Week11-Reading reflection and final project updates by Kenneth

Reading reflection

After reading, the most impressive thing that I learn is that the designing process of the industrial revolution was not fully considered. “It took shape gradually, as industrialists, engineers and designers tried to solve problems and to take immediate advantages of what they considered to be opportunities in an unprecedented period of massive and rapid change”. The formation of the modern industrial system was not designed systematically. Instead, the birth of it was for solving problems in production and getting profits. All the drawbacks were the result of the immature design process. The example of this imperfect designed system was a model of product: “Cradle to Grave”, which means one product is generated for a limited used and goes to “Grave” and will not be recycled. This type of design dominated the modern industrial system.  The name “cradle to grave” is really impressive to me. Products of this model are wasting, polluting and unrecyclable. The alternative is the “Cradle to Cradle” model. By contrast to the designing process of the industrial revolution, we need to consider the end and the future of one product during the desing process.

Future plan:

As I mentioned last week, I want to explore more about bioplastic in textiles sphere, I research more on the bioplastic recipes. I found one interesting and want to try. That is the recipe for bags. Here are my next steps.

1. Collect and buy all the material required
2. Test 1: Make a real textile out according to the recipe, make some adjustments based on the result
3. Test 2: Research more bioplastic, try to find the ingredients or cooking method which can make the final product more flexible, soft-feeling, and durable.
4. Test 3: Make molds for big bioplastic piece.
5. Production: Using the final version bioplastic piece to make a bag.

Experiment needs:

• Gelatin
• Glycerol
• Water
• Balance
• Pan
• Heater
• Spoon
• Mold
• Sewing machines (for bags making)

Reference:

https://materiom.org/recipe/22

http://fabtextiles.org/tag/bioplastic/