Matter Matters

Baibua Nilsa-ard

B.baibuaaa@gmail.com / Baibua.co

Matter Matters is a project aimed at investigating the collective process of art toy creation, responding to the rising global interest and substantial market profit of art toys. The project consists of three phases:

Phase 1: Understanding Art Toys

This phase explores what art toys are and what makes them significantly widespread. It involves researching the history, evolution, and overall landscape of the art toy world. Prominent art toy artists and their conceptualization processes will also be showcased to understand how they formulate their ideas into art toys.

Phase 2: The Creative Process

The second phase focuses on the hands-on creative process of art toy making, from conceptualization to finishing. This involves step-by-step practices including 2D hand sketches, 3D drawings, 3D modeling, and 3D prototyping using 3D printing technology. It also covers mold casting, material sampling and testing, and finishing techniques like painting, texturizing, and ceramic glaze firing. Throughout this phase, the project will document the successes and failures encountered during exploration, particularly in ideation and conceptualization.

The core concept of this project, "Matters," represents the stages of being solid, liquid, and gas, symbolizing how individuals cope with changes in their lives. This resonates with the art toy enthusiast community, particularly teenagers facing life transitions such as moving from high school to university or from university to employment.

Phase 3: Community Impact and Reflection

The final phase reflects on the existence and impact of the art toy community. It examines the diverse stakeholders involved, including artists, manufacturers, producers, marketers, investors, collectors, and observers. 

The project “Matter Matters” will culminate in an installation showcasing evidence from all three phases, including discoveries and creations from the exploration, a complete project journal, and the final versions of all "Matters" in both full scale and miniature versions.