news
  • 15.3.2024 – 13.10.2024
    new project , exhibition

    "Water Pressure - Designing for the future" an exhibition of the MK&G Hamburg and Jane Withers Studio – looks at the water crisis from a global perspective. We were commissioned to come up with an installation celebrating water. The result "vital rain" is part of the exhibition and will stay permanently in the museums yard.
    more soon

    MKG Hamburg - Water Pressure

  • april 2024
    new project

    For the glassware company Lobmeyr we designed "ident" - drinking set No.287

    Identical shape, identical height - five individual glasses.
    The series was unveilded during Milan Design Week.

    Lobmeyr

  • april 2024 - ongoing
    factory tour

    We designed the factory tour for Laufen in Gmunden with a lot of details and small installations to guide and inform local and international guests.

    Laufen Gmunden

  • 5.4.2024 - 14.7.2024
    exhibition

    "inWastement" glass series is on show at the Klimabiennale in Vienna at the "design with a purpose" exhibition.

    Klimabiennale Wien

  • 15.9.2023 - 21.7.2024
    exhibition

    HEIMATEN. An exhibition and survey and an attempt to break with conventional takes on Heimat. the exhibition was shown at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MK&G) in 2022. Our specially commissioned piece 'riparian cloud' is now also on show in Molfsee.

    Freilichtmuseum Molfsee

  • 01.06.2024 - 30.03.2025
    exhibition, adapted project

    A utopian insect swarm based on our 'curiosity cloud' developed with 13 children from Dresden swirls during the Kinderbiennale in the Japanische Palais. The participatory process resulted in 24 fantastic, colourful insects.

    Children's Biennale "Planet Utopia"

  • 30.05 2024 - 13.10.2024
    new project , exhibition

    All in! Re-Designing Democracy - Every aspect of democracy has been designed, therefore it can be designed differently. A new "Themis" claims in the exhibition for rights for Nature.

    Bundeskunsthalle

  • 10.05. 2024 - 23.06.2024
    exhibition

    20th anniversary international exhibition and series of events. Our glass project "access" is part of the exhibition.

    design without borders

the idea of a tree – process

a semi-autonomous machine combining natural input with a mechanical process

  • year ongoing since 2008

  • category Processes / Machines & Their unique Results

  • commissioned by

    self-initiated

'recorder one' at the Danube, Vienna

the idea of a tree is an autonomous production process which combines natural input with a mechanical process. Solely driven by solar energy, it translates the intensity of the sun through a mechanical apparatus into one object a day.
The outcome reflects the various sunshine conditions that occur during this day. Like a tree the object becomes a three dimensional recording of its process and time of creation.
The machine “Recorder One” starts producing when the sun rises and stops when the sun settles down. After sunset, the finished object can be “harvested”.
It slowly grows the object, by pulling threads through a colouring device, a glue basin and finally winding them around a mould.
The length/height of the resulting object depends on the sun hours of the day. The thickness of the layer and the colour is depending on the amount of sun-energy.

more sun = thicker layer and paler colour
less sun=thinner layer and darker colour.

The process is not just reacting on different weather situations, but also on shadows happening in the machine’s direct surrounding. Each cloud and each shadow becomes important for the look of the final object.
Various the idea of a tree -objects are possible.
The concept of introducing natural input into a serial production process suggests a new way of looking at locality. This “industrialized locality”, is not so much about local culture, craftsmanship or resources, instead it deals with climatic and environmental factors of the process’ surrounding. On a series of objects one can tell somehow the place of production. On the equator, for example, the objects would always have the same height/length, whilst in North- and Middle Europe, the seasons help shaping the objects. In countries with a lot of rain the objects would be darker and thinner whilst in sunnier regions the objects would be paler but thicker.
the idea of a tree is an idealistic vision on how machines combined with nature can produce great results, – an idea of industrial halls with daylight and manufacturing within natural rhythms.

explanative video about the idea of a tree

we were wondering how from all the different trees...

...the outcome (here: chair) looks always the same and why

this bench was made on a rather sunny summer-day in Vienna. The darker part in the middle implies that it was cloudy for a brief period

whereas this piece was produced on a rather grey january day, also in Vienna

how to "read" the object

locality as an important factor for the final outcome

detail of winding thread

detail of label describing day and place of production

  • machine ‘recorder one’

  • materials

    stainless steel construction on a wooden trolley;

    solar panels, electronic components

  • dimensions

    145 x 65 x 185 cm

  • collection

    the idea of a tree machine recorder one and two benches are part of the permanent collection of the MAK – museum of applied arts – Vienna