In the
previous post, I presented some of the issues I have with plastic as a material
and its role in consumer culture more broadly. Rather than passively, if
begrudgingly accepting the shortcomings, I believe we ought to examine the
alternative possibilities. As I see it, it is the role of the designer,
fabricator, or artist to optimize the
benefits of a given material or circumstance, and minimize the negatives. It is the responsibility of the consumer to
choose more carefully, that is, to be truly selective. After all, the engine of
production is an engine based on feedback, from consumer to producer, producer
to consumer, and so on and so on. There are examples of great plastic products,
objects that are designed with the limitations (and strengths) of plastic in
mind.
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| Plastic Eames Chair from the 1950s (photo by: Sandstein ) |
Plastics
fail on the most basic level when they attempt to simulate or rather,
impersonate another vastly different material (e.g. wood, stone, leather). From
this misguided practice we get the concept of plastic as a phony, or stilted
product. Of course, the counterpoint to this is that the imitation of natural
materials with synthetics can be an effective and even powerful device in fine
art and high design, where the limitations are intentionally underscored for
their conceptual richness.
A real
design challenge of plastics is how to create an object which ages well, which
becomes richer and storied by its use, rather than diminished by it. This
starts with selecting the best materials. We should demand the most stable,
durable plastics to use in manufacturing, rather than the quick, cheap and
dirty disposable materials we have come to associate with plastics. We make
furniture with walnut rather than basswood, for sculpture we specify bronze
over pewter, it should be the same with
plastics. "Engineering" plastics (acetal, polycarbonate, HDPE)
already exist in fairly common use, for more critical and demanding
applications. We should not be content with the existing options however- there
are surely more ideal configurations of polymers yet to be made, ones that
privilege longevity and resiliency over basic cost . I believe these simple
choices start the ball rolling in the right direction: creating plastics which
overcome the problems of their material origins, and become objects worthy of
heirloom status.
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