"The Stamper Battery" by William du Toit 
  

Drawing from EM Forster’s 1909 short story “The Machine Stops”, this allegorical architectural drawing re-presents a seminal tale of environmental devastation caused by the 1860 New Zealand goldrush. Propelling the Otago region into economic prosperity, the mining operations were abandoned once the gold dried up—the forgotten industrial artefacts, environmental scarring, and their historic narratives slowly decaying over time, destined to be lost forever.

The Stamper Battery is the final drawing in a series of 7, each preserving the narrative of a different artefact of the historic goldmining process. It combines orthographic, notation and layering techniques to compose a drawing that shifts restlessly on its page—depicting fragments of architecture as they transform and decay over time. The drawing is intended to be exhibited in sequence, avoiding direct intervention on the site while preserving a national heritage story of place identity—acting as a lesson for future generations to learn from past mistakes.