Time Tension Wood

Experiencing time through the manipulation of natural material.

Objects once provided us with a tangible way to experience time and duration through material. The process of shaping materials left marks and traces, and the materials themselves changed in subtle ways through use and as they aged. Modern tools and processes allow us to manufacture astoundingly durable objects with unprecedented speed, but we have
lost the awareness of time objects once gave us.

To find a way to restore time and duration to objects, this project started with nature, the most patient craftsman. Nature creates its own kind of objects using slow, gradual processes, but these processes are too unpredictable and uncontrollable to produce objects useful for us. What is
needed is something between the work of nature and modern manufacturing—a way of making that waits on and relies on nature. One such method comes from the Indians of North America who curved wood
for bows by applying tension to freshly cut wood with a twisted cord and a stick.

As the wood dried, it relaxed and gave in to the tension, slowly bending until the desired shape was achieved. After the wood completely dried after several months, the curve became permanent. This project uses this technique as the basis of a system consisting of three basic elements—freshly cut willow poles, brass brackets, and ropes with a simple tension mechanism. The objects made with this system are the result of the cooperation between the natural and unpredictable properties of the wood, the control of the applied tension, and the time necessary for the process.