As with the rest of the AUB campus, MoDiP will be closed on Monday 31st August and re open on Tuesday 1st September.
Susan, Pam, Louise & Katherine
MoDiP is part of the Arts University Bournemouth
Friday, 28 August 2015
Monday, 24 August 2015
A different view #19
There are many ways to look at the objects in
the MoDiP collection. With this series of posts I want to highlight
the interesting views of objects that we may ordinarily miss. These
include the underside of an object, the surface pattern, or traces of manufacturing processes.
Title: Synthetic fur jacket
Designer: Unknown
Manufacturer: Unknown
Object number: AIBDC : 000261
Louise Dennis (Assistant Curator)
Title: Synthetic fur jacket
Designer: Unknown
Manufacturer: Unknown
Object number: AIBDC : 000261
Louise Dennis (Assistant Curator)
Friday, 21 August 2015
Did you know? #26 - Plastic Vanitas
Did you know that between 10th September and 29th October 2015 you will have the chance to view the MoDiP collection in a completely different way in TheGallery at the AUB?
Plastic things are all around you but how much do you notice them?
Plastic Vanitas exhibition is a series of photographic artworks by Mariele Neudecker that re-presents the collection of the Museum of Design in Plastics (MoDiP) as vanitas still lifes. MoDiP the only accredited UK museum with a focus on plastics, is a research resource of the Arts University Bournemouth where Plastic Vanitas was created during the artist’s residency.
Vanitas painting is a specific genre of still-life painting that flourished in the Netherlands and Flanders in the 16th and 17th century in which the most exquisite accoutrements of everyday life are presented as symbols of the worthlessness of earthly achievement and the inevitability of death.
Intensification of the act of looking and seeing is at the heart of what Mariele Neudecker does. Working in a variety of traditional and new media with imagery found, retrieved and reconsidered from our common cultural consciousness, she represents what we know so we see it as we have never seen it before.
Neudecker was fascinated by how MoDiP’s collection is stored in anonymous boxes by plastic material, size and weight, seemingly in random accumulations of objects that make no intellectual sense. The featured box contents were selected as a result of the artist listing object types depicted in vanitas paintings: skulls, mirrors, drinking vessels, candles, scales, fruit, flowers, insects and so on and the MoDiP staff selecting some forty boxes from the 1000 plus in the collection that contained at least one such object or something physically similar. For example there are no skulls but there are crash helmets and they take a similar form, and thus can act as substitutes. The rest was left to intuition and the artist’s alchemy. Each image includes every object that is stored in the particular box housing the selected object. Objects stored singly are re-presented in isolation.
The resulting images are remarkable. They are also beautiful. The vanitas paradigm shines a new light literally and metaphorically on these mundane objects. Individually they are redefined as contributors to life’s precarious mortality. Carmen curlers are no longer useful beauty aids but instead emblems of vanity; a protective hockey helmet becomes a spectre of what might happen were it not worn; clocks become the harbingers of life’s brevity; and so on. The compositions as a whole act as allegories of the challenges that face our world with its dwindling resources.
A text + work exhibition, curated by Professor Susan Lambert, Head of MoDiP
In partnership with Bath Spa University, bowarts nunnery gallery, Poole Lighthouse
Supported by Arts Council England.
Published by text + work, TheGallery, AUB
2015, Soft cover with images
Publication includes contributions by Professor Emma Hunt, Professor Susan Lambert and essays by Professor Hanneke Grootenboer, Alice Sharp and Rachel Withers.
ISBN: 978-0-901196-67-5
Available to purchase from TheGallery Office or the AUB Online Store from 10 September 2015.
Plastic things are all around you but how much do you notice them?
Plastic Vanitas exhibition is a series of photographic artworks by Mariele Neudecker that re-presents the collection of the Museum of Design in Plastics (MoDiP) as vanitas still lifes. MoDiP the only accredited UK museum with a focus on plastics, is a research resource of the Arts University Bournemouth where Plastic Vanitas was created during the artist’s residency.
Vanitas painting is a specific genre of still-life painting that flourished in the Netherlands and Flanders in the 16th and 17th century in which the most exquisite accoutrements of everyday life are presented as symbols of the worthlessness of earthly achievement and the inevitability of death.
