Absolute Kippleization and the Plastosystem: Metaphors to Address Complex Science in the Age of the Anthropocene

absolute kippleization and The Plastosystem: Metaphors to address complex science in the age of the Anthropocene

Rachel Honnery Master of Fine Art 2018 Thesis/Dissertation Sheet

Surname/Family Name : Honnery Given Name/s : Rachel Abbreviation for degree as give in the University calendar : MFA Faculty : Art and Design School : Painting absolute kippleization and The Plastosystem: Metaphors to address complex Thesis Title : science in the age of the Anthropocene.

Abstract 350 words maximum: (PLEASE TYPE)

This exegesis examines the intersections between the visual arts and science, demonstrating that the methodologies of both disciplines provide a powerful and necessary tool to question and communicate environmental change in the age of Anthropocene. With billions of tonnes of plastic waste entering our waterways and oceans, questions about the future of these environments arise. What are the long-term effects on marine environments? How will marine organisms adapt and evolve to cope with unfamiliar forms supplanting the relationships between living and non-living components within their ecosystems? What will these ecosystems look like in the future, in a post-human world? With an emphasis on the materiality, colour and scale of plastic, to articulate both science and speculation my art practice applies the use of different media; installation, painting, documentary photography, collection and data imaging.

Declaration relating to disposition of project thesis/dissertation

I hereby grant to the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or in part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all property rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation.

I also authorise University Microfilms to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in Dissertation Abstracts International (this is applicable to doctoral theses only).

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‘I hereby grant the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all proprietary rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. I also authorise University Microfilms to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in Dissertation Abstract International (this is applicable to doctoral theses only). I have either used no substantial portions of copyright material in my thesis or I have obtained permission to use copyright material; where permission has not been granted I have applied/will apply for a partial restriction of the digital copy of my thesis or dissertation.'

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my supervisor, Peter Sharp, for his constant support, encouragement and grounding advice throughout this research.

I would also like to acknowledge the support of my family, Michael, Patrick and Evelyn as well as my friend Maura. absolute kippleization and The Plastosystem: Metaphors to address complex science in the age of the Anthropocene.

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Contents

09 Abstract 11 Introduction 17 Chapter 1: Methodology 33 Chapter 2: The cloak of science as a way of thinking about art and its place! 47 Chapter 3: The Problem With Kipple – A New Materiality 59 Chapter 4: How Many Plastic Bags Does It Take To Fill A Plastic Bag? Issues of scale 74 Conclusion 78 Appendix 82 References

7 8 Abstract

This exegesis examines the intersections between the visual arts and science, demonstrating that the methodologies of both disciplines provide a powerful and necessary tool to question and communicate environmental change in the age of Anthropocene. With billions of tonnes of plastic waste entering our waterways and oceans, questions about the future of these environments arise. What are the long- term effects on marine environments? How will marine organisms adapt and evolve to cope with unfamiliar forms supplanting the relationships between living and non-living components within their ecosystems? What will these ecosystems look like in the future, in a post-human world? With an emphasis on the materiality, colour and scale of plastic, to articulate both science and speculation my art practice applies the use of different media; installation, painting, documentary photography, collection and data imaging.

9 Introduction

Including chaper outlines Introduction

Including chapter outlines Introduction

Anthropogenic climate change and its challenges seem so vast and overwhelming that it is easy for humanity to develop a kind of “ecological vertigo”. The heights of the problem are so dizzying that it is difficult to communicate ideas about the uncertainty of our future in the age of the Anthropocene. Image removed due to Copyright If we accept the position of the Anthropocene — the epoch in which significant human impact has altered earth’s geological disposition, through actions that include radionuclides, global warming, urbanisation, atmospheric composition change — then we accept that human interference is complicit in changing the atmosphere, biodiversity, geology. (Working Group On The ‘Anthropocene’,2014.) Figure 01: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, We accept that humans are not an isolated species, standing Caspar David Friedrich, 1818 on the precipice, gazing upon nature from afar, transfixed by its Photo: Elke Walford awesome magnificence and inspired by European man’s quest for enlightenment as experienced in Caspar David Friedrich’s, 1818 Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (Figure 01).

Instead we are faced with the fallout and turmoil that will determine the Anthropocene epoch. Consumed with a meta-species way of thinking, politicians struggle to form policy, industry is slow to implement renewable energies, and western governments fail to acknowledge responsibility towards vulnerable countries and people are immobilised with fear. Political, scientific, social and cultural engagements will be paramount in securing climate change stability.

Over the past century, humanity has embraced new advancements in technologies, transport, food productions, health and more. We have demanded, desired and devoured, causing a tumorous abnormality that has grown to ensnare the earth’s ecosystem. Humanity is now waking up to climate change; but how do we respond to environmental shock without denial, panic or inertia? “Shock can become familiar. Shock can wear off.” (S. Sontag, 2004, p.64.)

12 The Anthropocene is a geological age that humans must take responsibility for. Through the use of fossil fuels, wars, and the invention of synthetic materials such as plastics and so on we have directly played a role in changing the geological markers that define epochs. Humans have always borne witness to geological forces such as volcanic eruptions, landslides and earthquakes. But post World War 2 we have collectively interfered with systems that provide life force on earth. We are no longer at arm’s length from the stratigraphy that measures the history of the earth, events that have happened in the past. We are responsible for this new layer.

In this exegesis, I demonstrate how I and other artists have developed methods of art making to communicate the complex ideas and problems that have become apparent within the age of the Anthropocene. I have chosen contemporary artists who are responding to issues of time and scale, energy consequences, water pollution, nuclear fallout, and rising atmospheric and ocean temperatures. No artist provides solutions, but instead they create works that use evidence, to remind us of what is at stake. I examine how science, materiality and scale become manifest in communicating issues of the Anthropocene. I focus my research into one factor of the Anthropocene — plastic marine pollution — to demonstrate the enormity of the problems our world faces and to also use fossil fuel generated plastics as metaphor for the Anthropocene and complex science.

My artworks and take the form of:

• absolute kippleization, centred on the present condition of plastic entering marine environments and exhibited in the form of installation, photographic documentation taken at Congwong Beach and data graphs gathered from the collected plastic. The installation includes more than 200 specimen jars containing sorted and categorised plastic collected from the beach. Colour is used to communicate both the science of

13 Introduction

classification and scale, and as a lure of beauty resembling the enticement that plastic poses for marine life.

• The Plastosystem, • The Plastosystem, projecting a possible future in a post-human world, exhibited as a suspended installation which includes over 100 plastic organisms (plastic components, made from re-purposed plastic shopping bags, 5m x 6m x3m variable) and 6 large plastosissle paintings (152cm x 132cm). Using white and clear plastic bags this work symbolises the death and suffocation of oceans in the future.

Artists and works cited:

• Debbie Symons: Tracking (Antarctica), 2011 - (Chapter 2) • Debbie Symons and Jasmine Targett: The Catchments Project, 2015 - (Chapter 2) • Olafur Eliasson and Minik Rosing: Ice Watch, 2015 - (Chapter 2) • Tomas Sacraceno: Museo Aero Solar, 2007-2015 - (Chapter 3) • Shimpei Takeda: Trace, 2012 - (Chapter 4) • Chris Jordon: Midway: Message from the Gyre, 2009 - (Chapter 4) • Chris Jordon: Paper Cups, 2008 - (Chapter 4)

This exegesis is formatted to mimic a science textbook, to claim knowledge as an artist on subjects that traditionally fall into the realms of science. In each chapter, you will find the inclusion of scientific diagrams that I have created. The purpose of these diagrams is to provide a visual aid that communicates complex ideas and information such as scientific data or process. The diagrams are a combination of scientific data and personal musings that become a metaphorical tool. They are the link between fact and fiction, an invention, in which fiction becomes an agency for truth. This format directly engages with my conception of the cloak of science and gives my art and writing the look of serious scientific endeavour, enforcing the perception of authority aswe grapple with implications of anthropogenic climate change. This parody postulates facts whilst disguising value and sentiment. It highlights the links between fact and fiction, evidence and interpretation, and prediction and speculation.

14 Chapter outlines:

Chapter 1: Methodology Introduces the ecological and anthropogenic concerns my work addresses. I discuss the experimentation and development of my work as well as the final processes used to create it. Due to a lack of language describing the transformation of marine environments polluted by plastic, I have generated new words based on the invention of the word Plastisphere, which is used to describe the microbe communities (biofilm) growing on plastics found in the oceans.

Chapter 2: The cloak of science as a way of thinking about art and its place Investigates how artists (including myself) use science and scientific methods to avoid romantic or subjective responses to environmental problems and instead rely on an evidence-based approach to create artworks that interpret data and fact.

Chapter 3: The Problem With Kipple – A New Materiality Discusses the role of material when making artworks, with a focus on how plastic has become both the artefact studied and the substance from which the bulk of my work is made. This chapter also provides an historical account of plastic and how social reliance on plastic has given this material a vitality (life force). I also contemplate the importance of materiality in a post - Jean-François Lyotard world.

Chapter 4: How Many Plastic Bags Does It Take To Fill A Plastic Bag Examines the importance of scale when considering the ecological impacts due to anthropogenic climate change. I focus on the notion of a conceptual scale as we predict or imagine what the world will be like in the future and as we grapple with the size and complexities of climactic changes.

15 Chapter 1

Methodology Chapter 1

Methodology Chapter 1

“And so Mort came at last to the river Ankh, greatest of rivers. Even before it entered the city, it was slow and heavy with the silt of the plains, and by the time it got to The Shades even an agnostic could have walked across it. It was hard to drown in the Ankh, but easy to suffocate.” T. Pratchett, 2012, p.74.

The Anthropocene and anthropogenic climate change are overwhelming issues that loom large as catastrophes of overwhelming proportions. Whether one reads scientific journals or watches documentaries, the consensus is clear that the earth is in peril and faces a devastating future. How do I respond to this as an artist? Where do I start? What do I focus on? Where do I begin? Image removed due to Copyright

Engulfed by reports of melting glaciers, continuous deforestation, increased CO2 emissions, escalating plastic pollution, rise in temperatures, more frequent wild weather conditions, desertification of formally arable land and so on, it was difficult to not feel disempowered and morose when considering a place to Figure 02: Rubbish in the begin my research. Using the motto “think globally, act locally” I mangroves on the Cooks decided to investigate plastic in marine environments. River, photo by Ian Tyrell

In the previous few years, there has been increasing media coverage of the problem of marine plastic and much discussion on what it is commonly referred to as The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Ideas and inventions on how to sweep the ocean of plastic debris were causing excitement. I began to wonder about what the Great Pacific Garbage Patch looks like and how the plastic makes its way to the ocean in the first place. My local river the Cook’s River, has a reputation amongst residents of Sydney’s Inner West as a conduit for human debris (Figure 02). Plastic rubbish washed into the river floats amongst the mangroves and eventually out to Botany Bay and the South Pacific Ocean.

