Graphics 1

Another Friday, the start of another module - graphic design. Another project - we were given a written piece called simply "Plastic" to read and respond to. Turned out it was written by Roland Barthes in the 50s, a time when philosophers were starting to find meaning in ordinary things.

In the discussion we heard about a sea of plastic swishing about - bottles and bags and whatever, that will never degrade, just get ground finer. Much sand is now fine plastic. In some areas of ocean, plastic bits outnumber the plankton by 6 to 1; creatures can't get enough to eat, get stuffed with plastic instead.

Here are my first thoughts, using a painted and burnt plastic cup retrieved from the bin. And another worksheet, with the text and some ideas. At the end of the day we talked about what everyone had - one was that just parts of the plastic disappear, like a part of the bin (what happens to the garbage inside...), a bit of the cable covering (what does the electricity do, leak out?), and so on. That got me looking at the world as though chunks of it were peeling off....quite disconcerting... (too much imagination perhaps!)

By Sunday reality had slotted back into place. I got all the bags in the house out of the cupboard and laid them out, engulfing a corner of the kitchen -

Menacing? Pathetic? what do they look like to you? -

An evening of watching tv and cutting up bags, knotting the strips together, and winding them into a ball. More to come...