The Toaster Project by Thomas Thwaites

Introduction

Thomas Thwaites has built a toaster from scratch, extracting raw material and processing them himself into a product that Argos sell for only £3.99. He has traveled across the country to collect raw material for his toaster and processed them in a domestic scale.

Materials

Thwaites' toaster consists of just five materials; "iron(for the grill), copper(for the pins of the plug and wires), plastic(for the casting, plug, and wire insulation), nickel(for the heating elements) and mica(around which the heating element is wound)."(Thwaites, 2011) However, the Argos Value Range toaster he used as his model was made by nearly 100 materials, which is a far more complicated process. He has faced numerous obvious challenges trying to replicate the massive industrial process on a small scale. "He has traveled nineteen hundred miles to collecting raw materials."(Thwaites, 2011) Lots of time, money and effort has been put into this toaster. He even "melted iron ore in a microwave." (Fairy, 2009) Although he had tried very hard, the outcome looks a bit scratchy, compare to the Argos toaster. It did not work successfully.

Analysis

As the artist said, "I think our position is ambiguous- the scale to the industry involved in making a toaster is ridiculous but at the same time the chain of discoveries and small technological developments that occurred along the way make it entirely reasonable."(Thwaites, 2011)Under his toaster making project, he is saying profound things, of a different order. "The 'failures' he encounters, during his toaster making, point to the success of his real message; that we have become disconnected from how our world is supported and sustained.'" said by Steve Furlonger (2009), the former Head of Sculpture at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.

Although I use toaster almost every day, I was never thought of the process needed for making a toaster before seeing this project. I realized now that most of the everyday products were made by complex materials. The convenience of our daily life is benefited from the mass production industry and the total inter-reliance of people and societies. 

Reference

Fairs, M. (2009). The Toaster Project by Thomas Thwaites | Dezeen. [online] Dezeen. Available at: https://www.dezeen.com/2009/06/27/the-toaster-project-by-thomas-thwaites/ [Accessed 16 Nov. 2016].

Thwaites, T. (2011). The toaster project, or, A heroic attempt to build a simple electric appliance from scratch. 1st ed. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, p.13.

Thwaites, T. (2011). The Toaster Project. [online] Available at: http://www.thetoasterproject.org [Accessed 04 Nov. 2016]