For my object, alteration, alteration assignment I chose to externalize the contents of a small carton of almond milk in different ways. First, I painted the carton white, taking away the packaging aspect and making the container like a "fruit" that hides a filling inside. For the second alteration, I tapped the carton like a tree and let the milk spill out. I was interested in exploring the solid and liquid states of the carton, the milk, and most interestingly, the paint, which serves as both solid and liquid at different times. I also wanted to perform an action usually reserved for living things, like plants, on a human-made piece of packaging.
In this assignment I was interested in creating a cohesive piece that rendered natural looking something incredibly processed and human-made, almond milk (which frankly had the added bonus of not spoiling like dairy milk). While the stark white is not completely "natural" looking, but in itself an emblem of something processed, it makes the carton more comparable to the contents. Rather than having a photo of milk on the cover, the carton appears completely white, as if made of its contents. From there, I allowed the milk a way to fall out of the carton in an orderly manner, bringing the contents further outside, and rendering the packaging even more unnecessary. An unexpected but interesting consequence of this is that the almond milk reflected the sky outside my window and pooled around island-like areas on the tray that the set up sat on. In a way, the carton became a structure in a more natural landscape (3c).
Another aspect of this experiment was the unpredictability of the process. The milk would pour out, stop, and start again at intervals, and fill the tray with no intervention. When I knocked the carton down at the end, into the puddle of milk, the paint half-returned to its liquid state (3e), performing the process in reverse.
Unavoidably, this process also brings up the idiomatic idea of "spilled milk." The process once done cannot be undone. In this way, the externalizing of the milk can be seen as a failed attempt to bring the beverage back to its natural form, which is of course impossible because I cannot turn it back into almonds. While the paint can fluctuate, nothing will ever be what it has already been. And viewing the carton as a structure in the center of the milk pool takes this train of thought further. The human-made structure cannot say as "pristine" as it once was after it enters into an environment. The setting regulates itself as I watch, and while I can intervene (knocking down the structure for instance), I have only partial control over the outcome. The result, I think, is more interesting for the lack of control I have, and creates a new kind of potential for the objects present.
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| Stage 1 |
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| Stage 2 |
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| Stage 3a |
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| Stage 3b |
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| Stage 3c |
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| Stage 3d |
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| stage 3e |
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