Timeless Virtue
Artistic Statement:
Please refer to this link for our artistic statement.
Construction Process:
A. Constructing an Arm Wear
1. Fusing Plastic: We decided to use iron to fuse plastic bags together to create the material for our arm band. We used plastic bags from our room and from the lab. The resulting material was flexible and strong enough for us to engrave the word on it.
2. Engraving the word: We used black marker to write the word on the fused plastic. Then, we used a knife cutter to slowly cut out each letter to form the word.
3. Adding Buttons: We added buttons to the edges to make it wearable.
After adding the buttons, we were able to wear the band around our arm.
B. Constructing a Photo Frame
1. Adding plastic shreds to our mould: We used an aluminum tray and a piece of wood as our mould to create a photo frame. First, we added a thin layer of plastic shreds to the aluminum tray. Then, we placed a piece of wood on the plastic layer. Next, we added more plastic shreds to the gabs between the wood and the aluminum tray to create the bezel of the photo frame.
2. Melting the plastic: We placed the tray inside an oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 25 minutes. However, we took it out a few minutes later because we realized that we shouldn’t place wood in the oven. The wood could catch fire, and the melted plastic could stick to the wood as well.
3. Remodeling the mould: After the plastic melted, we took out the tray. We redesigned our mould by using a piece of aluminum foil to wrap around a piece of wood. We placed the mould on the melted plastic and applied weight on it to obtain our desired shape.
We came back to the lab the next day and saw the following result:
Part 3: Putting Everything Together
We folded the edges of our arm band so it could be placed in the photo frame. We also used another fused plastic to create the back support for our photo frame. Later, we figured that using fused plastic as the support would not last long, so we planned to melt plastic shreds to create a more durable support for our photo frame.
Meanings/Interpretations:
- Wanted to create a project that best describes the feeling we wanted the art to preserve and inspire the virtue of kindness
- Kindness towards the environment and people who go are adversely affected by our wasteful lifestyles
- Looked for ways to use waste from previous lab sessions to make the project as sustainable as possible
- Use of color green and blue to represent the flag of Bangladesh and Cambodia respectively
- Designed it as a photograph to match the theme of preservation
- Combination of prototypes to also ensure the preserve the evolution of the project
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
- 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
Our Presentation:
Reflection:
Although our final product did not completely meet our expectation, I was delighted that we were able to creative something beautiful and informative from pieces of plastic that people thrown away. I would never imagine myself giving so much thoughts to what could be created from pieces of trash, but after taking this class and working on the two projects, I found myself ponder the possibilities. I hope to pass down this mentality to the next generations as well through this project prototype. I want them to look at the product that we left behind, criticize it, and figure out new way to improve it. This was the reason why we chose the word “kindness” to engrave on the plastic instead of engraving instructions like “reduce, reuse, recycle.” We do not want to tell them what to do in the future, but we want to pass down what is valued through out time, which is kindness. As long as they have kindness, they will be considerate of the world the live in and figure out ways and solutions to get rid of plastic waste. “Reduce, reuse, and recycle” are our current and best solution, but future generations could find better ways.
Just like how much our prototype could be improved in the future, solutions to plastic problem could also be improved in the future.
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
Creators:
We had a lot of fun while working on our project. We faced failures and successes and learned a lot from these experiences. Thank you Professor Marcela Godoy for exposing us to these experiences.
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