toaster (undone)

Undoing is about getting to the it-ness of an object. It’s a toaster and it serves a function to warm up a carbohydrate square but it is also a system of wires, metal plates and plastic. It collects the bits and pieces of toast over time and eventually every last mechanical surface of the interior becomes coated with crumbs of a certain age. Crumbs of every shade from black to light brown live on long after the toast has been eaten and sent back to the eco-system. Undoing a toaster even has a certain sound to it as the delicate metal ribbon is un-threaded and reverberates off the thin metal plates. It’s a specific toaster-undoing-sound, particular to this make/manufacturer of toaster. I see now that every undoing will have it’s own soundtrack, which I'm looking forward to. The whole toaster assembly was held together by 10 screws. The majority of the structure is accomplished through tiny folded metal tabs and slots. It’s surprising how such little gestures provide so much structural strength. I actually worked up a sweat trying to pry it all apart as deliberately and non-destructively as possible. The toaster parts all have a “look” to them: flat, folded, tabbed, slotted, holed. The electric parts look completely different: flaming red copper wire, winding thick black cord…so true to their functions and their opposite roles of mechanical and electrical. In opposition they bring each other to life, converting current to heat and synchronizing levers to toss toast upwards - although this toaster had become out-of-sync.

Part II – transformation or something that looks like a messed up re-arranged toaster, we’ll see.