Intensification of the act of looking and seeing is at the heart of what Mariele Neudecker does. Working in a variety of traditional and new media with imagery found, retrieved and reconsidered from our common cultural consciousness, she represents what we know so we see it as we have never seen it before.
Neudecker was fascinated by how MoDiP’s collection is stored in anonymous boxes by plastic material, size and weight, seemingly in random accumulations of objects that make no intellectual sense. The featured box contents were selected as a result of the artist listing object types depicted in vanitas paintings: skulls, mirrors, drinking vessels, candles, scales, fruit, flowers, insects and so on and the MoDiP staff selecting some forty boxes from the 1000 plus in the collection that contained at least one such object or something physically similar. For example there are no skulls but there are crash helmets and they take a similar form, and thus can act as substitutes. The rest was left to intuition and the artist’s alchemy. Each image includes every object that is stored in the particular box housing the selected object. Objects stored singly are re-presented in isolation.
The resulting images are remarkable. They are also beautiful. The vanitas paradigm shines a new light literally and metaphorically on these mundane objects. Individually they are redefined as contributors to life’s precarious mortality. Carmen curlers are no longer useful beauty aids but instead emblems of vanity; a protective hockey helmet becomes a spectre of what might happen were it not worn; clocks become the harbingers of life’s brevity; and so on. The compositions as a whole act as allegories of the challenges that face our world with its dwindling resources.
A text + work exhibition, curated by Professor Susan Lambert, Head of MoDiP
In partnership with Bath Spa University, bowarts nunnery gallery, Poole Lighthouse
Supported by Arts Council England.
Plastic Vanitas: Touring Exhibition
After exhibition at the Arts University Bournemouth’s TheGallery, the show will tour to:- The Nunnery Gallery, Bow Arts, 15 January – 27 March 2016: Fitting into a larger programme about materials invented in the Lower Lea Valley.
- Corsham Court, Bath Spa University, 1 May – 31 July 2016: Shown alongside the extraordinary Wunderkammer natural history collection with its fossils and stuffed animals recalling the contents of Vanitas paintings.
- Poole Lighthouse, 29 October – 28 November 2016: Thus helping to integrate MoDiP with its wider local community.
Featured Publication
Plastic Vanitas — Mariele NeudeckerPublished by text + work, TheGallery, AUB
2015, Soft cover with images
Publication includes contributions by Professor Emma Hunt, Professor Susan Lambert and essays by Professor Hanneke Grootenboer, Alice Sharp and Rachel Withers.
ISBN: 978-0-901196-67-5
Available to purchase from TheGallery Office or the AUB Online Store from 10 September 2015.
Monday, 17 August 2015
BXL photographic archive #0090
In
2010, MoDiP was donated a large archive of images relating to a single
company. Bakelite Xylonite Ltd, also known as British Xylonite Ltd or
BXL, was possibly one of the first British firms to successfully
manufacture a plastics material in commercial quantities. The company
was established in 1875 and after a long history went into liquidation
in the late 2000s. The images we have in the collection are concentrated
around the 1960s through to the 1980s and show us glimpses of the
manufacturing process, products and the company’s employees during this
time. We plan to share an image each week to give a flavour of the
archive. If you want to see more you can view the whole collection on
our website.
This week’s image shows plastazote used in the E-Type Jaguar.
We are still working on the documentation of the archive, some of the images we know more about than others. It would be fantastic if we could fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge, if you know anything about the company or specific images it would be good to hear from you.
Louise Dennis (Assistant Curator)
This week’s image shows plastazote used in the E-Type Jaguar.
 |
| To get a better view of the image and find out more have a look at it on our website http://www.modip.ac.uk/artefact/bxl--0183 |
We are still working on the documentation of the archive, some of the images we know more about than others. It would be fantastic if we could fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge, if you know anything about the company or specific images it would be good to hear from you.
Louise Dennis (Assistant Curator)
Friday, 14 August 2015
Guess the object
MoDiP has the kind of
collection that you may think you are very familiar with. We have objects which
we all use every day, and some pieces which are more unusual.
By looking at this distorted image are you able to guess what the object is? What do you think it could be used for?
Post your answer in the
comments below or to find the answer click here and you will be taken to the
MoDiP catalogue.
