Research Document

Introduction

Ceramic Memory contains three group members: Marjolein Stassen, Pascalle de Jager and Emma Rijk. In the previous quarter Marjolein Stassen and Emma Rijk have been looking for ways to remember precious memories. The focus was on memories that are made with several people together while having food. Because the moments we are with friends is to good for being behind a camera or waiting for that 'perfect' moment we were thinking about an automatic memory saver.

In this semester we took our idea to the next level. By creating a new tool to save memories on cutlery, the memory does not only last but also reminds the person daily while eating from their cutlery. The tool we use is an camera obscura, which is a dark space (can be anything) with a hole in the surface to let a little light in. The ceramic object will be placed in the small dark space after a lightsensitive formula treatment. The dark space (box) can be placed on the table while having dinner with friends. If the lighthole is opened during dinner, the picture will develop while having dinner. The picture of everyone having dinner will be visual on the object placed in the box, making the memory last forever without sacrificing precious time.

First tests with Rollei en camera obscura

pictures taken on the balcony of Marjolein Stassen in Rotterdam.

What these tests have shown us:

The Rollei needs to be applied thick
Movement causes fading
Light from outside works better
30 minutes exposure with cloudy weather works good
If the Rollei is not completely dry, it will not develop
During the developing the 'stop fix' should not be used, the sours in the formula break down the Rollei. Instead we used water and that works fine.
The Rollei needs to be warm when applied on the tiles, we used 15 minutes with these tests but the Rollei was still granular. 30 minutes is the right heating time.

Checklist for working with Rollei

Checklist:

1. First you have to decide what type of material you want to coat (see chapter 8 for detailed information).
2. Check the contrast of the negatives you want to use - do you have different grades, then go for BLACK MAGIC VC emulsion RBM33, or do you have fairly consistent contrast negatives, then go for BLACK MAGIC hard RBM23.
3. For most coating applications the method of brushing will prove to be the best - get yourself a wide brush (5-10 cms/ 2"-4" width) made of natural hair, e.g. a Japan brush.
4. Keep small measures for quantities of 20- 50cc at hand, it will be useful for adding small amounts of RBM52.
5. For coating metal, plastic, glass or ceramic tiles, a precoat with alkyd resin primer or oil-based polyurethane paint should be carried out, these special primers are available at art shops.
6. If you have absorbent materials such as textile fabric, papers or wood it is recommendable to precoat these materials with BLACK MAGIC pure photographic gelatin RBM41.
7. For liquification, you will need a bucket to be filled with warm water (40-45°C / 100 - 115 F).
8. If you want to liquify just a small amount, you need BLACK MAGIC special bottle RBM60.
9. For keeping a bigger amount liquified in order to coat large areas or several objects, it is best to fill the liquified emulsion into a smaller bucket (plastic or stainless steel or enamel coated only only) and place this bucket into a larger container filled with warm water to keep the emulsion liquified.)
10. For improving mechanical resistance you need BLACK MAGIC ADDITIV HD RBM52.
11. In order to make coating easy and keep the problem of unwanted bubbles low you need spirit (grain alcohol).
12. Check your safelight before coating, in order to avoid unwanted fogging (see chapter 7 for details).
13. If you want to store materials coated with light-sensitive emulsion, have enough lighttight containers at hand, the containers should be designed in a way that these will cope with the wet emulsion (high moisture).

All the testing

Once our light sensitive Emulsion arrived in the mail we instantly started to do some testing. Especially before the christmas break our tests were all unsuccessful. To find the golden formula a lot of further testing needed to be done. Several variables were taken in account when starting to photograph.

Which 'Camera' it was taken with
Weather conditions to estimate how much light was present while making the photo.
Exposure time
What is photographed

Down below will be an overview from the first tests to the last.

Before the Christmas Break

'Camera'

Before the christmas break we started to photograph on small mugs provided by Pascalle. These ones were glazed and this was the first time we worked with the Rollei. Unfortunately we made several mistakes that resulted in a failed experiment. This mostly went wrong because of Marjolein because she didn't know how to develop. There was a small tree seen but late evidence was destroyed because the test object was held into the light too soon. Luckily that wasn't all the mistakes we made. Since the little cup was glazed the emulsion wouldn't stick, resulting it to get washed off the cup by the developer. To make this picture we used old paint containers provided by the photostudio.

