everyday object. The first chair was not a good match with the yarn, but reading about how some other furniture designers used alternative, abundant materials, gave me new ideas. In order to let the hair be the main attraction I made a simply constructed stool of ash wood, with a woven seat of yarn.
Upon reflection I realised that my determination in focusing on hair mainly as a material might have prevented me from exploring even more interesting topics, like that of the wig industry. I also learned that compared to previous projects I have done, this one was a challenge in how there was no obvious result or solution, but instead an open ended process. These valuable experiences will streamline my future projects.}},
author = {{Salomonsson Garde, Mikkel}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
series = {{Diploma work}},
title = {{S105 - Exploring hair as a material}},
year = {{2018}},
}