Louise Dennis (Assistant Curator)
By looking at this distorted image are you able to guess what the object is? What do you think it could be used for?
Louise Dennis (Assistant Curator)
Wednesday, 12 August 2015
HAX Packs
These bottles from the collection of the Museum of Design in Plastics are just three of an intriguing collection of figural, blow-molded, fruit-shaped plastic bottles attributed to the “HAX London” and “FLIP London” brands and loosely dated: 1950 – 1969.
Trying to find other examples online of HAX London or FLIP London bottles proved so difficult that I began to doubt whether such products were really ever on the market.
In matters of urgent packaging ephemera, however, we at box vox tend to just keep on digging. (Some say that we are compulsive in this regard.)
But it was due to exactly this sort of tireless perseverance, that we were able to unearth so much more about the HAX and FLIP brands.
HAX was a brand launched in the 1930s by Edward Hack, who (in the 1950s) played a key role in the design of a lemon-shaped plastic container for his HAX lemon juice. It was his container which ultimately became the well-know Jif plastic lemon. www.modip.ac.uk/artefact/aibdc--005918
Less well known are his patented designs for numerous other figural, blow-molded plastic bottles.
The black and white photo above shows a display carton containing these same 3 bottles from MODiP’s collection, shown above. The display carton picture was found in a 1957 issue of The Chemist and Druggist magazine with this accompanying text:
Hack had obtained a British trade mark for “FLIP” as a brand name in 1956. Was this his second act after selling “Jif” his rights to the HAX lemon pack?
Funny how the “FLIP” logo uses the same triangle and typography as the “HAX” logo. Clearly, Hack was behind both HAX and FLIP brands, but MODiP’s website lists the designer and manufacturer of these packs as “unknown.”
Based on our research into Edward Hack, can we possibly deduce who designed and manufactured these bottles? Yes, I believe that we can.
As with the HAX lemon, Edward Hack sought to patent these bottles. I found a Canadian patent for the Strawberry shaped bottle and American patents for the pineapple and chocolate “whirl” shaped bottles. There were also other colors of “whirl” bottle probably made from the same mold. (Note: in 1956 Hack filed a trademark application for the word “whirl.”)
Does Edward Hack’s name on the design patents prove that it was he who designed them? Not necessarily. When packaging design is a work-for-hire, the client’s name sometimes appears on the patent. (Walter Lander’s “tilt” bottle comes to mind.)
If Hack did not “design” these, then I believe he relied on Bill Pugh (at Cascelloid) for the design and hired Cascelloid to manufacture them— just as he did with the HAX plastic lemons. Some of the HAX and FLIP bottles in MODIP’s collection have their brand names embossed into the plastic and some do not. In some cases there is a circular “CAS” mark. (See: here and here) I’m guessing that’s a manufacturer’s mark for Cascelloid.
There are a couple of additional fruit-shaped bottles from this series that can be seen on the MODiP website — a banana bottle and a blackcurrant bottle. (I found a Canadian patent for banana-shaped bottle.) From 1957-1958 Hack was actively seeking patents for a number of figural bottles. I wonder if the proliferation of fruit-shaped, plastic bottles for “FLIP” was partly due to the speculative nature of this 1954 article, published in Bottling: A Quarterly Supplement to the Brewing Trade Review, about the HAX lemon:
Randy Ludacer (BEACH Branding & Package Design)
Randy is a partner at BEACH branding & package design.
beachpackagingdesign.com/
Founded in 1990, this NY-based branding & package design firm has grown over time from a tiny shoe-string operation to a slightly larger shoe-string operation.
Randy also edits the firm's blog. "box vox" covers an overlapping terrain of topics from branding and design to the wider cultural issues that surround packaging.
beachpackagingdesign.com/boxvox
This post was originally published at beachpackagingdesign.com/boxvox/hax-packs-more-fruit-shaped-plastic-bottles
In matters of urgent packaging ephemera, however, we at box vox tend to just keep on digging. (Some say that we are compulsive in this regard.)
But it was due to exactly this sort of tireless perseverance, that we were able to unearth so much more about the HAX and FLIP brands.
