By Laurin Mackowitz

They built the melting pot themselves. A cut up metal barrel, a couple of firebricks, some concrete to glue it all together, and a very reliable vacuum cleaner that was turned around not to suck but blow air into the oven. They? Two young artists who had just completed a two-year course on metal arts and jewelry. They had tested the melting pot but never used it to actually melt anything.

For the big day they had invited friends to celebrate and see if their machine was working or not. Unlike the usual Xmas market Saturday, this event was a heart and toe warming experience. Into the pot went wood and coal to bring the heat up; then a fire brick pot full of scrap metal, lit on the top. Now we had to wait until the temperature reached 800 Celsius for the scrap metal to turn into an intensely glowing magma.

Taking all necessary precaution and using security gear, one of the artists grabbed the firebrick-pot with the molten metal and poured its content into a negative form made from sand and wax. I was awestruck by the heat and beauty of the magma. This experience of Promethean mastery demonstrated that with knowledge we can tame the violence of fire and melt metal.

Laurin Mackowitz
Institut für Philosophie
University of Graz