Figure 03: Congwong Beach, La Perouse, 2016, Rachel Honnery

18 Methodology

Developing tangled paintings I started to contemplate plastic entangled in both natural and human debris making its way out into the ocean; plastic ropes and string strangling seaweeds and buoyant bottles amidst floating nests of sticks and leaves. I imagined the plastic I could not see, churning in waves and drifting along the currents of the oceans. I imagined what it would look like, isolated from its surroundings and viewed from underneath the water.

I developed a series of paintings, Tangled (Figures 04-06), which actualise this idea. Tangled alludes to floating islands, cloud patches or falling nests centred in the canvas, framed by white space, masking the reality of human waste in ambiguity. These isolated islands compel us to question their identity. Occasionally we perceive glimmers of representativeness, rope or sticks emerging out of an ensnared mess, hints of fish netting and vibrant plastic colour.

These paintings became an allegory of the human-generated environmental degradation witnessed in our oceans. I drew ona concept of disturbed fantasy of unleashed menace wrapped up in an enchantment of an environmental ideal.

Figure 04: Tangled 01, oil on paper, 2016

19 Chapter 1

The images are intentionally beautiful and eye catching, seducing the viewer into something that is fictional, a fantasy or illusionary lens (think rose-coloured glasses) and then providing a glance into reality: the reality of plastic bags becoming food for jelly fish or bottle top rings choking seabirds. Some paintings offer glimpses of entwined materials serenely floating beneath the water surface. These paintings mimic the highly saturated colour that you experience in glorious sunny weather when on the water. Other paintings invoke storms and turbulent waters enmeshing dirt and rubbish.

Figure 05: Tangled 02, oil on paper, 2016

Figure 06:Tangled 03, oil on paper, 2016

20 Methodology

“absolute kippleization” contains over 200 specimen jars of assorted plastics from Congwong Beach

The Tangled series led me to question the quantities of plastic entering the oceans and I began visiting Congwong Beach, La Perouse. This beach collects deposits of human debris from both the Cooks (Figure 03) and Georges Rivers flowing into Botany Bay and from visitors to both the Bay and the Beach. Unlike many of Sydney’s beaches, this beach is not cleaned by tractors every morning. It is therefore an excellent place to investigate the quantity/volume and types of plastic left by the tides and by humans in its littoral zone. Approximately every fortnight for twelve months I collected, documented, cleaned and categorised hard plastic, including straws, bottles, lids, toys, cigarette lighters and cotton buds. At the beginning of this project I had no idea where this “cluster” sampling would lead.

This beach rubbish has grown into a large-scale installation called absolute kippleization (Figures 07-09). The installation is based on the idea of kipple, stuff that accumulates and takes over your life if you don’t keep it under control, (see Chapter 3: The problem with Kipple – A new materiality) from P. K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”, referring to stuff that keeps accumulating.

The installation uses the “cloak of science” (see Chapter 2:The cloak of science as a way of thinking about art and its place) to communicate ideas about materiality, consumption, Anthropocene, marine environments and science. absolute kippleization includes prints of the images taken at Congwong Beach, in excess of 200 specimen jars containing sorted plastic found at the Beach and interactive data that allows both the audience and myself to make sense of the collection by comparing visual information and numbers.

This installation is a confronting testimony to 22 collection days

21 Chapter 1

over 12 months. However, the devastating reality of this work is not what one learns from the images and data, but rather what the installation leaves out. I have not included plastic wrappers, cigarette butts, rubber bands and hair ties, plastic bags, polystyrene containers and large items of industrial plastic that I could not move. Nor did I include the millions of micro and nano plastics that I can’t pick up or see.

Figure 07: absolute kippleization (detail) during the September 2017 Post Graduate Conference exhibtion at AD Space.

When documenting the cluster samples, I classified the plastic by colour first, then by kind. The colour is intended to attract the audience with its vibrancy. The vivid palette lures and seduces. In the specimen jars, the plastic reminds the audience of lollies and treats. But once you look closely and you are aware that this is plastic collected from a single place, the glitter and glamour of the colour fades. It is here that you notice evidence of micro-organisms crafting floating homes to spread across the globe. It is here that you notice missing fragments that have been broken off as the plastic deteriorates.

What are microplastics? Microplastics are plastic that have broken down to become small plastics that are smaller than 0.5mm in diameter. Nanoplastics refer to the continuation of plastic breaking down into nano sized particles, that are between 1 and 100 nanometres. A nanometre is 1/1 000 000 000 of a metre.

22 Methodology

Figure 08 & 09: absolute kippleization , Congwong Beach, hard plastic rubbish collection, documented on 28/10/2016 & 02/03/2017

The plastic collected and sorted from Congwong Beach was counted and weighed within each category. This data was used to generate large printed graphs communicating the scale and quantities of the different colours and categories of plastics (Figure 10). These graphs are not presented with numerical or descriptive information. Instead, they are presented as large abstract digital drawings. With coloured shapes floating amongst a web of connectivity, the graphs resemble the plastic floating amongst organic materials in the ocean.

Figure 10: absolute kippleization (data graph of all clear, white, grey, and black plastics), digital print, 2017

23 Chapter 1

How different plastics respond to heat Diagram 01: Change in plastic Shrivelled plastic Lace weave plastic Transparent plastic The effects due to heat deliquesce @ 190 C temperature has on different plastic

Type of plastic bag Thin white plastic bag Thick white plastic bag Thick clear plastic bag bags Thin clear plastic bag

Change in plastic Shrivelled plastic Lace weave plastic Transparent plastic due to heat deliquesce @ 204 C

Type of plastic bag Thin white plastic bag Thick white plastic bag Thick clear plastic bag Thin clear plastic bag Thick clear plastic bag

Whilst researching theories into materiality and the history of plastic, I began to consider how my paintings could develop into works that more deeply questioned the present state of our oceans and the possibilities of the future. I became interested in making work from plastic that was separate to the absolute kippleization installation. Unlike some artists who are interested in the alchemical absurdity of turning garbage into an artwork through its careful placement as treasure in a gallery or museum, it was my intention to create work exploring a juxtaposition that created delicate creatures and environments from a material which is suffocating them.

I questioned how plastic breaks down into micro particles in the ocean and how I could replicate that in my work. How could I transform plastic and alter its purpose in the studio? In response to these questions I began experimenting with heat, fusing plastic shopping bags. The bonded bags turned into shapes that were reminiscent of the island forms found in my paintings. They began to look like continents made from lace or plastic- coated beach rocks.

I observed that different bags did not all deliquesce (Diagram 01) at different temperatures but rather broke apart in distinctive manners. Some transformed so quickly they shrivelled, some broke apart leaving a delicate lace weave, whilst others lost their elasticity and developed a transparent hide. The material provided many possibilities and became a new process for transformation: a new material! These transformative properties provided a new perspective to engage and observe plastic in a new way.

24 Methodology

Developing lace works from hundreds of re-purposed plastic bags Inspired by the formation of the lace weave, I experimented with turning plastic bags into rope and yarn. Out of this experimentation lace forms developed and I began making Lace 577 plastic bags, constructed from crocheted plastic bags. The yarn was only made from white or clear plastic bags, symbolising mourning, grief and death. This was a metaphor for not only the suffocation of the oceans, but also for coral bleaching. Once I began crocheting, I became conscious of “women’s work”, historical craft traditions and the Wertheim sister’s “Crochet Coral Reef Project” (The Institute for Figuring, n.d.). The link between “craftivism” and feminism through using the plastic bag as an art medium appears an appropriate connection to make. During the mid-20th Century, plastic was sold as a modern domestic material, a miracle cure for the housewife. The mass production of goods and the rise of the supermarket allowed for an increase in choices but also a change in habits. This change resulted in plastic being both a substance that is linked to domesticity and a difficult substance to avoid.

Figures 11 & 12: Lace 577 plastic bags, re-purposed plastic bags turned into yarn, 210cm diameter, 2016, Gaffa Gallery. Photos by Docqment Photo.

25 Chapter 1

What began as an experiment grew into a 210cm diameter floor work resembling a giant jellyfish (Figures 11 & 12). Elongated tentacles emerge from the undulating circumference of the outer concentric circle. Lace: 577 plastic bags, intentionally contrasts a beautiful pearlescent form with a repugnant material. It developed a sense of irony as its jellyfish-like nature began to form, as jellyfish are a principal food for leatherback turtles. Yet unfortunately to the turtle, plastic bags suspended in the water closely resemble jellyfish.

Figures 13 & 14: Lace 133 plastic bags, re-purposed plastic bags, light, fan, 210xm diametre, 2016, Gaffa Gallery. Photos by Docqment Photo.

During this time, another work Lace: 133 plastic bags, emerged (Figures 13 & 14). I transformed 133 plastic bags into five suspended (from the ceiling), gently swaying lace screens. Light penetrates the lace work, producing moving shadows designed to emulate being underwater. They remind us of organic marine materials such as giant kelp, providing food and shelter to many species. The screens have a fragile, ephemeral quality that become fragmented veils of illusion. They are a floating artificial obstruction concealing the anonymity of the rubbish from which they are made. A collision of beauty and horror, the work marks the beginning of the “Plastosystem”.

26 Methodology

The Plastosystem (Diagram 02) is the transformation of marine ecosystems into symbiotic plastic and microbial communities. In the future marine organisms will be forced to evolve so that they can feed and shelter in plastic environments. Lace: 133 plastic bags, is a predictor into a possible future, a place where the coral is dead, where large predators and mammals don’t exist, where schools of fish no longer dance. Rather it is a place where bacteria spreads across the ocean on plastic carriers, where “plastivores” have evolved, consuming plastic underwater gardens and reefs.

In response to the Plastosystem, I created a series of mixed media drawings that I called Fused (Figures 15 & 16). Each drawing depicts futuristic hybrid creatures made from plastic, bacteria and corals. Traces of coral mingle with fishing line, net, plastic bags and plastic fragments to create new “plastosessiles”, a new plastic-based animal structures that are fixed in one place. Over time, a plastic fragment is torn from the adult animal and drifts along the current until it merges with another fragment. The two pieces united mingle with microscopic creatures and overtime become a new plastosessiles.

Figure 15 & 16: Fused, mixed media drawings, 2016. Photos by Docqment Photo.

27 Chapter 1

Inventing “The Plastosystem”

The Plastosystem Diagram 02: plastic pollution Components that make up the in the ocean micro plastorganisms plastosystem

plastosessiles plastic sediment plastoplanktons plastaceans

Towards the end of 2016, I began a new lace installation combining the fused and crocheted elements of the two earlier lace artworks. This installation,The Plastosystem (Figures 17 & 18) embraces ideas around scale, connectivity, hybridity, and the future. It is a possible futuristic marine environment. Walking amongst suspended and moving mutant creatures (plastorganisms), you are encouraged to participate in a malignant environment: is it an underwater graveyard of the past or a new future in which exotic plastic hybrid creatures have evolved due to the proliferation of rubbish entering the ocean?

Definition of terms

plastosystem Noun. Plastic based community of interacting plastics, micro-plastics and organisms plastosessile Noun. Plastic based organism fixed in one place; immobile. plastoplankton Noun. Small and microscopic plastic hybrid organisms drift- ing or floating in the oceans plastacean Noun. Plastic hybrid arthropod found in the oceans

plastorganism Noun. A hybrid individual animal, plant, or single-celled life form merged with plastic

28 Methodology

The plastorganisms are connected via long, thin tendrils barring you from entering too far into this environment. After all it is a dangerous post-Anthropocenic place, toxic to the humans who are responsible for its existence. Impervious to death, I imagine these plastorganisms slowly adapting and transmuting as the conditions change in a post-human world. Light and shadows are used to alter our awareness of scale and depth. Our perception of dark forms lingering in the background, awaiting discovery helps to enhance the illusion of being underwater. When underwater, shadow and light often play tricks on our imagination in an environment we don’t belong to.

Figure 17 & 18: The Plastosystem (detail, studio shot), re-purposed plastic bags, light, 2016-17

29 Chapter 1

In conjunction with The Plastosystem is a series of Plastosessile paintings. The paintings have developed from the earlier Fused drawings (Figures 19 - 21) and link directly to the plastorganisms I made for The Plastosystem. They are large scientific cross- sections of microscopic creatures. However they are designed to be informative, they are not traditional scientific illustrations. Each painting utilises a muted colour palette, representing the bleaching of both the organic and synthetic materials of which these creatures are made. Representing purity and virtue the white and pale colours are also becoming a symbol of Western culture’s influence on the earth’s atmosphere. Translucent layers overlap non-formal shapes, revealing clues of what is underneath. Glimpses of microscopic patterning can be discerned, visually linking to the crocheted stitches found in Plastosystem, but more importantly reminding us of the organic origins of these hybrid creatures. This translucent quality obscures the predatory nature of these immobile plastic based organisms.

Figure 19: The Plastosystem — Plastosessiles, oil on linen, 152cm x 132cm, 2017 Photo by Docqment Photo.

30 Methodology

Figure 20 & 21: The Plastosystem — Plastosessiles, oil on linen, 152cm x 132cm, 2017 Photo by Docqment Photo.

31 Chapter 2

The cloak of science as a way of thinking about art and its place Chapter 2

The cloak of science as a way of thinking about art and its place Chapter 2

“Art is the key, and science, the tool for ensuring humanity a wondrous future here on earth.” O. Eliasson, M. Rosing, 2015

The “cloak of science” is a term that I have coined to describe art making that applies a multidisciplinary practice which employs scientific methodology and information. The cloak of science (Diagram 03) also seeks to make sense of political ecology and how hybrid approaches to knowledge, such as a fusion of science and art, are important in shifting out of a Western traditional (modernist) political culture. The cloak of science disguises the intersection of where the arts and science meet, blurring the lines of what art and science are. It is not a method of visual representation and it is more than dataThe modelling. Cloak ofThe Science cloak of science is an instrument for the elusive and the difficult to comprehend.

Diagram 03: The Cloak of Science Hybrid approaches to knowledge such as a fusion of The science and art. Science Cloak of The Arts It is the space where science Science and the arts overlap.

This concealmentThe Cloak of Science: can hybrid be approaches observed to knowledge in the such work as a fusion of of Debbie science and art.Simmons It is the space where science and the arts overlap. (pp42-43). A quick glance at her work will discern a scientific display or experiment, but with enquiry a conceptual metaphor of climate degradation is offered. Her work disguises the emotional and physical costs of the environment with scientific theatre. The opposite occurs with the sculptural installation Ice Watch by Olafur Eliasson and Minik Rosing, 2015 (pp44-45). Initially this artwork appears to be a ring of ice sculptures, mimicking ancient stone monuments like Stonehenge. Instead this work is a communication tool for climate science, a demonstration of what is happening daily in the Arctic Circle. This juncture is the cloak of science.

34 The cloak of science as a way of thinking about art and its place

It is at this point that the appearance and impression of science as an authority becomes imperative. Science has a reputation of trustworthiness due to its sceptical and questioning approach that underpins the traditions of scientific methods: observation, measurement, experimentation, testing, and the adjustment of hypotheses, thereby generating the perception of specialist knowledge. It is this implicit trust in science that contrasts the notion of art as an illusion or art as subjectivity and enables the “cloak of science” to become a Trojan horse for art!

My role as an artist is to make sense of this information, understand the data and to then visually communicate the connections between fact and feeling and to promote a hybrid knowledge based on evidence and poetry. Understanding the scale of climate change and the issues we will face in the Anthropocene epoch requires a new way of thinking and approaching ideas. As Felix Guattari states:

“We need new social and aesthetic practices, new practices of the self in relation to the other, to the foreign, the strange – a whole programme that seems far removed from current concerns. And yet, ultimately, we will only escape from the major crises of our era through the articulation of: a nascent subjectivity; a constantly mutating socius; and an environment in the process of being reinvented.” F. Guattari, 2000, p.68.

absolution kippleization installation fuses both science and art, in order to give a voice to the our marine life. It combines scientific investigation, method and data, with visual analysis and interpretation. The work allows me to think like a scientist through collecting evidence, repeating processes, classifying specimens and inputting data (Figure 22). The output is an installation rather than a paper that generates hypothesis and draws conclusions. absolution kippleization requires scientific processes and data results for it to literally take shape and form. Data collected from the absolution Figure 22: absolute kippleization (data graph of kippleization project is analysed and fed into a data visualisation coloured plastics only), tool. Instead of printing off the graphs that correlate the information digital print, 2017 collected from the marine debris, specimen jars are presented as the

35 Chapter 2

actual nodes of information that form cluster sets that identify colour, fragments and objects (Figure 23).

The work is not about recycling or repurposing to create a dialogue of form and maybe waste; instead it is about collection, data and the visualisation of information to create a dialogue of evidence. The plastic debris collected is not changed or manipulated and turned into something else. Instead, it is cleaned, sorted and categorised, presented as specimen or artefact. It is real evidence and through the process of sorting and categorising (filling jars with the plastic debris) the collated material is not just data for absolution kippleization but also an understanding of quantity and volume, and specimens for reference or classification. Although not trained as a scientist — and indeed not having formally studied any science — it has been necessary for me to use the cloak of science to make work that deals with the complex issues that surround climate change and the Anthropocene. It is this process that has allowed me to understand not only the scale of marine debris in one place but also to understand the serious nature that is facing our oceans and waterways. The collection of evidence and data has become crucial to the making of my art; indeed, it is inseparable.

Figure 23: Kipple washed, categorised and placed into specimen jars. There are over 200 jars of various sizes (ranging from 250ml - 3l) in absolute kippleization.

As absolution kippleization alludes to a scientific display and data visualisation of the present, The Plastosystem discusses the future. Extrapolating the data of absolution kippleization, The Plastosystem imagines a future possibility in which our oceans are clogged with organisms infused with bleached plastic. Predicting the future with a

36 The cloak of science as a way of thinking about art and its place

science fiction style speculative approach provides an opportunity to reveal the truth about the plastic waste that pollutes the world’s oceans.

Ecology, environment and nature are terms that are loaded with political, cultural, gendered and historical agendas. (B. Latour, 2004, pp. 18-21) How do we separate our (human) descriptions or representations of nature from nature? Latour’s ecology is a political ecology that does not separate nature from political, economic and cultural agendas. In fact, he suggests that nature is not a romantic construct seen through rose-tinted glasses intimated by a modern perspective in which culture and nature are divided, but asks us to contemplate a global commonality which considers the desideratum in terms of the needs and objectives that both human and non-humans have. Latour believes that science is vital in establishing this global community where all actors play an intrinsic role in his vision for the future.

The separation of the arts and science, and forcing them intoa divide is not dissimilar to the political systems in most of the West. Structures are imposed to create opposition, conservatism versus liberalism, nature versus culture, plurality versus singularity and so on. The cloak of science encourages a Latour-inspired, integrated political ecology, where studio = laboratory and where all concerned (both human and non-human) have representation. And where “the very concept of democracy needs to be reopened in light of the ecological crisis to include new voices that we can longer ignore.” (E. Cavaza, 2014, pp. 123-4.)

Latour’s lecture “On Sensitivity: Arts, Science and Politics in the New Climatic Regime” at the 2016 Performance Studies International, Melbourne University, suggests that because science is itself a journey of learning and unfolding mystery in the age of Anthropocene, or as Latour prefers “The New Climatic Regime”, the challenge for art is to be more than a romantic or poetic contribution. If science is endeavoring to make sense of these mysteries and ambiguities then

37 Chapter 2

what is the role of the arts? I believe that the Arts have an important role in making sense of climate change science. By imagining and About interpreting the data of climate change modeling, by providing The Cave: discourse between stakeholders, and through the representation of humans and nonhuman (both living and not living) entities. In Plato’s The Cave, Socrates asks Glaucon to visualise Latour argues that if we are going to understand a future concept of chained prisoners inside a cave. “Nature” we need to rethink this modernist oppositional platform, The prisoners believe that the which assumes contradictory thinking. He stresses that we need shadows they can see, talk and to change our Western political models, inserting nature into the make other sounds. Limited by core of our institutional machinations. He asserts that Philosophy their chains, the illusion of light and Science need to get out of Plato’s Cave (B. Latour, 2004, p. 10). and echoes become a reality Explaining that the history of the Cave sets both groups of people on for the prisoners. They know a conquest of truth. This truth can only be derived when they free nothing else. themselves from any social or subjective feelings; as Latour says they must free themselves “from the dark Cave”. To do this we need to Latour uses this metaphor to also change the way we artificially separate science, politics and the illustrate that unless we combine humanities. knowledge and embrace multi- Using the cloak of science to identify and collate information on disciplinary collaboration, we marine debris with focus on plastic detritus not only helps me to will remain the prisoners, and understand the impact of plastic contamination on our oceans, therefore limited. We will be ill it provides an authority to my research. An important part of my prepared for the future. work is the collection of marine plastic found in the littoral zone of Congwong Beach, La Perouse. The collection includes knotted and twisted ropes, plastic lids, balloons and small plastics broken down into the sand. With each week’s collection, I photograph the finds at the beach. I arrange the debris into either a colour wheel structure or group them by size or artifact to create the cluster. For example: all the straws that are collected are placed together. However, this process of sampling a population into clusters provides evidence of plastic materials that are seen with the naked eye and that can be collected by hand.

38 The cloak of science as a way of thinking about art and its place

Pollution is an inevitable consequence of life; the challenge is to put it to good use - James Lovelock

The Gaia hypothesis (Diagram 04) conceived by James Lovelock and titled for the ancient Greek name for the earth; suggests that all organisms on earth interact with their inorganic surroundings to create a system that combines the evolution of life on earth, with the stability of the atmosphere and global temperatures. To become a self-regulating environment, Lovelock argues that pollution is part of the evolution of Gaia. That with pollution comes new opportunities

Diagram 04: Gaia Hypothesis Gaia is a self-regulating environment

for systems to evolve. (J. Lovelock, 2016, p. 25.) Chemical and physical bio-products (waste) can be reclaimed and consumed at a cellular level. Since the Industrial Revolution, he argues that pollution, the bio-product of industry, is a waste of energy. A wasted resource! That humanity’s failure is not with the bio-product produced and leaked by industry, but the inaction and inability to harness this waste.

