How students and staff use the collection #9. Katherine Battersby

Katherine Battersby was inspired by MoDiP’s collection of artefacts made from recycled plastics and shares her work and thoughts here.

Destructive Plastic?

 “Made to last forever, designed to throw away.” (5 gyres 2014). For me this sums up the whole problem, not the destructive quality of the material, but the way we carelessly dispose of it. 90% of the marine debris in our Oceans is plastic affecting the landscape, beaches and wildlife all over the world. (Midway Atoll NWR 2006). Living by the sea in Cornwall and Bournemouth, this is an emotive issue I feel so strongly about. I wanted to raise awareness through my work. ‘Beautiful, Adaptive, Destructive and Playful’. These four words are used to describe plastic in MoDiP’s current exhibition ‘MyPlastic’, this has inspired me to explore the destructive side of plastic. I did a beach clean at Chesil Beach, the second worst beach in Britain for lethal litter. (Marine Conservation Society 2012).

Using the objects collected from the beach, I used a melting process that is a simple, effective and sustainable way to recycle the plastic bags and create a building material that is beautiful, adaptive and playful.

Exploring plastics in Art and Architecture and the use of recycling. While the direct impact of any artwork or design may be small, the result is palpable and grows bigger with every new creative and substantial design or art project. The new innovative building material that I have proposed are similar to Smile Plastics, that are part of MoDiP’s collection. They are distinctive as they are not all identical and have a unique tactile feel with a range of colours depending on the objects used for recycling

With this project, the realisation of this issue has formed a deeper understanding and the importance to create a connection between recycled plastic and architecture. This project will hopefully raise awareness and influence others to reduce the disposal of plastics, reuse and recycle.

 
Katherine Battersby
BA (Hons) Architecture Part 1