8th, 9th & 12th of January

After the christmas holidays, and after Pascalle left for Manchester, we still had no successful testing. It was quite frustrating but we started with a new found motivation. We were pretty keen on getting a picture on ceramics. Later we found some white tiles in the Doka. Seeing that no one was using them we smashed them in smaller pieces so we could do more tests. Pascalle found on in the christmas break that we needed a primer for the emulsion to stay put. With this new found information new tests could be made.

On the 8th of January Emma and Marjolein worked in Marjolein's house on the new batch of tests. In her house there is a small storage room without any windows. This would work perfect for our home made Doka. We used a Red Biking light to guide us through the darkness. There was a whole set up and supplies needed: Primer, Thinner, Paint Brushes, the tiles, Rollei Emulsion, Specialized light blocking bags, old towel and surface to work on. First a primer coating was applied to the tiles, not only to the glazed front but also on the biscuit back. Marjolein wanted to see what would work better, glazing or unglazed side. After priming the tiles the sensitive job started of applying the light sensitive emulsion. This was Emma's job to do this on Friday night. The tiles were left to dry all through the night to be used the next day.

Marjolein dedicated the 9th of January to Digital Craft and making pictures. At the time we were still unsure if the Emulsion we bought had any success with the tiles we were using. To be safe Marjolein made some tests of trying to photograph the houses seen from her window. This would be a still life and hopefully result in a cleaner picture. Doing these tests all information needed to be noted down and kept together in a structured way. With Emma's idea of using sandwich bags Marjolein got to work. In each sandwich bag there would be the photographed tile with a note what the exposure time was, and the weather conditions and what was in the photo.

Set up Storage Room Marjolein's house
Shard in Camera
Sandwich bag with notes
Sandwich bag + notes + tile + Dark Room
Developers bag

On the 12th of January Marjolein went to the Doka to develop the photos made on Saturday (4 in total). This time she knew how to develop and followed the baths in the right order. These tests were the first that showed some actual results. This time we could conclude how long we needed for a picture to be developed, how much light was needed and if the emulsion would work on ceramics. It was a huge relief to see that some pictures showed up on our testing shards. With this we could take the boxes inside and see how this would work with movement and indoor light. Another step forward was made! With these tests being on the front or the back of a tile it was also concluded that the glazed front worked the best! The developer was too strong for the primer. With the glazed side the primer would stick much better and had no problems being developed while the back was slowly eroding and most of the picture was lost. The other two were very successful and was quite a victory for us as a team.

Tree visible in corner, backside
Balcony Neighbors Marjolein
Black = Sky, Buildings from Window
Unglazed sides that failed to survive developer

13th, 14th, 15th of January

On Wednesday the 13th of January Marjolein worked with new shards to make a photo indoors while eating dinner with roommate. We figured that if outside needed 25 minutes max of exposure indoors you would only need 1 hour at least. This was not the case. All the test, including the picture below, all came out as white which means there was no light caught onto the tile while being exposed for an hour. We realized that we needed the light outside to make any photographs, or at least stronger light than a common house lamp. This was quite a step back since dinner often happens inside, and currently it is long dark when dinner starts. Marjolein was wondering if the emulsion might not have been applied right but after holding an unused shard of ceramic with emulsion by the window it changed in color instantly, proven on the pictures below.

After the testing worked we needed to gear up to make some pictures on actual plates. We went to blokker for plates and bowls and some special boxes to make our own Camera with. On the 14th of January it was all about prepping for the next day. We started priming the newly bought cutlery and painting the inside of a box with black paint for our camera obscura. This time we worked with a roller instead of a paintbrush to apply the paint more evenly. Later that night our expert emulsion applier Emma went back to our dark room to apply the plates with emulsion to be used the next day for photographing.