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For early life, oxygen was a toxic by-product that enabled the evolution of new forms of life. And because ecosystems are adaptable, Lovelock may well argue that Gaia will adapt to make use of plastic waste. But perhaps, in a post-Anthropocene world;

“We, like the first plants, are heavily polluting to the rest of life. This is not an aberration or a sin. It is a natural consequence of realising something powerful as oxygen or intelligence. Entropy can only be reduced in a closed system, like you or Gaia, when disorder – pollution – is excreted to the exterior. In the course of time, organisms evolve to use pollution as their food. Consider the dung beetles.” J. Lovelock, 2016, p. ix.

So where to for earth? While Gaia can regulate and adapt to physical changes, can it adapt to the rapidity of change that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution and the industry of the 20th Century? The Plastosystem offers a possible future. It visualises a potential tangent of evolution in which Gaia has adapted to the waste not harnessed during the Anthropocene. In portents, a future where hybrid polyethylenes and organisms become co-dependent, a post- human Gaia. Plastosessiles could become the stromatolites* of the distant future. * Stromatolites are calcium carbonate or silica structures that are the fossils of microbial activity.

“Ingenuity triumphed and the danger was overcome, not in the human way by restoring order, but in the flexible Gaian way by adapting to change and converting a murderous intruder intoa powerful friend.” J. Lovelock, 2016, p.27.

Fun Fact: Gaia was controversial amongst many scientists because they felt that it was teleological, seeing the overall purpose and not the cause.

40 The cloak of science as a way of thinking about art and its place

The Plastosytem presents a possibility of how Gaia may adapt to change. This vision for the future discusses the flexibility of life on earth, while not necessarily providing hope for humanity. The Anthropocene may be the era of the humans but Gaia was around before and will be around after. Whether or not humanity has the ability to change and evolve as the climate changes is probably out of our hands. But Gaia will adapt! It will find a way to modify the distribution of kipple in the oceans. And one possibility is the transformation of kipple into a source of energy that develops new species and systems rich in plastic. The Plastosystem!

Whilst The Plastosystem (Figure 24) is no real prediction of the future, it is a visual metaphor that translates and questions complex science. The suspended plastorganisms help to describe the capabilities of a living planet. Their wrinkled hides and polyp tentacles provided a textural realism indicating a link to present-day marine organisms. And their ghostly appearance reminds us of the challenges that corals face with oceanic warming. Each plastorganism becomes a marker for what is needed to shift our thinking and perhaps enable our species to survive the potential hazards of climate change.

Figure 24: Detail of The Plastosystem, a potential future organism demonstrating Gaia’s adaptability. Using pollution to evolve.

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CASE STUDY: Debbie Symons

Debbie Symons reminds me of an 18th or 19th century scientific illustrator. Her work is immersed in the tradition of communicating frontier science, alluding to botanical illustration during the times of colonisation. Through the combination of drawing and scientific data, Symons effectively dispenses information normally confined to scientific papers and journals. Her work is an amalgamation of graphical illustrations, maps, traditional scientific equipment (beakers, magnifying glass), computer graphics, video and scientific data. The multi-media elements used in her work, like in my own practice, have become tools to explain the complexities of science. Tracking (Antarctica) (2011) is a collaborative video work with the Australian Antarctic Division, SCAR Scientific Committee of Antarctic Research and IUCN. In this work the audience views a stationary map of the earth drawn from the perspective of Antarctica. Underneath the map, shifting across the screen like old-fashioned stock exchange ticker tape, are vital statistics of threatened migratory mammals and birds that rely on the waters surrounding Antarctica to survive. This work is weighted in scientific data. As an audience, we are emotionally persuaded by fundamental evidence. Symons does provide a narrative or wraps her work up in visual stimulus (it is visually minimal). Instead she allows the recorded information to dispense a cold wind. This works gives a voice to the nonhuman, to the animals and birds dissolving into extinction at the hands of human induced climate change. This work references scientific data arrays used to visually explain complex information. In absolute kippleization I also have introduced the notion of graphs to explain the data that I have collected. My graph unlike Tracking (Antarctica) (2011), has become an abstraction to remind us of the multifarious and concealed issues of marine microplastics. When installed, absolute kippleization offers Image removed the evidence contained in due to Copyright specimen jars. It does not need the graph to translate data. Instead it needs the graph to remind us of what we can’t see and contain.

Figure 25: Debbie Symons, Tracking (Antarctica), 2011 http://debbiesymons.com.au/tracking-antarctica/

42 The cloak of science as a way of thinking about art and its place

Similarly, The Catchments Project (2015) by Debbie Symons and Jasmine Targett (Figures 26 & 27) presents evidence in vessels. The evidence is converted into an artwork, where it can be analysed and questioned outside the scientific community. The Catchments Project, is a collaboration with scientists and academics developed to investigate the environmental sustainability of water usage. This project comprises three works: Making Water Visible; The Water Harvest; and Getting Busy. The project aims to deal with the complexities of climate change, consumerism and conservation. Symons and Targett do this by focusing on Melbourne’s waterways through samples of rain and grey water, topographical maps of water networks including natural and engineered catchments, and through public engagement in the form of water sample contributions and public declarations.

Image removed Image removed due to Copyright due to Copyright

Figures 26 & 27: Debbie Symons and Jasmine Targett The Catchments Project, 2015 http://debbiesymons.com.au/making-water-visible/

Collated data from the City of Melbourne, Melbourne Water and Geosciences Australia was used to create a hand-crafted luminescent Perspex map representing Melbourne’s water system. The map is reminiscent of arteries and reminds us that water is an organic commodity giving life to a city of millions of people. This artwork is also educating an audience on the science behind water and how this essential compound is currently taken for granted.

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CASE STUDY: Olafur Eliasson and Minik Rosing

The collaboration between artist Olafur Eliasson and geologist Minik Rosing (Figures 28 &29) generated a huge amount of interest as their ice installation Ice Watch was arranged outside the Place du Panthéon, Paris for the COP 21 – United Nations Conference on Climate Change. This work was designed to publically mirror the conference, addressing the challenges facing humanity with the widespread effects of climate change. Ice Watch’s strength lies in its ability to generate enterprise and discourse through a combination of emotional reactions, experiential erudition and scientific facts. The installation was made up of 80 tonnes of arctic ice removed from a fjord outside Nuuk, Greenland and carefully arranged outside the Place du Panthéon, where it was left to melt. Eliasson and Rosing did not carve the ice blocks; rather they had already broken away from the Greenland ice sheet before harvesting and transportation. They also commissioned a carbon footprint report of the work to further explain the issues of climate change. In the least, this installation provided the public with an opportunity to have a first-hand glimpse of polar melting in action.

“The acquisition of the ice thus did not affect the Greenland ice sheet, which loses the equivalent of 1,000 such blocks of ice per second throughout the year.” (O. Eliasson, M. Rosing, 2015.)

Image removed Image removed due to Copyright due to Copyright

Figure 28 & 29: Olafur Eliasson and Minik Rosing, Ice Watch, 2015 http://icewatchparis.com

44 The cloak of science as a way of thinking about art and its place

Image removed due to Copyright

Figure 30: Olafur Eliasson and Minik Rosing, Ice Watch, 2015 http://icewatchparis.com

The melting of the ice acts like a clock ticking down the minutes towards the reduction of polar ice sheets and the calving of icebergs. They dissolved over the duration of the conference, dying before the eyes of the public as they bear witness to increasing sea levels, the death of species and the desertification of earth. This work is a figurative translation of climate change modeling. The work seeks to pull at emotional heartstrings. It does not present figures but metaphor. This idea of metaphor is strived for as I present a possible future in The Plastosystem. Imagining an ocean evolved, adapting to the waste and pollution generated during the Anthropocene, provides the opportunity for emotional reflection. The scale and placement of Ice Watch generates a community resolution, understanding that this issue is beyond the boundaries of nations. As Latour deliberates in his idea of the “New Climatic Regime”, to transcend traditional boundaries; we will be required to “redefine the very soil to which we belong, and to reconfigure who is to be deemed reactionary and who progressive.” (T. Howles, 2016.)

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Chapter 3

The problem with Kipple – A new materiality Chapter 3

“To decolonize nature represents a doubtlessly ambitious and manifold project, with artists, activists, and creative practitioners (in addition to scientists, policy makers, and politicians) involved at every stage.” T. J. Demos, 2016, p.16

Through anthropogenic change, the earth’s geological stratification has been altered, and it is our love of physical stuff that has become a major contribution to these ecological changes. As an artist responding to these changes I believe that materiality, as both substance and matter, require a new way of approaching art making. In order to respond to the complexities that have emerged in the age of Anthropocene we need to combine a historical, scientific, political and environmental understanding of materials. As ultimately, we have created an ecological marker in the geology of the earth.

Tomas Sacraceno’s Museo Aero Solar (2009 - to date) (pp56-57), uses this amalgamation in the form of collaboration and engagement. Creating a forum that seeks community solutions on ecological dilemmas such as environmental pollution. Imagining possible futures and technologies, Sacraceno explores pollution as material.

Material often refers to the physical substance of which an object is made. That is natural or man-made substance that is intended for an ongoing purpose like a tool, a product or an instrument. Until the late 19th Century in Western art, material was concealed. Work was celebrated for its ability to disguise the material substance from which it was made. Music and poetry was valued over painting and sculpture because they aspired to the heavens through their lack of earthly attributes. (M. Wagner, 2015, p.28.) This concept of material changed as artists began exploring the nature of material, liberating substance from scorn and pursuing it as a subject.

Contemporary debate about materiality was transformed during the Les Immateriaux exhibition of 1985 at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (T. McDowell, 2014.). The exhibition explored themes of technology and information systems. Asking questions

48 The problem with Kipple - A New Materiality

about how these new advancements might alter our perceptions of the materiality of things. With the success of his book The Postmodern Condition Jean-François Lyotard, sought to question human relationships to materials and inquire if and how this may have a changed with advancements in technology. When looking back at the technology and artwork on exhibit, it appears antiquated and humorous. However, the concept of facing with change through technology or being led into a state of uncertainty is something we are still grappling with today.

In the past 30 years the earth’s atmosphere has changed dramatically, computer and information technologies are part of our everyday existence and we discard so much stuff that we need to think about materials and materiality differently.

For me, the 21st Century relationship to materials and objects is articulated succinctly by Phillip. K. Dick in “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”.

“Kipple is useless objects, like junk mail or match folders after you use the last match or gum wrappers or yesterday’s homeopape. When nobody’s around, kipple reproduces itself. For instance, if you go to bed leaving any kipple around your apartment, when you wake up the next morning there’s twice as much of it. It always gets more and more.”

“No one can win against kipple,” he said, “except temporarily and maybe in one spot, like in my apartment I’ve sort of created a stasis between the pressure of kipple and nonkipple, for the time being. But eventually I’ll die or go away, and then the kipple will again take over. It’s a universal principle operating throughout the universe; the entire universe is moving toward a final state of total, absolute kippleization.” P. K. Dick, 2017, pp. 61-62.

