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Are You Made of Sugar?
The development of my idea began with a systematic exploration of sugar, a material I subjected to experiments focusing on its physical, chemical, and aesthetic qualities. I created biocomposites, transformed it into various states of matter, and worked with its elemental, 'essential' form. My goal was to reflect on the material not only technically but also philosophically and psychologically, developing its symbolism across textual, sonic, and visual dimensions. After conducting material tests to determine its maximum and minimum durability, elasticity, brittleness, density, and solubility, I integrated these properties into the final conceptual project titled 'Are You Made of Sugar?'.
I interpret the material’s fragility as a metaphor for my own vulnerability to criticism from both my inner circle and the broader environment. My sugar likenesses function as equivalents of these confrontations; they are material projections that I dissolve with simulated rain, visualizing the process of psychological processing and gradual reconciliation. I create these likenesses in three distinct levels of solubility, representing the variable difficulty of confronting different impulses or critiques. The less soluble the material, the harder it is for me to accept the given reproach.
As a continuation of this material research, I decided to explore the possibilities of sugar in 3D printing through a modified construction of extrusion systems. This step represented an effort to shift the material from traditional forms of processing into a technologically innovative context. Ultimately, I reached the Institute of Materials and Machine Mechanics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV), where Ing. Štefan Nagy, PhD., entered into a professional collaboration, helping to transform this experiment into a viable technological process. Together, we demonstrate that 3D printing from sugar is not only technically feasible but also aesthetically and conceptually productive within contemporary design and artistic research.
This project was developed in professional collaboration with the Institute of Materials and Machine Mechanics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV).
Expert Consultation and Collaboration: Ing. Štefan Nagy, PhD.
How does sugar sound? A sound created by mixing recordings of sugar in its various forms: