Christmas Closure

MoDiP will now be closed for the Christmas break and will open again 3rd January 2017.

We wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

AIBDC : 004453

The MoDiP team - Susan, Pam, Louise & Katherine

BXL photographic archive #0117

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 a range of Scintillex pouches.

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--1392

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)

Did you know? #53

Did you know that all of our past exhibitions are available online?

Is that plastic? Skeuomorphs and metaphors in design

Plastics are a group of materials with no intrinsic shape or colour, this gives designers free reign to exploit their unashamed ability to imitate other materials. This exhibition explores how designers and manufacturers use plastics to create illusions by mimicking the patterns, processes, and physicality of other materials such as ceramics, glass, and fine metals. Plastics provide a less expensive, lighter, whimsical, or more robust alternative.

Louise Dennis, (Assistant Curator)

A different view #46

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: Photon cyber shades
Designer: William Drabble
Manufacturer: Addiction

Object number: AIBDC : 007363

Louise Dennis (Assistant Curator)

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)

BXL photographic archive #0116

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 a promotional image for Bakelite Flexible Packaging Division.

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--16042

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)

Did you know? #52

Did you know that all of our past exhibitions are available online?


Polymorphia

The ubiquitous nature of plastics means that they are often taken for granted. Very different plastics are lumped together in the one generic term with their special properties and capabilities often being overlooked by the consumer.
 
Plastics are synthetic or semi-synthetic polymers.  A polymer is a large molecule made up of a number of smaller units (monomers) and joined together to create a long chain.  They can be broadly divided into two groups, thermoplastics and thermosets. Thermoplastics are those which, once formed, can be heated and reformed.  This means that they are easily processed and recycled.  Thermosets cannot be reformed or remoulded so the recycling process poses different challenges.

Plastics truly are polymorphic.  They are an extensive family of materials which take many forms, and for many decades have been the group of materials that are most widely used globally.  They have a broad range of properties and many typical characteristics which set them apart from each other and make them particularly suitable for an inexhaustible list of applications.  They range from semi-synthetic plastics, first developed over 150 years ago, to the fully synthesised techno-polymers designed and engineered for very specific uses today.  With the growing realisation that fossil fuel resources are not sustainable, there is a renewed interest in the development of bio plastics derived from an increasing variety of sustainable biomass resources.

This exhibition looks at some of the plastics we commonly encounter in our everyday lives.  It examines their history and development, explains what sets them apart from each other and shows the more typical applications, some of which have become icons of design, made possible only because of the type of plastic used. 

Louise Dennis, (Assistant Curator)

A different view #45

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:Roanoid ashtray
Designer: Robert Conroy Robertson
Manufacturer:Roanoid for Roxon

Object number: PHSL : 91

Louise Dennis (Assistant Curator)

Can you guess?

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)

Winfield Fine Art in Jewellery

I have just completed an object condition review of the Plastics Historical Society collection which features some of the very first man-made plastics and has been cared for by MoDiP since 2009. During the course of my project, a selection of brooches caught my eye which was really quite surprising as I typically ‘don’t do jewellery’. But there is something quite different about these particular items, cast in acrylic and dating back to the 1940s. Intrigued, I wanted to learn more. 

PHSL : 48.1

 The six pieces in question are all linked to Armand G. Winfield (1919 – 2009), an American inventor and pioneer in the field of plastics. Originally a student of geology and anthropology, Armand particularly enjoyed working on the preservation of specimens and this is where his interest in plastics began when he discovered the possibility of encasing artefacts in acrylic; a new, transparent, lightweight, shatter-resistant material. By 1945, Winfield had created one of the first mass production methods of clear acrylic embedding and he soon turned his attention towards producing objects which he could sell.

Armand & Rodney Winfield, 1946. (Schon, 2003)

His brother Rodney (an art student at the Cooper Union, New York) was unimpressed by Armand’s crude attempts to make saleable items so he assembled a group of fellow students to create original, miniature artworks for his brother to embed. Together they founded the gallery/workshop Winfield Fine Art in Jewellery, with pieces selling from $5.00 to over $100.00 in post war America (equivalent to approximately $85 - $1600 today) (Winfield 1979). 

