Artistic Statement – Hannah, Ward and Fanisi

Introduction

Our project aims to build a light source that is easily accessible to all, requires no new resources (other than a small amount of bleach), and is also aesthetically pleasing. This design consists of a recycled plastic lantern cover, which is made by melting shredded plastic into a thin sheet, and then cutting designs out through which negative space will form shadowed patterns throughout the room. Inside of this will be a plastic bottle filled with water and a small amount of bleach. This can be fitted into ceilings so that half of the bottle will be illuminated by sunlight, and the indoor half will propagate light to the entire room. Approaching the existing ‘Liter of Light’ initiatives with an aesthetic form of art and design adds dignity to the product: no longer just a plastic waste adapted to bring light through the ceiling, it becomes an art installation bringing dynamic, patterned light into any home. This is designed for the lantern panels to be easily disassembled, used repeatedly, and saved for future generations.

In an effort to develop a Cradle-to-Cradle system of resources and material economies, we sought to make a product that is easily accessible and mitigates the production of new, unsustainable materials. As discussed in the book Cradle to Cradle, materials that are only designed cradle-to-grave are ultimately downcycled: technical nutrients become something viewed as waste. Through recycling, they may be transferred into something less valuable, but this process results in a loss of energy and resources, such that the energy input for the products’ creation is lost from the ecosystem. For our project, rather than ‘downcycling’ plastic bottles, bottle caps, or bags into something less valuable, we are transforming them into a valuable resource: a light source that is simultaneously functional, a piece of artwork, and an heirloom to be transferred across generations. 

One of the limitations of traditional plastic recycling is that the secondary product is typically less valuable than the initial pre-recycled product, and that a significant amount of energy may be needed to produce the final product. Our project offsets this by providing a zero-energy light source, and by diverting plastic bottles from landfills and into artistic home decorations. 

As discussed in Plastic: A Toxic Love Story, recycled plastic can be turned into a bench, for example, but this is ultimately less valued than the net volume of new plastics that go into it. When “recycling” technical nutrients into something purely utilitarian, the process remains linear, and downcycling is fundamentally unsustainable. The artful patterning of our project, however, coupled with the essential nature of lighting, means that a plastic bottle has been upcycled: value has been added to what would otherwise be wasted. This structure also removes the need for wasteful energy use by serving as a natural light source.

Technical paragraph

The lantern that we are creating can be conceptually thought of as 3 different components:

1. The large 2L plastic bottle that contains the water and bleach combination. 
2. A detachable frame (example linked here) around the bottle that is used to create aesthetic patterns. 
3. The attachment pieces that allow us to combine the bottle and the lantern. 

In each stage of the design process we are using different materials. The most labour intensive part of the component is the detachable frame. This requires us to melt the plastic into a thin sheet material that can be cut into stylish patterns for the frame. To get the plastic to this consistency we have adopted 3 approaches. 

• Heat Pressing: Shred the plastic and scatter the pieces over the heat press. The key here is to flatten/even distribute the shredded plastic so that a thin layer will be produced once it has melted. To cut this sheet we would use a craft knife or mechanical cutter. 
• Oven melting and molding: Put the plastic pieces into an aluminum baking tray and melt them in the oven. To get a sheet we put another tray on top and add pressure. 
• Ironing layers of plastic: Using the same technique as the coin purse activity to create a cuttable plastic material. The frame designs can be made using regular scissors.  

Design considerations: Our previous blog post has highlighted some of the artistic and conceptual designs that we would use for the frames and is linked here. 

Research timeline paragraph

In the laboratory we first learned various techniques for plastic recycling. After witnessing these methods, we were uncertain which would most effectively create a lantern, so we developed a series of experiments to create solid rectangles and then examine how light propagated through them. To create an ordinary, solid lantern, we knew that light would have to be able to travel directly through the material; or to create a patterned design, the solid portions need to be impermeable to light and the cut-out portions must allow light to pass through. 

We began by experimenting with different methods to form a solid rectangle.

• Tuesday we created a flexible rectangle out of plastic bags ironed together; an oven-melted baking sheet filled with shredded plastic; and a heat-pressed shredded plastic layer.
• Wednesday, we will experiment with cutting designs out of these plastic sheets and will test shining a lightbulb through them. Based on whichever plastic sheet was the most successful, we will construct the final lantern design and affix it to the bleach-and-water light source bottle. 

In the future, we would research how to optimally attach the bottle to be watertight sealed in the roof, while still allowing maximum light to pass through, and then attach the lantern-design panels to the bottle only on the indoor side.

The ideal stage of implementation would be setting up a solar panel to illuminate the bottle. This has been done in many contexts, and eliminates the need for watertight insertion into ceilings, because the light and lantern could be set up anywhere after being charged by a solar panel in the way.