New Materials New Methods

<p><em>New Materials New Methods</em>, is the eighth in the series of <em>Blowup</em> readers. It explores the relation between innovation, art and science, and the hopes projected onto the possibilities of new materials and new methods: a massive ship made of ice was the fantastic project of the forties, what extreme projects can we conceive of today?</p> <p>V2_’s multi-year research project on<em> Innovation in Extreme Scenarios</em> was inspired in part by the amazing but true story of British inventor Geoffrey Pyke and his idea to build an aircraft carrier made of a special kind of ice that he had created. This was not Pyke’s only grand project, he was widely acknowledged as an eccentric but brilliant innovator who contributed to many aspects of society. The British Security Service (MI5) recently declassified a treasure trove of information about Pyke and his contributions to the Allies’ efforts in WWII. British writer Henry Hemming has written a new biography of Pyke based on these recent revelations and on unlimited access to his archive. In researching his book, Hemming discovered evidence of a method for innovation that Pyke followed, and it is this method we explored in Day 1 of <em>Blowup: New Materials, New Methods</em>, by conducting a workshop on “How to Pyke”. As part of the workshop, participants also heard about the contemporary uses for this intriguing material, from Roel Pluijman and Jorrit Hijl, two members of the team who made the Pykrete Dome (the world’s largest ice dome, built in 2013) possible…</p>