TOM KIMBERLEY – WSA On Display 2020

“THE MARKS OF MAKING AND THE MAKING OF MARKS”

The thesis explores the macro and micro scales of mark-making embedded within the making processes of the slate industry from the extraction of slate and the scar left on the landscape, to the scribe mark left by a measuring stick to create slate tiles. To explore relationships between the tool, the maker and the mark, a methodology of mark making has been employed throughout the exploration of the thesis to record and test ideas. The initial line of enquiry was developed by repurposing a set of antique wooden hand planes into printing blocks which revealed traces of their history through the mark left on the page. This same methodology was also used to develop the architecture presented as the outcome of the thesis by creating a set of printing blocks which leave marks that are proportional to dimensions used in the slate making process. These marks then informed the arrangement and size of the spaces situated within the landscape which make up the place for retreat.

Sited within a system of abandoned slate quarries in North Wales, the project proposes a place for retreat which responds to the hardship and tough working lives of the quarrymen who once worked and lived within these exposed environments. The sites that were once a place for hard labour and imprisonment, now become places for retreat and escapism from the hardships of modern day living.