The $10,000 Apple and the full-time job at Timeplast
Hi there,
We have something very interesting for you: a full-time job opportunity, a $5,000 contest and a new filament, Timemass Passive, the slowest-dissolving material in our Timemass lineup. It's water-soluble — yes, fully — but it takes months, often years, to finally surrender to the elements. Until then, it behaves like any tough conventional plastic: semi-rigid, durable, dependable. When its time finally comes, it returns quietly to the world without leaving a trace behind.
And it's iridescent. Hold a print in the light and you'll see it shift, green into violet into something you don't quite have a name for. Parts made with this material don't really look like plastic. They look like the next thing. That strange threshold where a material stops being just a material and starts feeling like something else entirely.
That's the quiet thesis of this filament: durability without the "forever." We've spent a century making things that outlast their usefulness by lifetimes. Timemass Passive is our answer, strength while you need it, silence when you don't.
The $10,000 Apple contest and full-time role opportunity.
Download here a 3D file of an apple. It's print-ready: no tuning, no remeshing, no guesswork. If you print it with Time-Mass Passive, you're in.
Why we're doing this and how to win
We have subscribers and customers across dozens of climates and on different continents. No single lab could replicate that range of conditions if it tried. Together, though, we can watch one object, the same object, printed from the same material, meet the world in radically different ways. Heat. Humidity. UV. Rain. Frost. Salt air. Every apple becomes a small experiment in how environment shapes time. Collectively, they become something closer to a global study, and you're the one running it.
The Competition
Once a month, for twelve months, send us a photo of your apple in the spot you chose. The apple can't move. That's the only rule.
By year's end, on May 18, 2027, we will award two or more $5,000 prizes: 1) for the apple that dissolved the most during the 12-month period, and 2) for the apple placed in the most eccentric, exotic, interesting, or scientifically important location for 12 months. We will select only one winner for the apple that dissolves fastest and several winners (if needed) for the apples in the most interesting locations. If your apple appears to be dissolving faster than the 12-month period, show us gradual pictures illustrating the step-by-step dissolution, not just the final result overnight. For dissolving apples the locations need to be all natural, you cant place them in a lab experiment for example.
- $5,000 USD
- A long-form interview with the String Cubed × Timeplast team
- A press release announcing your result
- A TimePen, our multidimensional 3D printing pen
- A featured role in our upcoming documentary on modern metamaterials and their societal implications.
- A full-time role at Timeplast.
To enter: send your monthly photo to timeplast@timeplast.com with the subject line "Apple — [your city]." Include your name(s), the location of the apple (indoor/outdoor, climate, rough conditions), and the date of the photo. We'll handle the rest. Several subscribers can team up for the ambitious locations or projects. If you form a team, send us the names of every participant.
To buy the filament and enter, click here (https://www.timeplast.com/store/p/timemass-passive)
We're genuinely glad you're here for this one.
The String Cubed × Timeplast team
P.S. We'll be featuring standout entries throughout the year on our channels, so don't be shy about the location you choose. The more unusual the environment, the more we want to see it.
Winners will be announced on May 18, 2027
