Index
 
Lost Forms

Representations of Lost Forms

Through the Department's Research, complexities have been found in categorizing types of Lost Forms.

One could easily say that a Wooden Lost Form on the Yarra River has nothing in common with a photo of a boy holding a photoshopped Lost Form to get it on a famous design website. And yet, there remains a consistent ambiguity around these geometrically similar forms. 

Is a 2D Lost Form still a Lost Form, or merely a representation of a real 3D Lost Form? Is it just the idea of a Lost Form that unifies random sculptures into a category? Someone seems to have just made it all up, not that everything else isn't anyway. 

This difficult task of categorization is harder still, when each Lost Form varies so chaotically. Different sizes, materials, construction techniques. Is there even a constant 'form', as it always requires a physically reference... questions, questions, questions...

Nevertheless, the current typological theory of Lost Forms states there are two types of Forms. Lost Forms and Representations of Lost Forms.