Documentation of Timeless Virtue – Mohammed

Project Name – Timeless Virtue

DOCUMENTATION

Introduction

Our project’s theme revolved around the idea of impermanence of plastic and taking advantage of that particular property of plastic to create a product that’s timeless and relevant throughout generations. We achieved this by creating a photo frame with an image that could also be removed to act as an arm wear. The entire project was made 100% from recycled plastic waste and was designed with representing cultural identity as a priority as we thought that this would make the project more appropriate to act as a memoir that can be passed from one generation to another.

Theme

So, our goal at first was to create an armband with carvings that relate to a message concerning sustainability. We thought that future generations could wear this arm band as a remembrance to the message portrayed by the arm band. We then had to pick a message for our image and after some discussion, we decided to carve out the word “kindness” in Bangla on the arm band. We decided to go with the idea/concept of kindness as it’s a virtue that is universally recognisable and will probably stay relevant throughout the generations. We also decided to go with a word rather than carving an object or patterns as we thought that language remained relatively constant throughout the time periods, when compared to graphical representation of objects. We wanted to encourage the audience of the product to make kindness part of his/her lifestyle. When one expresses kindness to not just fellow humans but to the environment and everything in it, one has no choice but to become more sustainable. A sustainable lifestyle is of significance as the trash industry, one of the many harmful industries to our environment, has inadvertently affected millions of people and contributes to global warming (1). Additionally, the trash industry has disastrous effects on wildlife and diversity as plastic waste is known to affect the reproductive lifestyles of species such as the Australian jewel beetle (2). 

Not only did we create an armband, but we then converted the arm band to become a photograph in a photo frame. Here is a picture of the arm band on the left and a picture of the photograph on the right.

                

The reason we wanted to place the arm band as an image in a photo frame is because of another one of our themes, which is preservation. We wanted to create an object that conveys the idea of capturing a moment of time and is conventionally used to preserve good memories. The use of a framed photograph literally and figuratively symbolises the preservation of our message of sustainability.

Additional information regarding the thematics (slide number 16) and the project in general, can be found on our presentation:

 

Technical Process

We first created a mood board:

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We then created some sketches of how the arm band with the carving should look like:

We then got to work on creating the arm band by heating and fusing many recycled plastic bags to create the “fabric” for the arm wear.

We then carved out the letters from the fabric using scissors and added buttons to the fabric to create a wearable arm wear.

We then inserted the buttons into the fabric.

After ensuring that the arm wear is functional, we then started working on the photograph frame.

We melted recycled PET bottle water caps to form the frame. We had to apply pressure on the mould to create the bezel and this why we used a wooden plank, which created problems down the road, as the wood burned up and the dark ashes of the wood discoloured our frame. However, we didn’t have a better alternative like a metal block to apply the pressure.

This is what we got for the frame, notice the discolouring. However the back side of the mould looked good.

We then created a pyramid shaped frame holder using recycled plastic waste from the coin purse lab activity, as students chose to throw away their coin purse after the lab. We then stuck the image to the frame and the holder to the frame. Here is what the final project looked like:

Research Timeline

1. We first decided on how to make the fabric for the arm wear, this didn’t take too long to figure out as we did learn about the ironing the plastic method for the coin purse lab (4).
2. We then decided to use the injection machine to write the word on a piece of fabric made of plastic but decided against it as we didn’t think it was practical to do any form of writing or calligraphy with the machine. Therefore, we settled on just cutting out the piece of plastic from the fabric directly.
3. To create the mould of the plastic frame was confusing at first as we weren’t sure how to create the bezel of the frame, however, with the help of a wood plank we were able to mould the PET plastic to create the bezel (5).
4. We then decided to use our bioplastics from the previous labs as a glass for the photograph, but it turned out hideous, as the translucence property of the bioplastics took away from the colour contrast of the image.
5. We then decided to use coin purses made in the previous lab, and refold them in the shape of a pyramid, to produce a photo frame holder.

Personal Views

We believe that by inspiring people to actively practice being kind we will be able to nudge people away from their conventional lifestyle of disposability and excessive consumption. This is because we believe humans to be inherently good. We believe that on average every person wants to be kind and caring and will be so if they have the capability to do so. Then why do many of us partake in wasteful behaviours such as not recycling or buying a new phone every two years? We think that’s because when most of us partake in those actions we are not mindful about the implications, we are quite forgetful and lazy after all, however, if one truly understands how, one’s lifestyle may contribute to the death of people in other parts of the world, I believe one will attempt to change (3).  It’s just the need of constant reminder that an average person requires for that person to stay on the track of a sustainable lifestyle, and we believe our photograph fits that role as an object that invokes remembrance and introspection.

Difficulties

• Figuring out the type of plastic to use as the alternative for the fabric
• Shaping the frame of the mould with precision
• Creating the bezel of the frame
• Difficulty in using bioplastics as the glass cover. Here is the picture of the product when we tried to use the bioplastics as a glass alternative. As we can see due to the coloring of the bio-plastic and the green hue of the bio plastic, the color contrast of the image does not become visible anymore.
• Cutting out the image of the letters with precision 
• Ensuring the color of the mold remained blue and smooth
• Difficulty in creating a plastic that’s pyramid shaped

Improvements

• Find ways to implement other plastic heating techniques to our project
• Figure out how to make a pyramid from PET plastics to ensure durability
• Figure out plastic alternatives that may act as a glass for the frame
• Figure out better ways to create the frame with precision while ensuring color consistency

Conclusions

Overall, we are happy with how the project turned out, though we had some methods that failed, it was a pretty good learning experience. We are proud of our adaptability and ingenuity when it came to this project. Additionally, the fact that we were able to integrate two different prototypes under a over arching theme of preservation and cultural identity was nice. Even though some of our intital planning for the project did not go our way, like the making of the frame, the fact that we were introduced to all the new plastic making techniques and tools in our process for making this project makes it all worth it. Here is a picture of us with the final product 🙂

Note

For any further clarification about the project, more information can be found in the forum post made about the brainstorming session. The forum post can be reached here.

References:

(1)https://ensia.com/features/methane-landfills/#:~:text=But%20at%20the%20landfill%2C%20the,worsening%20health%20problems%20like%20asthma.

(2)https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/lure-landfills-how-garbage-changes-animal-behavior

(3)https://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/news/200/jenny-chan-on-dying-for-an-iphone-apple-foxconn-and-the-lives-of-chinese-workers/

(4) https://wp.nyu.edu/abudhabi-plasticfantastic/2021/06/03/origami-coin purse/https://preciousplastic.com/solutions/machines/basic.html

(5) https://preciousplastic.com/solutions/machines/basic.html