Metallen uses the archive of a defunct factory in Västerås, Sweden, to create a vision of a utopian world made of twisted aluminium and decaying copper. The project was authored by Emma Hammar, an editor and researcher living in London who grew up on Maskinistgatan, a stone's throw away from the plants. Her research into her town's heritage led her to Nils Blix, a photographer hired by the plant to work in the laboratory, where he filmed the ethereal microscopic processes of oxidising copper that form the basis of the book. The images and films that make up the project were unearthed by Hammar and had never been seen by the public.