Emma cleaning the plates with Thinner
Marjolein Priming
Emma & Marjolein
Roller + Bowl
Working Space
Bowls & Plates

After all the preparations we held a dinner for us two (Emma&Marjolein) at school on the 15th of January. We had the food. We had our new cameras. We were good to go. Only we made one vital mistake. Light can't travel around a corner and we placed the boxes on the window sill, meaning that our camera's only had the indoor light exposed to them. Once again the plate and bowl turned out negative. It was very disappointing until Marjolein realized how stupid they were in forgetting that light can't bend around corners. Luckily we had some more plates ready to be photographed. With a new setting of course. We gathered our food again and had a new session. This time we had a success! Somewhat. Unfortunately the camera only captured the buildings outside instead of our movement that were lighted by the indoor light. We hoped to get silhouettes but we only captured the buildings outside the school. As we had the failed test we figured we could re-use the failed plates and bowls. We would just apply new emulsion and we would be good to go, Emma was in charge of cleaning the plates.

Set up + food
Perspective Camera
Plate fail, no black with means not enough light
Tiny coloring on bowl! (exposure 1 hour)
Close up
New set up + Cookie
Hopeful Selfie
First photo on plate! (though not the one we intended to have)
Emma cleaning failed test

17th, 18th of January

In the weekend of 17th of January Emma was in charge of our project since Marjolein had taken the project in her arms the weekend before. [Emma add more text about weekend] During this weekend all tests failed and we weren't sure why. This was all found out on the 18th of January. In the morning Emma went to develop in the morning finding that all the photos she had made during the weekend had failed. In the afternoon Marjolein took over by cleaning the plates and reapplying them with Emulsion to make more tests. However these failed too. The result was total blackness which means they are over exposed. The reason for this is because on Friday we made the holes of our camera's a bit bigger to 'catch more light' unfortunately this was a disaster and quite a step back in our development.

Ceramic Memory

Introduction

In a modern society how do we capture our memories?

Actually we know this. We have never before had so many options to save, share and re-watch our memories. We have an overload of memory data, and how does our brain sort through this? By ignoring/ forgetting about all the extra non impactful memories. So even though the memory is saved. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it needs to be. Our parents, grandparents and great grandparents didn’t have the same opportunity to save share and re-watch their memories.

So precious memories were stored in precious thing, and passed on to the next generation. And so the memory is preserved and remembered.

This physical tangible memory will become in time with every crack, and chipped edge become more and more valuable. We as a new generation should be more selective but can we? Would our grandparents be if they weren’t limited by technology? Perhaps, we will never know. What we do know are their lasting memories, because of the physical tangible connection. This was what was going through my mind when working on crafting memories. Emma Rijk and Marjolein Stassen were searching for a way to remember dinners. Combining our two subjects we had as objective:

In the Netherlands we have an fast attitude towards food, It’s sometimes kind of a hassle and an impractical. It needs to be fast and easy, so you don’t “waste your time” cooking and eating. But what if we could redefine the way we have dinner? And save them through ceramics

By creating a new tool to save memories on cutlery, the memory does not only last but also reminds the person daily while eating from their cutlery. The tool we use is an camera obscura, which is a dark space (can be anything) with a hole in the surface to let a little light in. The ceramic object will be placed in the small dark space after a light sensitive formula treatment. The dark space (box) can be placed on the table while having dinner with friends. If the light hole is opened during dinner, the picture will develop while having dinner. The picture of everyone having dinner will be visual on the object placed in the box, making the memory last forever without sacrificing precious time.

Concept

We have an overload of memory data. Pictures are taken so often and frequently, without effort. We can immediately see the result of your picture, and have endless do overs, so you will always have the result you want. Contemporary technology is staged. By capturing memory through camera obscura we force people to be patient. There is an ongoing process of making the memory directly onto ceramics. All the while your dining experience is enriched. You have to move more slowly, as to become a sharp image on the ceramics. If you are on your phone constantly that will be seen on the ceramics. After your dinner you will have created a memory together, not just figuratively but physically as well and to be seen and enjoyed for generations to come.

All the testing

Once our light sensitive Emulsion arrived in the mail we instantly started to do some testing. Especially before the christmas break our tests were all unsuccessful. To find the golden formula a lot of further testing needed to be done. Several variables were taken in account when starting to photograph.

Which 'Camera' it was taken with
Weather conditions to estimate how much light was present while making the photo.
Exposure time
What is photographed

Down below will be an overview from the first tests to the last.