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My artwork explores this notion of kipple, investigating the manner in which plastics impact marine environments. I like to think of plastics as a material artefact, disintegrating and transforming both physically and functionally. Over time, plastics break down in the marine environment. The chemical sequence that makes up plastic will lose chains, rendering the plastic toxic. The shapes of the plastic objects become weatherworn and broken. The plastic’s purpose also changes when it is discarded. No longer a vessel or a lid, the plastic becomes adrift, a floating interference in the water until it becomes a receptacle for bacteria, a toxic anomaly or a fake food source.

Periodic Table (for a new world) Diagram 05: New world Periodic Table. 1 Atomic 2 number Non Metals H Symbol Metalloids He Due to Kipple’s abundance, Hydrogen Name Other Halogens Noble Anthro Helium 1.008 Atomic Mass nonmetals gases plastikos 4.002602 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 I have created this Periodic Li Be Metals B C N O F Ne Lithium Beryllium Boron Carbon Nitrogen Oxygen Fluorine Neon 6.94 9.0121831 10.81 12.011 14.007 15.999 18.998403163 20.1797 Alkali Alkaline Lanthanoids Transition Post- 11 12 metals earth metals transition 13 14 15 16 17 18 Table to predict kipple as Na Mg metals Actinoids metals Al Si P S Cl Ar Sodium Magnesium Aluminium Silicon Phosphorus Sulfur Chlorine Argon 22.989... 1.008 26.9815385 28.085 30.973761998 32.06 34.45 39.948 new element that has been 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

Potassium Ca Sc Ti V Cr ManganeseMn Fe Co Ni Cu Zn Ga Ge As Se Br Kr synthesized, similar to other K Calcium Scandium Titanium Vanadium Chronium Iron Cobalt Nickel Copper Zinc Gallium Germanium Arsenic Selenium Bromine Krypton 30.0983 24.305 44.955908 47.867 50.9415 51.9961 54.938044 55.845 58.933194 58.6934 63.546 65.38 1.008 72.63 74.921595 78.971 79.904 83.798 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 synthetic radionuclides Rb Sr Y Zr Nb Mo TechnetiumTc Ru Rh Pd Ag Cd In Sn Sb Te I Xe Rubidium Strontium Yttrium Zirconium Niobium Molybdenum Ruthenium Rhodium Palladium Silver Cadmium Indium Tin Antimony Tellurium Iodine Xenon 85.4678 87.62 88.90584 91.224 92.90637 95.95 (98) 101.07 102.90550 106.42 107.8682 112.414 114.818 118.710 121.760 127.60 126.90447 131.293 55 56 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 that have been produced in Cs Ba 57-71 Hf Ta W Re Os Ir Pt Au Hg Tl Pb Bi Po At Rn Caesium Barium Hafnium Tantalum Tungsten Rhenium Osmium Iridium Platinum Gold Mercury Thallium Lead Bismuth Polonium Astatine Radon 132.90... 137.327 178.49 180.94788 183.84 186.207 190.23 192.217 194.084 196.966569 200.59 204.38 207.2 208.98040 (209) (210) (222) laboratories. 87 88 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 10k+ 118 Fr Ra 89-103 Rf Db Sg Bh Hs Mt Ds Rg Cn Nh Fl Mc Lv Ts Og 118-10k Kp Francium Radium Rutherfordium Dubnium Seaborgium Bohrium Hassium Meitnerium Darmstadtium Roentgenium Copemicium Nihonium Flerovium Moscovium Livemorium Tennessine Oganesson Kipple (223) (226) (267) (268) (271) (272) (270) (276) (281) (280) (286) (284) (289) (288) (293) (294) (294) (1000k+)

57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 La Ce Pr Nd Pm Sm Eu Gd Tb Dy Ho Er Tm Yb Lu Lanthanum Cerium Praseodymium Neodymium Promehtium Samarium Europium Gadolinium Terbium Dysprosium Holmium Eribium Thulium Ytterbium Lutetium 138.90547 140.116 140.90766 144.242 (145) 150.36 151.964 157.25 158.92535 162.500 164.93033 167.259 168.93422 173.054 174.9668

89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 Ac Th Pa U Np Pu Am Cm Bk Cf Es Fm Md No Lr Actinium Thorium Protactinium Uranium Neptunium Plutonium Americium Curium Berkelium Californium Einsteinium Fermium Mendelevium Nobelium Lawremcium (227) 232.0377 231.03588 238.02891 (237) (244) (243) (247) (247) (251) (252) (257) (258) (259) (262)

Kipple is ontological! Occasionally when I am collecting plastic from Conwong Beach, the wind is fast and furious, flinging sand into my face and whistling through my whole being. At the same time the tide is nearly high, fluctuating the littoral zone. I walk along the beach and notice a blue bottle lid I bend down to collect, when out of the corner of my eye I am tempted by a rare pink piece of plastic jutting out of the sand. In my excitement to gather this glowing pink I neglect the blue lid. I pick up and bucket what is a broken shard of a plastic take- away ice-cream cup. I go back for the lid. It is no longer there, it has disappeared and in its place I find a fisherman’s glow stick, two plastic straws and a plastic fork. The beach has changed. The wind has blown the sand into new ripples, organising itself into a new shape. In doing so, some pieces of plastic become shrouded while others are exposed.

50 The problem with Kipple - A New Materiality

The blue lid, now hidden, is mysterious. I know it is there but I can’t see it. What else can’t I see? When I think about the answer, I am faced with a nightmarish reality about not only what lies beneath the sand, but also what is microscopic. How do we relate to materials that we can’t see? If I can’t see it, is it there? In the case of kipple the more you try to remove it, the more you find, as you become attuned to its frequency.

As a material, plastics have an interesting history. Plastics do not just take the forms of bags, cheap toys and domestic products, they have been cultivated by humans for millennia. Plastics are essentially polymer chains made up of carbon-based or silicone-based molecules. Polymers that make up plastic are known for their flexibility (their plasticity) and can be moulded into an infinite amount of shapes. Humans have been utilising materials made from naturally occurring polymers for thousands of years, for example rubber to make balls from the rubber plant native to Mexico.

My research is focused on modern plastics that have come to dominate our existence since the invention of Parkesine in 1862. (BBC, 2014.) Parkesine is a cellulose-based plastic that was often used in domestic products such as hair combs and cutlery handles. This material was brittle and of poor quality and ultimately failed commercially. It was not until the breakthrough invention of Bakelite in 1907 that synthetic plastics became commercially viable and successful. Synthetic plastics are distinguishable from cellulose-based plastics due to their derivation from fossil fuels. World War II drove the commercial growth of synthetic- based plastics and at the end of the war the US was faced with a glut of the material. This excess led to invention and diversification into the domestic and consumer markets. The launch of plastic containers, clothes, furniture etc. had begun and with it a change in consumer habits. From re-use and re-purpose to dispose and replace. Creating a culture of waste in which materials formed from plastic polymers have a limited life span, a built-in a built-in obsolescence, a redundancy.

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By using a redundant object as a material, I am transforming the object from abeyance to artwork. Lace: 577 plastic bags(Figure 31), re-purposes plastic bags by carefully folding them lengthways and slicing the plastic into loops. Each loop is linked together to create a yarn that can then be used to crochet. I use crocheting techniques to create lace forms that denote marine life: corals, jellyfish and microorganisms. The world’s reef systems are under extreme pressures from global warming and contamination due to farming and mining pollutants, and non-organic debris such as plastics. Lace is an attempt at synthesizing a convergence of plastic-encased marine forms. The work carpets the floor, tendrils curl out and creep towards the viewer, inferring marine organisms clutching onto life.

Figure 31: Lace 577 plastic bags, re-purposed plastic bags turned into yarn, 210xm diametre, 2016, Gaffa Gallery. Photo by Docqment Photo.

The pearly translucent white of the lace forms becomes a lament for the destruction of our oceans, in particular coral reef systems. White plastic bags are used as a symbolic lament for the death of coral through bleaching, whilst highlighting the detrimental impact of plastic on marine fauna by synthesizing a convergence of plastic- encased marine forms.

52 The problem with Kipple - A New Materiality

The viscosity of the material has become an intrinsic part of the work. Each plastic bag feels different to the touch: rough, smooth, crunchy and squishy. Different plastic bags have sheen variations: pearlescent, muted, and reflective. The intimate sensation of crocheting the plastic bags has become an integral performance in the transforming of material. This form of art making is a shift away from the more narrative traditions of art making that pictorially addresses subject matter.

In Lace: 577 plastic bags the subject matter is about plastic (the material) and the consequences of its vitality as well as being made from plastic (the material). The artwork becomes a heteromorphic response to climate change as it deviates from itself. Jane Bennett suggests that non-human bodies have a vitality, an energy that can influence (J. Bennett, 2010, p. viii.). Whilst plastic does not have the capacity to see, smell, hear, feel, taste or think; it does have the capacity to destroy and choke as it mutates, degrades and fragments.

DID YOU KNOW?

One of the most common varieties of plastic, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), leaks antimony into water at dangerous levels when the temperature is above 60*C. (E. Molaee Aghaee, M. Alimohammadi, R. Nabizadeh, et al, 2014.)

Antimony is a metalloid and used as a stabilizer and catalyst for the production of PET. This leaching and chemical change occurring in plastic under certain conditions has the potential to be toxic, influencing the environment into which it leaks. With plastics such as PET being capable of change at a molecular level it seems necessary to contemplate the unobservable and find new ways in which to respond.

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My investigations do not take into account material at anything smaller than the visible. I am concerned with the perceptible and chemical relationships of plastic. Whilst I acknowledge the importance of matter at a sub-atomic level (after all the word “material” comes from the idea of relating to matter) (Concise Oxford Dictionary. 2016), I am more interested in the notion of force and resistance rather than the actual principles of quantum physics.

Diagram 06: Structure of matter. ? This diagram outlines how my electrons investigative focus does not

up down down account for materiality at a protons quarks quantum physical level. atoms or molecules nucleus

matter up up down neutrons quarks

kipple is evident at this level my artwork

I think of kipple as matter that is capable of change. It is not inert but capable of force through destruction. Yet is this destruction independent of humans? Is the plastic I find at the beach or repurpose from the trash effervescent? (J. Bennett, 2010, p. 10.) Kipple is the product of human endeavour. It is made by people, used by people, and thrown away by people. It exists because of people! But once discarded, its existence metastasises, transforming into an agent of biolysis. It affects the oceans at different scales from weather patterns to nanoparticles. All this requires a new way of thinking, a new ontological approach to art making.

Diagram 07: Plastic lifecycle. objects becoming broken in the marine environment Human relationship with plastic material during the plastic consumed by objects thrown away marine organisms plastic’s lifecycle.

mining of petrochemicals

make objects from plastic

synthesising plastic

54 The problem with Kipple - A New Materiality

Figure 32: Lace 133 plastic bags, re-purposed plastic bags, light, fan, 210xm diameter, 2016, Gaffa Gallery. Photo by Docqment Photo.