PHSL : 48.2

Most major, mid-20th Century design movements have been represented within the work these artists produced including montage, collage, assemblage, abstraction, surrealism, cubism, minimalism and biomorphism and many went on to become famous painters, sculptors, writers, and designers (Schon 2003). Two that we have identified with work featured in the PHS collection are: Lilly Ascher (PHSL: 48.2, above) who formed miniature abstract sculptures with beads and wire and Betty Smith (PHSL:48.3, right) who painted bright, freely formed surrealist abstractions. 

PHSL : 48.3

 If you want to find out more, visit http://www.modernsilver.com/winfieldfineart.htm for a comprehensive and fascinating account of this rather brilliant man. 

Katherine Pell, (MoDiP Administrator)

References
Schon, M., 2003. Winfield Fine Art in Jewelry: a Fusion of Art and Scientific Discovery (online). Mississippi: Modern Silver Magazine. Available from: http://www.modernsilver.com/winfieldfineart.htm (Accessed 26 September 2016).

Schon, M., 2009. Remembering Armand Winfield (online). Mississippi: Modern Silver Magazine. Available from: http://www.modernsilver.com/rememberingarmandwinfield.htm (Accessed 26 September 2016).

Syracuse University Libraries., 2006. Armand G. Winfield Papers (online). New York: Syracuse University Libraries. Available from: http://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/w/winfield_ag.htm (Accessed 26 September 2016).

Winfield, A., 1979. Clearly a Work of Art. Antiques and the Arts Weekly, 6 July 1979. Connecticut: The Bee Publishing Company.

BXL photographic archive #0115

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 George Brown's visit to Tyseley.

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--1501

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)

Did you know? #52

Did you know that all of our past exhibitions are available online?  
Polymorphia


Plastics truly are polymorphic.  They are an extensive family of materials which take many forms, and for many decades have been the group of materials that are most widely used globally.  They have a broad range of properties and many typical characteristics which set them apart from each other and make them particularly suitable for an inexhaustible list of applications.  They range from semi-synthetic plastics, first developed over 150 years ago, to the fully synthesised techno-polymers designed and engineered for very specific uses today.  With the growing realisation that fossil fuel resources are not sustainable, there is a renewed interest in the development of bio plastics derived from an increasing variety of sustainable biomass resources.

This exhibition looks at some of the plastics we commonly encounter in our everyday lives.  It examines their history and development, explains what sets them apart from each other and shows the more typical applications, some of which have become icons of design, made possible only because of the type of plastic used.

Louise Dennis (Assisant Curator)

A different view #44

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: Flack D3O short liner
Designer: Unknown
Manufacturer: Race Face
Object number: AIBDC : 007099

Louise Dennis (Assistant Curator)

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)

BXL photographic archive #0114

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 a an employee at Aycliffe using a circular saw.

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--1446

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)

Did you know? #51

Did you know that all of our past exhibitions are available online?

10 Most Wanted

This exhibition celebrates 10 Most Wanted, an online detective game played with objects in museum collections, inspired by the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.

Players referred to as 'Agents' hunt down specific pieces of 'wanted' information about an object of their choice from ten objects posted by curators referred to as 'HQ Staff' on the game's website. They share their findings on social networks working in collaboration with other Agents, who are both their colleagues and competitors. As 'wanted' facts are found and evidenced, they are integrated with curated collection documentation. The Agents who have tracked down the information move up the hierarchy and are rewarded for their contributions.

Louise Dennis (Assisant Curator)

A different view #43

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: Diet scale
Designer: Unknown
Manufacturer: QVC
Object number: AIBDC : 001328

Louise Dennis (Assistant Curator)

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)

BXL photographic archive #0113

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 a Herald airline.

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--09691

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)

Did you know? #50

Did you know that all of our past exhibitions are available online?

MyPlastic/ 

The MyPlastic/ project shines a new light on this material by exploring the often highly personal relationship we have with it.

