Week 3 Studio: Materials and marks

Ageing a surface convincingly by hand, and learning by doing it what a lab test would catch that an eye wouldn't.

12 August 2027

Before the session#

No preparation beyond this week’s lecture — the materials are provided, and part of the exercise is not knowing in advance what you’ll be handling.

In the session#

Anselm demonstrates two or three hand-ageing techniques (tea-staining paper, craquelure by controlled flexing, foxing with diluted iron) on a fresh surface, then you attempt one yourself. The follow-up question is the real content of the week: given what you just did, what would a materials test actually catch? Every hand-ageing technique leaves a trace that isn’t the trace of real time passing, and naming your own trace is the exercise.

Afterwards#

Keep your aged sample — it’s a reference object for later studios, including the crit in week 7.