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CASE STUDY: Tomas Sacraceno

To imagine new futures and new possibilities is a way to counter environmental shock and to do this, changing aesthetic experiences and our understanding to material is necessary. Tomas Sacraceno’s Museo Aero Solar (Figures 33 & 34), contemplates the idea of a solar society based on Nikolai Kardashev’s predictions on societies so advanced that they are liberated fromthe earth’s surface in order to function. This is known as the Kardashev Scale: the measurement of extraterrestrial advancements based on energy disposal levels. To understand where 21st Century humans are on the scale…well we don’t even rate. Sacraceno describes Museo Aero Solar as a flying energy museum or solar balloon. The work is a shape-shifting balloon made from reused plastic bags crudely fastened together with packing tape, harnessing solar energy without solar panels but with the sun heating the cold air inside the balloon, thereby inflating it. The balloon grows in scale as it travels the world. In each new destination, local plastic bags are repurposed and added to the structure. The balloon becomes a kinetic flying installation, that is not defined by political or geological borders, emphasising the global nature of climate change.

This use of a disposable domestic material (plastic bag) to build a flying machine demonstrates

Image removed Image removed due to Copyright due to Copyright

Figure 33 & 34: Tomas Sacraceno, Museo Aero Solar, Prato Italy 2009 & Vienna Austria 2015. http://tomassaraceno.com/projects/museoaerosolar/

56 The problem with Kipple - A New Materiality

our blasé and wasteful attitude towards plastic, as well as highlighting our lack of ingenuity when it comes to harnessing our own pollution as material resource. These are issues that I am interested in and highlight in both absolute kippleization and The Plastosystem. Both artworks draw attention to waste and pollution. The Plastosystem demonstrates how the can earth adapt and evolve, and underlines our inability to do the same, and progress beyond a species who uses, disposes and pollutes.

Engineering and scientific principles are used to help keep this balloon airborne as Sacraceno plays with the values of the Kardashev Scale and investigates ideas about renewable energy and the environment. Sacraceno’s work is reminiscent of da Vinci’s drawings of flying machines. They are inventions and like da Vinci endeavor to solve problems through asking questions. Museo Aero Solar asks its audience to consider self-sufficient and renewable technologies as the obvious answers to the use of fossil fuels. The work also questions the waste that has been generated through the use of plastic bags. But while this work is redolent of the Renaissance quest for advancements and possibilities the work itself breaks new ground; predicting the future, questioning geopolitical borders, and combining scientific knowhow with a contemporary domestic material it deals with the complexities of climate change through new methods of art making: international collaboration, contemporary material and futurism.

Image removed due to Copyright

Figure 35: Tomas Sacraceno, Museo Aero Solar, Milan Italy 2007. http://tomassaraceno.com/projects/museoaerosolar/

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Chapter 4

How many plastic bags does it take to fill a plastic bag? Issues of scale Chapter 4

‘In no sense then should art be PR for climage change. Have you ever considered the possibility of doing PR for a relentless army of zombies?” T. Morton, 2013, p. 196.

The significance of plastic in the oceans is dependent on its amount. When understanding an amount, scientists can predict orders of magnitude in the form of scale. Traditionally scale recognises the difference in size (bigger or smaller, heavier or lighter), thus providing us with a mechanism for understanding how one thing can relate to another. But what happens when the numbers can only be estimated?

The amount of plastic entering our waterways and oceans is unknown. There are estimates based on measurements from specific localities, and scientists do know that rivers carry much ofour plastic waste not entering landfill into the oceans (J. R. Jambeck, et al, 2015, pp. 768-771.). They know that the larger the town or city and the poorer the garbage collection infrastructure equals a larger amount of debris entering the ocean. Scientists know that plastic has been entering the oceans for the past 50 years and that over the past decade the volume of plastic production has increased significantly. It is therefore difficult — if not impossible — to determine the scale of marine plastic. To overcome this inability to provide a scale of mass or numeracy, I have appropriated the term “conceptual scale”.

Conceptual scale asks us to envisage an amount based on approximation and perceived knowledge. It requires us to connect the dots to make sense of the multitude. There is an uncertainty of measurement when it comes to calculating the amount of plastic debris flowing into our oceans over the past, the present and the future. There is also an uncertainty of measurement when it comes to the plastic’s longevity. The disintegration of plastic will require us to think beyond our lifespans and our children’s lifespans. Plastic has a long temporal existence, surviving well into the future. Along

60 How Many Plastic Bags Does It Take To Fill A Plastic Bag? Issues Of Scale

the ocean floor where ultraviolet light is scant, plastic could take a millennium to break down; no one really knows.

absolute kippleization address this notion of conceptual scale when translating the amounts and weights of plastic recovered from Congwong Beach. Each data graph grapples with scale, quantity and measurement. Each coloured node represents an amount of a particular kind of plastic. For example, the largest red node represents 174 x red lids each 30mm wide. The graph can only represent what I collected. It can’t represent all the plastic that washes up on the beach. It is an indicator only.

Figure 38: absolute kippleization (data graph of all coloured, clear, white, and black plastics), digital print, 2017

Factors of time, events, data, size and agency all become issues of scale when considering the impact of environmental change in the Anthropocene. Scientists measure events that take place in time. They record data and compare it to other measurements for analysis. They can input this data into complex algorithms and determine

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possible climactic outcomes. But they can’t ever know the real amount of plastic in the oceans. Conceptual scale is difficult to grasp, it is illusive, not easily measured with mathematical modelling, but this is exactly what visual art does best. Visual art can communicate the illusive by speculating on an issue. I make work not to quantify an amount but to conceptualise the problem.

Issues of measurement and longevity exist in Shimpei Takeda’s Trace, (2012) (pp 70-71) and Chris Jordon’s Paper Cups, (2008) (pp72-73). Both these works visualise conceptual scale. They unravel a problem that is difficult to imagine, providing us with a glimpse into the intangible and helping us to make sense of this issue. Chris Jordon’s Midway: Message from the Gyre, (2009–current), does not make sense; it shocks. The work approaches scale using disturbing photographs that document the consequences of uncountable amounts of plastic affecting marine birds.

Climate change is massive, intimate, disorienting, multifaceted and abstract. It is simultaneously close and distant, local and non- local, thus, distorting our awareness of scale. The size of climate

Diagram 08: Explanation of Plastic Bag Scale - 1 : 5.9 how the scale of a plastic bag is altered when converting its state from bag to yarn.

400mm 5.9m

280mm

A 400mm x 280mm x 2mm plastic bag can be turned into 5.9m of yarn. Thus something small becomes something big.

62 How Many Plastic Bags Does It Take To Fill A Plastic Bag? Issues Of Scale

change is not immediately recognised, how can it be? We can’t be experiencing a bushfire in the Blue Mountains of NSW and the melting of the Arctic ice shelf at the same time. While the events might be linked to one another through the interconnectivity of climate change, as individuals we don’t and can’t experience the whole. The whole is too big, too large grasp. Timothy Moreton refers to this as a “Hyperobject”.

A Hyperobject is something that is beyond the sum of humans, its exists in many places simultaneously. Hyperobjects are immeasurable and according to Moreton they are the future. (T. Morton, 2013, p. 60.) They will not deteriorate in our lifetime, but instead outlive our existence as monuments to the Anthropocene. In the future, when human bones have transformed into fossils, surrounding them will be anthropogenic stratification. This stratification will be more akin to a human vanitas, a collection of materials and substances that meminisse the hyperobject. This is because the hyperobject will still exist! The hyperobject will not last forever, but will exist for a very long time. So long in fact, that Moreton suggests it is easier to contemplate infinity rather that the magnitude of future millions of years.

Diagram 09: Explanation of Plastic Bag Scale - 1 : 70 how the scale of a plastic bag is altered when squished into itself.

=

70 plastic bags can be squashed into 1 plastic bag the same size as the 70

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Plastic is a hyperobject. We can’t know the sum of how much there is in the ocean, plastics will last a very long time and envisaging microplastics in nearly every location in the ocean is beyond our understanding. In my artworks I conceptualised the problem of plastic as a hyperobject.

When making Lace 577 plastic bags, Lace 133 plastic bags, and The Plastosystem I realised that the process of transforming plastic bags into yarn alters our perception of the bag’s scale. It is a simulacrum for the break-down of larger plastic debris into microplastic. I fold, slice and tie bags together; no longer vessels for carrying they are now string for lace making. A flat 280 x 400 x 2mm sized bag is transformed into a 5.9m length of yarn, changing its scale (Diagram 08).

Yet the scale continues to change as the yarn appears to shrink, as it is worked and transformed into lace. Contracting and shrinking, expanding and stretching, the size of the bag appears to change. JustFigure as a 39:plastic The Plastosystem shopping bag (detail) can carry, re-purposed at least plastic70 versions bags, light,of itself, 2016-17, studio shot

64 How Many Plastic Bags Does It Take To Fill A Plastic Bag? Issues Of Scale

scale is altered and difficult to understand. The plastic bag correlates to a hyperobject (Diagram 09).

How do you attempt to communicate ideas about the colossal amount of plastic in the ocean, contrasted with the minuscule nature of said plastic?

The Plastosystem (Figure 39) addresses this by placing its audience within a hypothetical plastic environment. Earlier Lace installations provided side views of imagined locations; cross sections of futuristic, speculative, plastic marine environments. They did not ask their audience to physically access their habitat. The Plastosystem invites participation, to passage cautiously through an entangled ecosystem in the process of transformation. Multiple fused and crocheted plastic bags of varying sizes float like deformed corals and jellyfish. At times tentacles of fine plastic form a parasitic web, that links the mutated larger forms together. The web is occasionally linked to the ground, like a vine rooted in the soil of a tropical forest, the web appears to grow from the white sand that lines the ground. It is a symbol too for the interconnectivity of climate change. The ground surface is not sand from crushed and eroded siliceous rocks, but fine microplastics made from white and clear plastic bags.

The Plastosystem not only asks us to think about what is happening within our oceans now, but also asks us to quantify the future amount by presenting an alternative environment in which nature is suffocated and the eco system is one of plastic.

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Searching for a shooting star on clear evening and watching these small fireballs burn into flecks of space dust as they enter the earth’s atmosphere is a delightful pastime that conjures up fables and myths for many. But according to Ryan Thompson (R. Thompson, 2013, p. 71.) the flecks of dust less than 1mm in diameter have an accumulated weight of up to 20,000 tons per year. Known as micrometeorites, these individual flecks weigh between 10−9 and 10−4g and are falling to earth all the time. Whilst a large meteorite colliding with earth after entering her atmosphere is capable of destruction that can wipe out life, micrometeorites fall with little to no fanfare. However, they are everywhere.

“In the oceans. On the tops of mountains. In parking lots. In cups of coffee. They’ve been stepped upon and ingested. Buried and unearthed. Found and forgotten again…” R. Thompson, 2013, p. 71.

