“A Cure for Concrete” steers creation of visual imagery on concrete surfaces by experimenting with co-additives to an existing, but underused, concrete curing compound. Both the additives and curing compound can be derived from waste products, such as Vivianite, a by-product of wastewater treatment. The pictorial ornamentation will not only make buildings and the urban…
curing concrete
Concrete has been in the news several times in the past year. From bridges collapsing after a mere 50 years (by way of comparison, the Pantheon in Rome has a concrete dome roof which is about 2000 years old), to cement (the key component of concrete) being responsible for 8% of CO2 emissions, this substance of…
implications for science
The results of this are still being assimilated in terms of their implications for science. For instance the vivianite colour (change) is a rather unexpected quantum mechanical effect which might also have relevance for electrochemical devices like Li-ion batteries. There are aspects related to a high pH sensitivity and unexpected lack of uniformity in the vivianite…
todaysart 2019 install
Setting up at the electriciteitsfabriek for TodaysArt 2019 live experiments in our installation. (To see the installation in action see my website! https://www.sujata.nl/a-cure-for-concrete-at-todaysart-2019/ and https://www.sujata.nl/a-cure-for-concrete-filmclip/ ) photo credits where not the author’s own: Stephen Picken, Teun Verkerk, Marion Vredeling
hackathon
We ran a ‘material hackathon’ in the TU Delft Science Centre where my residency took place, to share our process and findings, with TU Delft students and others, to open up the process and see where the materials took them. Participants used the same materials as available to me and then added some of their…
attempts at living surfaces
Attempts at creating pattern by living organisms did not go well. Slime mould (left – actually growing – pre-concrete transfer) did not grow on concrete at all, we suspect it was far too alkaline. Attempts with fish hydrolysate (right) attracted bugs and had to be abandoned, while the pattern imprinted by them was not even…
vivianite supply
some of the vivianite samples we got from the wastewater treatment process weren’t cleanable or usable for the experiment because they were already too far oxidised. Stephen created some in the lab so we could carry on with the experiments and the hackathon in a timely fashion.. the real deal .. unusable this time vivianite…
living surfaces exhibition and talks at tu delft library
The Living Surfaces exhibition allowed me to place the new work (in the form of surfaces as well as photographs) in context with the photography that inspired our collaboration, exemplifying the transcendence of scale in the forms and patterns in my work. Of the photographs, a massive glacial Patagonian landscape (100x150cm, previous work) sits comfortably…
vivianite and cracks
without delft green curing coating.. the concrete very obviously cracks allowing vivianite to fill these cracks. the Delft Green curing coating forms a gel on the surface of wet concrete and protects the concrete by preventing water escaping during the concrete setting reaction. It stops the surface drying out and therefore minimises cracks. If there…
vivianite drip tests
dripping blue vivianite on wet concrete gives unexpected results. These are on CEM III/B and CEM I mortar – referring to the kind of cement used in the mixture. Sometimes the word ‘concrete’ is used loosely to describe both mortar and concrete. Mortar is cement + sand + water while concrete is cement + sand…
A Cure for Concrete 