Kaarel Kuusk

• Repair as a trace of time: In search of a space that cumulates meaning
• Tutor: Tüüne-Kristin Vaikla, Kaja Pae, Jaan Tiidemann

The master’s thesis observes, maps and experiments with the expressions of time in space. Attention is paid to the property of space to be in constant change and transformation. Traces of time reflect this change – traces of wear and tear, degradation, repairs, additions, and so on. The thesis among other things, maps time traces, repairs furniture and expresses change in the drawing and experiments with the possibility of change in virtual space.

This work draws attention to the importance of the effect of time in the process of formation of built environment. The work is based on the understanding that the whole processfrom the de ign of a building to its demolition is a unified and smooth sequence of related changes over time.
The trace of time is the gradual transformation of the built environment, which takes place through the influence of human activities and nature and creates a temporal context. This includes, for example, wear and tear and repairs. The last of the three is crucial to this work. The five etudes described in the work are practical experiments on the relationships and expressions between time and space.

Five etudes:
„Liivaringid“ (“Circles of sand”) – a choreographic experiment of the body’s ability to create space in the context of time.

„Savitõmmised“ (“Clay imprints”) – Mapping of the Narva Art Residence building to monitor the textures created during different repairs of the building.

„Parandamine“ (“Repair”) – a design exercise to create a new layer on three broken chairs, giving them practical value through which they continue to express the time perspective in habitable space.

„Punktpilv“ (“Point cloud”) – a media-based etude for mapping time traces, creating a controversial situation where we have an environment that is subject to time changes and an almost identical virtual environment that is not subject to time changes.

„Fotoseeria“ (“Photo series”) – a cross-section of the author’s photographs, among which are more extreme and mild examples of time imprints, repairs, and spatial formation processes that follow completion.

The „Lisaaeg. Lisa aeg“ (“Extra-time/Add Time”) section returns to the previous two etudes (“Repair”, “Point Cloud”) and deals with the problem of depicting time in an interior architectural drawing and making drawing examples. The first of these „Muutused nelikvaates”, (“Changes in orthographic projection”) brings the dimension of time changes alongside the usual dimension and also depicts the object at different stages of change. The second “drawing”, “Virtual Ship of Theseus” intervenes in a naturally worn-out environment, bringing it into virtual reality and through temporal starts and stops, deals with the common ground between construction, decomposition, repair, and drawing. The layers of the drawing can be distinguished by index colors, expressing their temporal sequence.