HAX was a brand launched in the 1930s by Edward Hack, who (in the 1950s) played a key role in the design of a lemon-shaped plastic container for his HAX lemon juice. It was his container which ultimately became the well-know Jif plastic lemon. www.modip.ac.uk/artefact/aibdc--005918
Less well known are his patented designs for numerous other figural, blow-molded plastic bottles.
The black and white photo above shows a display carton containing these same 3 bottles from MODiP’s collection, shown above. The display carton picture was found in a 1957 issue of The Chemist and Druggist magazine with this accompanying text:
Milk Made Irresistible. — A new series of flavours for milk, cereals, sandwiches, cakes, pancakes, spreads, jellies, blanc manges, custards and ice cream is being marketed in hygienic polythene easy-squeeze shapes, by Flip, Ltd., Lion House, Red Lion Street, London, W.C.I. Issued in three varieties (strawberry, pineapple and chocolate), the Flip flavours are sent out 1 doz. of each flavour in polythene bag. Three bags are the complement of each ‘outer.’
Hack had obtained a British trade mark for “FLIP” as a brand name in 1956. Was this his second act after selling “Jif” his rights to the HAX lemon pack?
Funny how the “FLIP” logo uses the same triangle and typography as the “HAX” logo. Clearly, Hack was behind both HAX and FLIP brands, but MODiP’s website lists the designer and manufacturer of these packs as “unknown.”
Based on our research into Edward Hack, can we possibly deduce who designed and manufactured these bottles? Yes, I believe that we can.
As with the HAX lemon, Edward Hack sought to patent these bottles. I found a Canadian patent for the Strawberry shaped bottle and American patents for the pineapple and chocolate “whirl” shaped bottles. There were also other colors of “whirl” bottle probably made from the same mold. (Note: in 1956 Hack filed a trademark application for the word “whirl.”)
Does Edward Hack’s name on the design patents prove that it was he who designed them? Not necessarily. When packaging design is a work-for-hire, the client’s name sometimes appears on the patent. (Walter Lander’s “tilt” bottle comes to mind.)
If Hack did not “design” these, then I believe he relied on Bill Pugh (at Cascelloid) for the design and hired Cascelloid to manufacture them— just as he did with the HAX plastic lemons. Some of the HAX and FLIP bottles in MODIP’s collection have their brand names embossed into the plastic and some do not. In some cases there is a circular “CAS” mark. (See: here and here) I’m guessing that’s a manufacturer’s mark for Cascelloid.
There are a couple of additional fruit-shaped bottles from this series that can be seen on the MODiP website — a banana bottle and a blackcurrant bottle. (I found a Canadian patent for banana-shaped bottle.) From 1957-1958 Hack was actively seeking patents for a number of figural bottles. I wonder if the proliferation of fruit-shaped, plastic bottles for “FLIP” was partly due to the speculative nature of this 1954 article, published in Bottling: A Quarterly Supplement to the Brewing Trade Review, about the HAX lemon:
The neat "Hax" lemon juice pack has won approbation all round… This adventure in plastics inspires speculation… Will it become a commonplace to dispense juices, sweetened or as in this case unsweetened… in plastics containers which are made up to resemble individual fruits of the larger sizes, or bunches or collections of fruits in the smaller? Is polythene the ultimate beverage container material, inert, hygienic ultra-light, unbreakable?
… a polythene bottle would probably make far more trips than glass for it would merely bounce if dropped and it certainly would, because of its lightness save enormously on transit in respect of tare weight, incidentally requiring lighter outer packages than glass. On the second point, we cannot see much likelihood of progress aside from novelty packs and certain special fruits such as apple, orange, grapefruit, pineapple, and, of course, lemon.
Randy Ludacer (BEACH Branding & Package Design)
Randy is a partner at BEACH branding & package design.
beachpackagingdesign.com/
Founded in 1990, this NY-based branding & package design firm has grown over time from a tiny shoe-string operation to a slightly larger shoe-string operation.
Randy also edits the firm's blog. "box vox" covers an overlapping terrain of topics from branding and design to the wider cultural issues that surround packaging.
beachpackagingdesign.com/boxvox
This post was originally published at beachpackagingdesign.com/boxvox/hax-packs-more-fruit-shaped-plastic-bottles
Monday, 10 August 2015
A different view #18
There are many ways to look at the objects in
the MoDiP collection. With this series of posts I want to highlight
the interesting views of objects that we may ordinarily miss. These
include the underside of an object, the surface pattern, or traces of manufacturing processes.
