Toaster Project documents Thomas Thwaites’ attempt to recreate a mass-produced toaster from raw materials. What appears to be a simple household device unfolds into a highly complex chain of extraction and transformation. To build it, Thwaites sought to obtain essential materials such as iron, copper, and plastic, retracing their origins through mining, processing, and fabrication. His process led him to an iron mine and to experiments with pre-industrial techniques, revealing the difficulty of accessing and transforming materials that modern industry renders seemingly effortless.

By attempting to reconstruct an everyday object from the ground up, the work exposes the vast infrastructures hidden behind even the simplest technologies. The Toaster Project thus reveals how deeply technological objects are embedded in processes of extraction, and how difficult it is to disentangle them from the material conditions that sustain them.

Thomas Thwaites is a critical designer / researcher interested in the social impacts of science and technology. His sometimes eccentric projects explore the social impacts of technology as we struggle to find a sustainable future. He holds an MA in Design Interactions from the Royal College of Art, and a BSc. in Human Sciences from University College, London. He is the author of two books; The Toaster Project, and GoatMan both published by Princeton Architectural Press.His work is exhibited at museums and galleries worldwide, and is in the permanent collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, The Boijmans Museum Rotterdam, the Banque De France.
More info: http://www.thetoasterproject.org/