A Cure for Concrete
This transdisciplinary research took place during the Crossing Parallels residency 2018-19 at Delft University of Technology. I collaborated with Prof. Stephen Picken, whose seaweed-derived curing* compound Delft Green helps make concrete stronger and longer-lasting (preventing water escaping while the concrete is setting). With my visual interest in natural patterns and processes, I wanted to create organic patterns on concrete walls to decorate them, improving our wellbeing in the urban environment, as well as preserving concrete by using the curing coating as a vehicle for my visual additives. I experimented with chemicals from the Nereda bacterial wastewater treatment process as potential pigments, to create natural patterns on the surface of curing concrete.
My DIY open lab allowed us to share the whole process. We also ran a ‘material hackathon’ with participants having access to the same materials and knowledge. Results were exhibited at TodaysArt festival 2019 as an installation of a live experiment and our samples.
The most exciting results were Vivianite in Delft Green – ironic because Vivianite (aka Blue Ochre, hydrated iron sulphate) is known in the history of painting for being an unstable pigment! CNC (cellulose nanocrystal, from (toilet) paper recycling!) was very promising in early stages, but dryness broke the patterns up.
The emerging organic patterns from chemical reactions and surface drying give us a glimpse into what we would like to add to our urban concrete landscape to improve our wellbeing through organicity.
*Inadequate curing is the cause of 80% of all damage to concrete. Cement, its key ingredient, accounts for 8% of CO2 emissions. The least we can do is make the 1 ton we use per person per year last as long as possible. To make concrete last as long as possible it needs to be well-cured.
Sujata Majumdar
Sujata is an interdisciplinary artist based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She has a background in Natural Sciences, Photography, and ICT. She practises ‘image-led artistic research’ - interdisciplinary collaboration with others, driven by insights gained from creating and working with images.
Also part of Tickbird&Rhino she brings specialists together in conversation and collaboration, to open up new knowledge and the creative moment to all.
Major projects/exhibitions: A Cure for Concrete: TodaysArt, Crossing Parallels residency, Living Surfaces TU Delft (2019); Signature Print (FabLab tech & traditional Gujarati craft, 2017); Surface Tension (Brummelkamp Galerie 2018), Desirable Dossiers: Healthcare through a data lens (FoAm/European Commission, 2014).
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