The Surface-Process Paradox: On Chemistry, Extraction, and Aesthetics

This essay examines the history and environmental consequences of titanium dioxide (TiO2), a white pigment which has been fundamental for the development of aesthetic discourses throughout the 20th century. Based on primary archival research, the essay conceptualizes the “surface-process paradox” by writing a microhistory of TiO2 through a critical dialectical method, from two temporal and disciplinary approaches. First, through the work of the British paint chemist Noël Heaton (1875–1955), and then through the work of the Norwegian artist and researcher Marte Johnslien (b. 1977). A deeper understanding of TiO2—across times, forms and scales—brings attention to the global entanglements that today’s surfaces are weaved into, onto, and with.