Just like micrometeorites, microplastics are everywhere in the oceans. They are on the beach amongst the sand. They are swallowed by marine organisms and consumed by humans and marine-eating animals. They are found floating amongst the waves, tides and currents. Whilst there is no exact knowledge ofhow much microplastic is in the oceans, an indication of how much can be deduced from a 2008 paper by C.J. Moore, which suggests that since the late 1990’s small plastic particles are increasing ten fold every two to three years off the coast of Japan. Other evidence given by Moore points to river sampling in California that found approximately 60 tons of plastic debris flowing towards the sea over three days. (C. J Moore, 2008, pp. 131–139)

Microplastics particles are too small to detect with the naked eye. They come from the deterioration of larger plastics, fibres from synthetic clothes and fabric dyes as well as micro-beads found in cosmetics. Due to their microscopic size, these particles become easily available to small organisms such as zooplanktons (heterotrophic aquatic animal micro-organisms). It has been known

66 How Many Plastic Bags Does It Take To Fill A Plastic Bag? Issues Of Scale

for some time that microplastic ingestion has been found inmany marine organisms, including barnacles, mussels, fish and seabirds. But it has only been recently proven with bioimaging techniques such as fluorescence microscopy that zooplanktons not only ingest mircoplastics but also trapped microplastics on external appendages. (N. Hall, K. Berry, L. Rintoul, & M. Hoogenboom, 2015, pp. 725-732.)

Diagram 10: Marine Marine plastic breaks apart like binary ssion plastic breaks down in a manner which is reminiscent of binary fission.

As each piece breaks o due to age and brittleness the plastic becomes smaller. The smaller pieces of plastic also fade, leaking chemicals into the ocean.

Microbead blockages can potentially obstruct digestive tracks and restrict the intake of food as well as introducing toxins into the bodies of these organisms. Since zooplanktons are towards the bottom of the food chain, the impending issues for the biodiversity of the marine environment are catastrophic.

Marine organisms digest plastics and set off a food chain sequence of events. Micro-organisms ingest microplastic and are then eaten by larger organisms that may also ingest larger plastic, which are then in turn consuming larger organisms consuming larger plastics and so it goes on. I refer to this as the plastic ecosystem, a food chain of plastic laden with marine organisms. My work absolute kippleization asks us to consider the scale of the plastic eco-system. It presents a sample of what can be seen and then interprets what we can’t see.

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Figure 40: absolute kippleization (detail) during the September 2017 Post Graduate Conference exhibtion at AD Space.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch was identified as a concept in 1988 to explain the concentration of marine pollution in the Pacific. The name conjures up images of islands of plastic the size of Tasmania floating in the Pacific Ocean. There is an assumption that you can see this Patch from satellite imagery. In reality what is seen on the ocean is a plethora of plastic scattered over the North Pacific Ocean. Most of the debris is not visible by sight, but is afloat below the surface of the water.

Whenever I discuss my work with an interested party, I am immediately asked about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Large plastic containers and old plastic furniture, buoyant on the water’s surface, circling around in a spiral by the currents, is what people imagine marine plastic to look like. They don’t imagine the plastic washed up on their local beach, nor do they think about the abundance of microplastics. BIG objects have BIG impact due to their size; they have a louder voice. They are an agent of noise in the media. Whilst vast and detrimental to the marine environment, it is not as enormous a problem as the microplastics that inhabit our oceans.

My paintings of Plastosessile (Figure 41), blow up these hybrid microscopic forms and provide a detailed cross section of how the

68 How Many Plastic Bags Does It Take To Fill A Plastic Bag? Issues Of Scale

organic and plastic materials have fused. The paintings oscillate between the macro and micro. The large size of the paintings provides glimpses of patterns that would otherwise be invisible to the naked eye. The paintings remind us of the binary fission nature of plastic, the continuous breakdown into something smaller and smaller. Plastosessile’s are the future, they are examples of the first hybrid plastic and organic creatures. They are a nod to the organisms of the Paleozoic Era (the first Cambrian era, the development of multicellular organisms, around 500 million years ago). They are created to remind us that we can’t always see the hyperobject; that occasionally it is too small and too big at the same time.

Figure 41: Plastosessiles (detail), oil on linen, 2017

The problem is, we can’t see the microscopic. Microplastics lack the theatrics of the plastic gyres imagined by the public. When the size of something is smaller than a speck of dust, does that mean it is not there? No, but it does mean we can either ignore it or remain ignorant of its existence. This inability to witness something disorients our ability to visually perceive its presence. Microplastics exist in the in-between of the plastic ecosystem, they float in the water, imperceptible to large organisms but tantalising to those that can detect them. They are as unobtrusive as the water in which they float and as conspicuous as a mountain, if they could be assembled. They are - in effect - abstract to the naked eye.

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CASE STUDY: Shimpei Takeda

Shimpei Takeda’s Trace (2012), (Figure 42 - 44) is a series of radiographs investigating the scale of contamination in soil in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant meltdown. This hauntingly beautiful work is disturbingly sinister as radioactive light particles are dispersed across the image like stars in the night sky. Each image is an apparition of the intangible aftermath of nuclear fallout. Takeda’s work not only reminds us of the event but also asks us to consider the length of time it takes for land to heal after the devastation caused by the Tōhoku earthquake, which triggered a tsunami, that damaged the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and resulted in nuclear contamination.

Takeda’s use of data is unusual because the data (evidence) is the subject matter. There is no analysis or interpretation of information involved in the creation of this work. Instead each image glows to the brightness of radio activity, a Geiger counter recording the scale of devastation and contamination in each area from which the soil has come. Understanding that gamma rays and visible light work in a similar way to traditional photographic processes Takeda decided to physically record the radiation data. Takeda collected 12 soil samples from five different prefectures near Fukishma. He chose each site based on its unique links to life and death via shrines, temples, and memorials. Including his birthplace Sukagawa City which is 40 miles away from Fukishima. Like Takeda’s Trace, the notion of evidence as subject matter is directly used in absolute kippleization. The collection of seemingly mundane objects, documented at the beach and then

Image removed Image removed due to Copyright due to Copyright

Figure 42 & 43: Trace #7, Nihonmatsu Castle, and Trace #9, Asaka Kuni-tsuko Shrine, 2012, radiograph, Gelatin silver print. http://www.shimpeitakeda.com

70 How Many Plastic Bags Does It Take To Fill A Plastic Bag? Issues Of Scale

classified into both colour and object relativity. This way of working mimics scientific methodology to communicate issues of magnitude and the appalling conditions of marine environments.

Working like a scientist Takeda, has each soil sample tested for radiation with a Geiger counter. The levels are tested at 120cm above the ground and directly at ground level to ensure accuracy. Back in his studio, Takeda places film over the contaminated soil, allowing the radioactive particles in the soil to generate an exposure. This process (Figure 45) takes over a month to record the image. The brighter the image the more contaminated the soil and the more disturbingly beguiling.

Trace, is subtle in its representation of the catastrophe from the Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant meltdown. The use of camera-less photographic techniques and contaminated organic matter is compelling not just because it communicates ideas about scale and the far-reaching effects of nuclear catastrophe, nor because the images are disturbing and beautiful but because the images come from what should be life-sustaining soil. Like plastic, the poisonous fallout from such catastrophes has a long temporal existence, lasting a long time into the future. I am interested in the captivating subtlety of Takeda’s work. There is an ephemeral beauty to his images that reminds of the Plastosessile paintings. Both sets of images deal with catastrophe without evangelisation, but with tormenting allure.

Image removed Image removed due to Copyright due to Copyright

Figure 44: Trace #16, Lake Hayama (Mano Dam), 2012, Figure 45: Soil sample in light box radiograph, Gelatin silver print demonstrating the process. http://www.shimpeitakeda.com http://www.shimpeitakeda.com

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CASE STUDY: Chris Jordon

Chris Jordon’s photographic and digital imagery, like absolute kippleization, holds up a mirror reflecting the excessive scale of human consumerism (especially in the US). Photographing dead bird carcasses filled with plastic bottle lids, straws, twine and syringes or digitally depicting 320,000 light bulbs to explain the use of electricity Jordon’s work challenges its audience. His work is not allegorical or poetic, nor does it offer optimism or invention, instead he focuses on documented images that are raw with reality. They are created to rub salt into the wounds of our complicit behavior and the destruction of natural habitats…they are discomforting, grotesque, and accusatorial. Jordan asks his audiences to become accountable for the cumulative effects of unconscious behaviours.

Jordan’s work directly references the materials or statistics he is communicating. Whilst his work Paper Cups (2008) is not made from 410,000 paper cups equal to the number of disposable hot-beverage paper cups used in the US every fifteen minutes, the digital replication of one cup 410,000 times invokes incredulousness. At a distance, the image is an abstracted and impersonal depiction of white and grey lines. It is only at close viewing that you comprehend the subject and scale of the raw data he is representing. Using digital imagery Jordan relies on what is real to effect change. In fact his work whilst not made from the actual materials (in this case, paper cups), is a reflection of capitalist materiality in which everything is transformed into material production and

Image removed Image removed due to Copyright due to Copyright

Figure 46 & 47: Paper Cups, 2008, 60x96”, from Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait, digital print http://www.chrisjordan.com

72 How Many Plastic Bags Does It Take To Fill A Plastic Bag? Issues Of Scale

commodification. Midway: Message from the Gyre (2009-to date) is an ongoing photographic documentary project depicting dead carcasses of baby albatrosses. Inside the stomach contents of these dead birds are lethal quantities of domestic and industrial waste. Whilst these images are graphic and detailed still-life photographs, they feel surreal as we are confronted with the grim reality of indigestible debris inside what should be a noble and majestic bird. The feathers and bones of the birds are limp, dirty and rotten. They contrast with the perversely bright-coloured plastic left in the remains of the stomach. The intention of this work is to ask us to contemplate the weight of our responsibility and to give a voice to the non-human.

“Like the albatross, we first-world humans find ourselves lacking the ability to discern anymore what is nourishing from what is toxic to our lives and our spirits.” Jordan, C. http://www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/midway/#about

Anthropogenic climate change has become a reality that cannot be ignored. As humans we are complicit in changing the atmosphere, geology and biology of earth. We are faced with the fallout and turmoil that will determine the anthropocene epoch. Consumed with a meta-species way of thinking, politicians struggle to form policy, industry is slow to implement renewable energies, western governments fail to acknowledge responsibility towards vulnerable countries and people immobilised with fear. As artists we can respond to these enormous and often terrifying admissions through inventiveness, exploration, collaboration and a new approach to materiality; an ecological materiality.

Image removed Image removed due to Copyright due to Copyright

Figure 48 & 49: Midway: Message from the Gyre, 2009 - current, digital prints, http://www.chrisjordan.com

73 Conclusion

Throughout the process of undertaking this research I have been bombarded with newspaper articles and podcast links on various kinds of marine pollution from supportive friends and family. Each exposé I have read or listened to has presented knowledge with very little in way of a solution, often leading to many moments of eco-pessimism and feelings of despair. However, I have been left with some optimism and believe that cross-disciplinary engagement is going to be crucial in dealing with the consequences of anthropogenic climate change. Politics, science and the arts will need to look to one another to implement effective policies, develop new technologies and provide positive platforms for discourse and social change. I have demonstrated that in order to make artworks that deal with these complexities, an understanding of the science and evidence is necessary.