Title: Dateman folding glasses
Designer: Unknown
Manufacturer: Dateman
Object number: AIBDC : 0_2596
Louise Dennis (Assistant Curator)
Title: Dateman folding glasses
Designer: Unknown
Manufacturer: Dateman
Object number: AIBDC : 0_2596
Louise Dennis (Assistant Curator)
Friday, 7 August 2015
Did you know? #25
Did you know that there are children's activities linked to some of our exhibitions which you can do at home?
We currently have the following downloadable activities available:
As well as one relating to our current exhibition Threads: plastics wearing well.
Louise Dennis (Assistant Curator)
We currently have the following downloadable activities available:
As well as one relating to our current exhibition Threads: plastics wearing well.
Louise Dennis (Assistant Curator)
Wednesday, 5 August 2015
Plastics Spotting - in the most unexpected places. Part II
I recently visited Hampton Court Palace with no expectations of finding any plastics in this historical gem. Once again, how wrong was I! On display in the Georgian rooms were these magnificent costumes, designed to depict real life characters from the court of the Prince and Princess of Wales, George and Caroline, during their summer season of 1716.
On close inspection, they appear to have been made from paper, but the material used is actually Tyvek®, spun bonded high-density polyethylene olefin fibres. It is a conservation material we are quite familiar with here at MoDiP as it is what we use to make protective covers for our objects. I was quite surprised to find it being used in such an interesting and innovative way. Apparently the costume experts at Hampton Court experimented with many different types of fabric, but found Tyvek® to be an ideal choice particularly for representing the intricate details characteristic of the clothing from this period.
They are truly stunning to see and I could almost imagine the figures coming to life, gossiping in the corners of the rooms. You can find out more about the ‘Secrets of the Bedchamber’ installation here: http://www.hrp.org.uk/HamptonCourtPalace/stories/palacehighlights/Secretsoftheroyalbedchamber/costumes
Katherine Pell (MoDiP Administrator)
 |
| Figures depicting Prince and Princess of Wales, George and Caroline. |
On close inspection, they appear to have been made from paper, but the material used is actually Tyvek®, spun bonded high-density polyethylene olefin fibres. It is a conservation material we are quite familiar with here at MoDiP as it is what we use to make protective covers for our objects. I was quite surprised to find it being used in such an interesting and innovative way. Apparently the costume experts at Hampton Court experimented with many different types of fabric, but found Tyvek® to be an ideal choice particularly for representing the intricate details characteristic of the clothing from this period.
 |
| Tyvek® used to depict historic dress. |
They are truly stunning to see and I could almost imagine the figures coming to life, gossiping in the corners of the rooms. You can find out more about the ‘Secrets of the Bedchamber’ installation here: http://www.hrp.org.uk/HamptonCourtPalace/stories/palacehighlights/Secretsoftheroyalbedchamber/costumes
Katherine Pell (MoDiP Administrator)
Monday, 3 August 2015
BXL photographic archive #0089
In
2010, MoDiP was donated a large archive of images relating to a single
company. Bakelite Xylonite Ltd, also known as British Xylonite Ltd or
BXL, was possibly one of the first British firms to successfully
manufacture a plastics material in commercial quantities. The company
was established in 1875 and after a long history went into liquidation
in the late 2000s. The images we have in the collection are concentrated
around the 1960s through to the 1980s and show us glimpses of the
manufacturing process, products and the company’s employees during this
time. We plan to share an image each week to give a flavour of the
archive. If you want to see more you can view the whole collection on
our website.
This week’s image shows the application of BXL MX 100 adhesive.
We are still working on the documentation of the archive, some of the images we know more about than others. It would be fantastic if we could fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge, if you know anything about the company or specific images it would be good to hear from you.
Louise Dennis (Assistant Curator)
This week’s image shows the application of BXL MX 100 adhesive.
 |
| To get a better view of the image and find out more have a look at it on our website http://www.modip.ac.uk/artefact/bxl--0188 |
We are still working on the documentation of the archive, some of the images we know more about than others. It would be fantastic if we could fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge, if you know anything about the company or specific images it would be good to hear from you.
Louise Dennis (Assistant Curator)
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