About the material:
cardboard is mainly made made of paper fibres, which are obtained from wood pulp. Fibres are usually derived from recycled paper or fresh wood, wich is processed and formed into layered structure to produce the rigid, lightweight material. Natural cardboard can range from grey to light brown in color, depending on dyes, printing and coating. Cardboard is both biodegradable and recyclable making it environmentally friendly material.
Availability:
used cardboard boxes are lagerly available for free when requested in many supermarkets and other shops
used cardboard envelopes can be collected during longer period of time when planing in advance
About the idea and process:
Cardboard is a very versatile material, and used cardboard boxes and envelopes are largely available. Considering those issues I wanted to use them as the main material in the set design for mobile contemporary dance piece the 'BAU!' choreographer Raimonda Gudaviciute, production Hessisches Staatsballett 2024. I had an idea to apply weaving as recycling technique, witch is quite unusual for cardboard, but i think it helped to obtain the shapes and textures of hand made artifact . Both types - used and new cardboard were used to create all the designs.
Pros and cons:
Used cardboard products are largerly available. Cardboard is biodegradable and recyclable.
When manipulated frequentlly cardboard in being worn out and might be damaged. In case of "BAU!" I knew this problem will occur and I have projected that eventual future repairs with a matching color paper tape or gluing extra layers of cardboard will become part of the design. This solution is in line with the dramaturgy of the “BAU!”, where protagonist is building and improving his den tirelessly , the den in the performance is represented by a structure from cardboard boxes and nets. When applying in practise the repairs worked and even improved the design, but am Iaware that continues maintenance takes a bit of extra time and work for the theater workshops
Collected envelopes
Windmilll weaving sample
Windmill weaving from envelopes
Nets made from Amazon envelopes using a windmill weaving technique
Weaving samples from recycled boxes
Weaving samples for the cardboard blankets
Pictures of making process and details of weaved cardboard blakets
Pictures of making process and details of nets and boxes
Visible repairs with a paper tape and extra card board layers
Photo by @dedaproduction