Focusing my research into one consequence of anthropogenic climate change - plastic marine pollution - not only demonstrated the enormity of the problems our world faces, but also facilitated an understanding about how careless we are as a species. As I gathered evidence (collecting and documenting plastic debris in the littoral zone of Congwong Beach) to provide a framework for making absolute kippleization, I contemplated how to make work which expressed these issues without the evangelical maxims often linked to environmentalism. I wanted to make work which balanced science and dogma. My work needed to develop from the more literal and realistic art making traditions found in the Tangled paintings into something that could provide illusion and metaphor. I found this possible by using the lures of colour, texture, collection and craftsmanship. Ultimately, I make work with a thin veil of beauty masking the crude and relentless dispersion of rubbish. However, it was hard not be overwhelmed. When making The Plastosystem I allowed myself to explore environmental issues by combing James Lovelock’s Gaia theory with science fiction. When I pondered the ability of Gaia to repair and evolve in a post human world, I found I could escape nihilism by imagining a future full of new forms of

74 life.

The artists that I chose to focus on represent a cross section of investigation into issues of climate change, ecology, and the Anthropocene. And like each of these artists, I have examined how science, materiality and scale become manifest in communicating these issues. In my work, I have used scientific methods to generate data on the volume of marine plastics, and in turn used this data to create artworks — absolute kippleization and The Plastosystem — which emphasise the immeasurable scale of plastic and conceptualise this problem. Through re-purposing plastic bags and collecting marine plastic, I have directly engaged in the material nature of plastic. Both absolute kippleization and The Plastosystem do include other materials and mediums but ultimately explore the transformation of a material that represents commodification and consumerist inertia towards the environment. The materials allow each artwork to intimate the disintegration and erosion of current ecosystems, highlighting the Anthropocene.

I have discussed the scale of plastic in terms of Timothy Morton’s hyperobject. The magnitude of marine plastic debris lends itself to the hyperobject’s immeasurability and this notion I explore in my work. While making The Plastosystem, I found that there was a link between the material (the plastic bag) and the making process, altering my perception of scale and connecting the changing material directly to the breaking down of plastic objects into mircoplastics. Morton’s hyperobject is difficult to envisage and just like marine plastic pollution we need to rely on a combination of imagination and facts. It is a place where evidence and anecdote meet. This is from where the notion of conceptual scale emanates.

I have chosen to format this exegesis as a science textbook with diagrams, to claim knowledge as an artist on subjects that traditionally fall into the realms of science. This format directly engages with my conception of the cloak of science and has given my art and writing the look of serious

75 endeavour, enforcing the perception of authority as we grapple with implications of anthropogenic climate change. This parody postulates facts whilst disguising value and sentiment. It highlights the links between fact and fiction, evidence and interpretation, and prediction and speculation.

When making absolute kippleization, I learnt that through combining data, collection and evidence, I could communicate ideas about materiality, consumption, the Anthropocene, marine environments and science. This process led me to The Plastosystem and addressing complex scientific ideas in the age of Anthropocene with metaphor. The metaphor for the calm after the storm, a place of withered beauty and regeneration; a gentle reminder of the precarious use of the earth’s ecosystem and so too our fate.

“Don’t think of humans as evil. We may seem to be Gaia’s naughty children but think of the sculptor at work in his studio, as he chips away at the slab of raw rock. Exquisite art emerges, and the floor around grows untidy with the chippings.”

J. Lovelock, 2016, p. xi.

76 77 Appendix

Plastic data collected from the littoral zone of Congwong Beach March 2016 - March 2017

lids 38mm x 15mm 159 Clear plastic lids 40mm wide 10 pop bottle tops 33 Plastic Weight Amount dummy 1 chapstick 2 unidentified plastic pieces 1678g tampon applicator 1 jelly tubes 8 golf ball 3 eye wash containers 18 peg 10 measure cups 2 toy soldier 1 make up bottles 4 deodorant 1 fish lure 2 caulking nozzle 1 bubble bottle 1 make up tube 1 lip gloss container 1 little bottles 4 unidentified lids 95 pump spout 1 sports lid covers 47 toothpaste 2 lids 38mm wide 22 fishing floats 4 lids 30mm wide 50 rope pieces 6 bottle top covers 25mm wide 75 forks 47 dummy cover 1 knives 11 fruit cup 1 sppons 25 bottle tops 30mm wide 62 sticks 135 golf ball 1 bottle rings 39 peg 1 Cigarette lighters 11 toy baby 1 White Straws 84 jelly cups 8 White Straws with blue and red stripe 1 caulking nozzle 3 White Straws with red stripes 2 tic tac container 1 White Straws with pink and blue stripes 1 tile spaces 51 MacDonalds Straws 137 bubble blower 1 lid rings 4 Clear Straws 76 Clear Straws with white stripes 3 Grey plastic Clear Straws with red stripes 1 Clear Straws with green stripes 1 Plastic Weight Amount

unidentified plastic pieces 347g plastic washers 18 White plastic lids 35mm wide 5 lids 45mm wide 2 Plastic Weight Amount unidenitifed lids 12

unidentified plastic pieces 823g mesh 2 eye wash containers 1 pens 2 pregnancy tester 1 coffee cup lid 1 bubble blower 1 ping pong ball 1 unidentified lids 59 spray lids 13

78 Kipple data from Congwong Beach

Black plastic Yellow plastic

Plastic Weight Amount Plastic Weight Amount unidentified plastic pieces 1096g unidentified plastic 620g reflectors 4 spoon 1 spoons 5 scoop 1 fork 1 bubble blower 2 pens 6 tent pegs 3 silly glasses 1 banana 2 lip gloss containers 3 pen 1 mesh 1 toy fish 1 party poppers 3 fish lure 1 toy spider 1 cone 1 sticks 2 pegs 6 string 1 tile wedges 5 balls 2 golf tee 1 pacer refills container 1 nerf gun pellet 2 plastic washers 5 balls 2 hair combs 3 straps 2 unidentified lids 69 glue stick 1 sports drinks lids 22 bottle 1 lids 45mm wide 45 pieces of rope 5 lids 30mm wide 70 party popper 2 Cigarette lighters 6 reflectors 3 Straws 79 spider 1 dental gloss 1 choppa chop sticks 37 kinder surprise containers 14 Brown plastic eye 1 40mm x 10mm lids 22 30mm x 15mm lids 17 Plastic Weight Amount unidentified lids 34 glow sticks 92 unidentified plastic pieces 97g Cigarette lighters 5 sun tan oil container 4 Yellow Straws 41 small bottle 2 Yellow Straws with red stripes 12 pen 1 Yellow Straws with green stripes 2 comb 2 fish lure 1 party popper 1 lip gloss container 1 Gold plastic unidentified lids 13 cork screws 8 mid brown lids 38mm wide 13 Plastic Weight Amount dark brown lids 38mm wide 29 light brown lids 38mm wide 8 unidentified plastic pieces 35g plastic strip tape 1

79 Appendix

Blue - green bottle 1 Green plastic Blue - green tampon apllicator 3 Blue - green pegs 3 Plastic Weight Amount Blue - green pill box 1 Blue - green dummy 1 unidentified plastic 565g Blue - green ribbon 4 Party poppers 7 Blue - green strip 1 Screws 14 Blue - green 30mm lids 19 Tile Wedges 36 Blue - cyan unidentified plastic 75 Pegs 15 Blue - cyan peg 1 Dental floss 2 Blue - cyan kids shovel 1 Nerf Gun Pellets 2 Blue - cyan lid rings 12 Glow stick lures 2 Blue - cyan party popper 1 Toys 4 Blue - cyan fish lure 1 Fishing beads 5 Blue - cyan dental floss 1 Pieces of rope 5 Blue - cyan 30mm pen 1 115 tooth brushes 2 Blue - dark unidentified plastic fake plants 6 330 toy soldier 5 Blue - dark comb 1 lego 1 Blue - dark pegs 4 Christmas decoration 1 Blue - dark tile wedges 4 sherbert scoop 2 Blue - dark Vicks Inhaler 1 shaver 1 Blue - dark pen 1 fish lure 1 Blue - dark rope 2 chapstick 1 Blue - dark ball 1 sppons 2 Blue - dark party popper 1 hair roller 1 Blue - dark lid rings 49 toggle toggle 1 Blue - dark unidentified lids 33 fake finger 1 Blue - mid unidentified lids 57 lid rings 8 Blue - light unidentified lids 2 popper lid 1 Blue - cyan unidentified lids 27 Green 30mm x 15mm lids 13 Blue - dark 30mm x 15mm lids 105 Green 40mm x 15mm lids 8 Blue - mid 30mm x 15mm lids 119 Green 20mm x 15mm lids 13 Blue - light 30mm x 15mm lids 106 Green 40mm x 10mm lids 36 Blue - cyan 30mm x 15mm lids 19 Green unidentified lids 34 Blue - green 30mm x 15mm lids 19 Green sports lids 6 Blue - dark 40mm x 15mm lids 50 Cigarette lighters 10 Blue - light 40mm x 15mm lids 8 Green Straws 22 Blue - dark 30mm x 10mm lids 104 Green Straws with white stripes 3 Blue - mid 30mm x 10mm lids 85 Blue - grey cap lids 12 Blue sports drink tops 12 Cigarette lighters 9 Blue plastic Blue Straws 52 Blue Straws with white stripes 14 Plastic Weight Amount

Blue - grey unidentified plastic 110 Blue - grey lid rings 3 Blue - grey golf tee 1 Blue - grey pegs 7 Blue - grey scopp 1 Blue - grey caps 12 Ventilin 1 Blue - green unidentified plastic 79g

80 Kipple data from Congwong Beach

monopoly house 1 Purple plastic ball 1 sherbert scoop 1 Plastic Weight Amount spring ring 1 araldite 1 unidentified plastic 39g paw paw ointment 1 grape bunch 1 mesh 1 string 1 ropes 2 pen 1 float 1 lid rings 8 buoy floats 6 40mm x 15mm lids 10 party poppers 7 30mm x 15mm lids 11 soy sauce fish with lids 51 unidentified lids 15 soy sauce fish lids 85 Purple Straws 3 unidentified lids 102 purple Straws with white stripes 1 lids 38mm wide 22 lids 30mm wide 174 spoons 23 Cigarette lighters 6 Pink plastic Red Straws 58

Plastic Weight Amount unidentified plastic 123g Orange plastic dummies/pacifier 4 sherbert scoop 1 Plastic Weight Amount toy spoon 1 toy ring 1 Orange unidentified plastic 376g toy key 1 Fishing floats 5 pegs 4 Fishing lure 1 hair comb 1 Pieces of rope 8 hair clip 1 Scoop 1 chapstick 1 Tile wedges 2 40mm x 15mm lids 6 sherbert sppon 1 30mm x 15mm lids 13 ping pong ball 1 unidentified lids 13 toy pool ball 1 lid rings 3 toy screw 1 Cigarette lighters 4 peg 1 Pink Straws 52 sunscreen tube 1 syringes 16 syringe lids 6 lid rings 19 Red plastic unidentified lids 8 40mm x 15mm lids 5 Plastic Weight Amount 40mm x 10mm lids 61 35mm x 5mm lids 9 30mm x 10mm lids 17 unidentified plastic 599g Cigarette lighters 4 toy gun pellets 10 Orange Straws 17 lid rings 29 tile wedges 6 chapstick 1 pegs 7 pens 3 toothbrush 1 dental floss 2 golf tee 1 lego pieces 2

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