From a therapeutic salad spinner that whirrs like a train. To a cheap garden chair that becomes a sanctuary in a burned out compound in the Congo. To a penguin deity that feeds off plankton and brews the best beer, ever.

These are the plastic stories of designers, humanitarian documentary makers, scenographers, animators, monster makers, academics and astronauts. Stories of objects that are loaded with emotions, memories and meaning.

Louise Dennis (Assisant Curator)

We're looking for an AUB Student Creative

Would you like to be the next MoDiP AUB Student Creative?

Fancy the opportunity to get up close and personal with a museum collection?

Want to see your work on display and inspire others?

Here’s your chance.

We welcome applications from all disciplines.

Have a look at Sarah Wilson’s work from last year.

For more information see below or contact modip@aub.ac.uk
Closing date: 25th November 2016


Katherine Pell (MoDiP Administrator)


MoDiP Student Creative Brief

Introduction
The aim of the MoDiP Student Creative is to offer all students at the AUB an opportunity to create a work inspired by the MoDiP collection. This could be in any discipline with any creative outcome from physical art work to film or acting production.

Background
MoDiP is the only accredited museum in the UK with a focus on plastics. It is the UK's leading resource for the study and interpretation of design in plastics. Our mission is to increase understanding and appreciation of the use and significance of plastics in design during the 20th and 21st century.

MoDiP’s purpose is to collect, research, interpret and present artefacts made of, or including components of, plastics, and thus add unique value to the Arts University Bournemouth as a learning resource, a resource for collaborative, experimental and interdisciplinary research, and as a gateway to the AUB’s wider environment.

Outcomes
The outcome of this project can be within any discipline working with any material but the work must be inspired by the MoDiP collection or its processes and working practice and in line with its mission and purpose (www.modip.ac.uk/about-us). Depending on the medium, the work will be displayed in cases in the library and / or featured on all of our social media.

Terms and Conditions
Creative’s work

• MoDiP and/or its plastics collection should be at the heart of the project
• The applicant should expect to spend time looking at the collection and/or talking to the MoDiP team
• The applicant could work in any discipline (they would not have to work in plastics)
• The applicant should be prepared to have work displayed at the end of the project and to describe how they have been inspired by MoDiP
• The applicant will need to give regular updates to the MoDiP team on progress (to ensure deadlines will be met and that the work can be physically displayed)

Support and administration
Support for the project will be provided by MoDiP’s Collection Manager, Pam Langdown.
Digital support will be provided by MoDiP’s Assistant Curator, Louise Dennis.
Project administration will be provided by the MoDiP Administrator, Katherine Pell.

Timescale
The successful applicant will be appointed on 2nd December 2016, it is expected that the work will be completed and ready for display on 17th April 2017.

Bursary
A £250 bursary (including material costs) will be paid to the successful candidate to facilitate the project. Up to 50% (£125) of the bursary can be claimed during the project as material costs are incurred. The remainder will be paid on completion.

Monitoring and evaluation
The resident will be expected to keep the MoDiP team updated with progress reports on a regular basis (to be agreed). This could be either through email including images, or face-to-face.

It is expected that the candidate will write 3 blog posts during the process – complete with images. The first will be a plan for the work, the second being a progress report, and the third showing the work and an overview of the project.

The experience
We expect you to work in a professional manner, engaging with both the collection and the staff of MoDiP. This is an opportunity to have your work published or displayed within a museum setting.

The project can be included in your portfolio of work to show future employers or clients. It will demonstrate working creatively to a deadline and experience of working with real clients.

Reference
Appointment will be subject to approval and written support from your tutor.

How to Apply
To apply please submit a proposal of 300-500 words with expected outcomes including how you intend to use the collection. Please include images of some of your previous work.

Closing date: 25th November 2016
 
Email contact: modip@aub.ac.uk with ‘Student Creative’ in the subject box
Interview and an opportunity to show Portfolio: 30th November 2016
When we will let you know: 2nd December 2016
 
If you would like more information or an informal discussion about the project please contact the MoDiP team by email modip@aub.ac.uk