Abstract
Synthetic polymers, otherwise known as plastic is often regarded as cheap, fake and toxic. Since its commercialisation in the 20th century, plastic has not only become more indispensable for human activity, but is associated with irreversible pollution and ecotoxicity. Yet, accepting the use and consequent waste of plastic as simply an intrusion of human contrivance is to externalise a toxicity that proves to be more peculiar in its origins and culture. To espouse plastic’s sheer artificiality is to overlook its foundations in organic matter, and the proposition that its ‘life’ is – to draw from the narrative in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – a reanimation at the expense of the remains of the non-living. It is through this transformation that the operation of plastic’s cultural significance and semantic intersection with cancer becomes evident, insofar as the latter is a deviant cell synthesised by the body’s own mutations and stressors, and in time acquires a plasticity that grows and resides as a toxic entity within the organs. Exploring the parallels between cancer and plastic open the space for oncology to question the plastic condition, and show the production and consumption of the material intrinsically entwined with our humanity. To completely forgo plastic would therefore involve a radical redesigning or even undoing of the human condition, as plastic’s raison d’être lies not in the objects derived from it, but in the quality and potentials of plasticity.
Presenters
Joel GnLecturer, School of Spatial and Product Design, LASALLE College of the Arts, Central Singapore, Singapore
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Critical Theory, Design, Materials, Oncology, Plastic, Toxicity
