Winter Semester 2010 / 2011,

Hidden Topography

Starting in the second half of the 19th Century, the new medical science is finally established. From this moment on, the pathology medical studies started, based their assumptions in the observation of sickness cellulose using the microscope. To achieve those assumptions, extraction of the affected human organs was necessary, as well as to conserve them in a special preparation, made by Formol. Dr. Virschow created at the Charité Hospital in Berlin one of the most important.

Keeping in mind the idea of Dr. Virschow´s pathology collection, I started studying the form that those pieces had taken when the sickness affected their structure. The change of colors between the sick and healthy parts of the human organs draws shadows.

I translated into layers those differences between the colors. This means I have given just one layer for the healthy parts, and when the tissue of the organ becomes more and more sick, more layers are pasted on top. Just like a geographic map. The sick layers have been pasted on the internal side of the surface, and the healthy layers have been pasted on the opposite side, the outside. Doing this, diverse reliefs are constructed on both sides.

The purpose of Hidden Topographyis to create a surface that hides a secret sickness in its internal side, and it can be only discovered once the light passes through it, drawing shadows in the outside surface, and therefore transforming it.

Project categorySemester Project