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7
Leaves
Category: RE-act
1006
Title:
Leaves
Leaves
Author:
Keeley Haftner
Keeley Haftner
Category:
RE-act
RE-act
Description:
Leaves is a collection of over one hundred 3D-printed maple leaves made from disposable cups which were littered site-specifically in Montréal in Parc Jarry for an exhibition with Studio XX. The cups used to make these 3D prints are made of PLA (polylactic acid)—a polymer derived from corn sugar through a fermentation process that has been designed to be compostable at an industrial scale. Under the right conditions (high temperature, condensation, microbes) they may break down, but without such conditions they are similar to ordinary plastics. PLA is the most commonly used 3D printing material, and yet I have discovered through intensive research that the industrial compost facilities where these plastics are meant to decompose often won’t accept it because it doesn’t break down fast enough. It contaminates the soil they produce. Yet more and more cafés and beverage companies are using this plastic as a means to placate eco-conscious consumers who feel good about reading “compostable” on their cups, even when they are throwing it in landfill bins where it will never decompose. By collecting these used cups, washing them, drying them, shredding them, extruding them, and 3D printing them into naturalistic forms like leaves, I attempt to further muddy the concept of these plastics by making them appear even “more natural.” Littering these leaves in public complicates the work further: if these objects are natural, as their advertising claims, than putting them in the park is like a return to habitat – organic material going back into a so-called “natural” context. If, however, they are “unnatural”, i.e. not belonging to nature, then they are just another plastic/synthetic material not at home in the environment, and the act was littering. This poetic act interrogates the false nature-culture binary that has led to many of the ecological issues we find ourselves dealing with in the twenty-first century. The complexity of PLA and its physical-formal properties is such grey and complex territory that it is nearly impossible to make oversimplified assertions about what it actually is. The binary of nature and culture has broken down to irrelevancy. In this productive terrain we can assess the oversimplified ways in which we view the disposable objects we interact with: where they come from, what they are, and where they will go.
Leaves is a collection of over one hundred 3D-printed maple leaves made from disposable cups which were littered site-specifically in Montréal in Parc Jarry for an exhibition with Studio XX. The cups used to make these 3D prints are made of PLA (polylactic acid)—a polymer derived from corn sugar through a fermentation process that has been designed to be compostable at an industrial scale. Under the right conditions (high temperature, condensation, microbes) they may break down, but without such conditions they are similar to ordinary plastics. PLA is the most commonly used 3D printing material, and yet I have discovered through intensive research that the industrial compost facilities where these plastics are meant to decompose often won’t accept it because it doesn’t break down fast enough. It contaminates the soil they produce. Yet more and more cafés and beverage companies are using this plastic as a means to placate eco-conscious consumers who feel good about reading “compostable” on their cups, even when they are throwing it in landfill bins where it will never decompose. By collecting these used cups, washing them, drying them, shredding them, extruding them, and 3D printing them into naturalistic forms like leaves, I attempt to further muddy the concept of these plastics by making them appear even “more natural.” Littering these leaves in public complicates the work further: if these objects are natural, as their advertising claims, than putting them in the park is like a return to habitat – organic material going back into a so-called “natural” context. If, however, they are “unnatural”, i.e. not belonging to nature, then they are just another plastic/synthetic material not at home in the environment, and the act was littering. This poetic act interrogates the false nature-culture binary that has led to many of the ecological issues we find ourselves dealing with in the twenty-first century. The complexity of PLA and its physical-formal properties is such grey and complex territory that it is nearly impossible to make oversimplified assertions about what it actually is. The binary of nature and culture has broken down to irrelevancy. In this productive terrain we can assess the oversimplified ways in which we view the disposable objects we interact with: where they come from, what they are, and where they will go.
Description:
Leaves is a collection of over one hundred 3D-printed maple leaves made from disposable cups which were littered site-specifically in Montréal in Parc Jarry for an exhibition with Studio XX. The cups used to make these 3D prints are made of PLA (polylactic acid)—a polymer derived from corn sugar through a fermentation process that has been designed to be compostable at an industrial scale. Under the right conditions (high temperature, condensation, microbes) they may break down, but without such conditions they are similar to ordinary plastics. PLA is the most commonly used 3D printing material, and yet I have discovered through intensive research that the industrial compost facilities where these plastics are meant to decompose often won’t accept it because it doesn’t break down fast enough. It contaminates the soil they produce. Yet more and more cafés and beverage companies are using this plastic as a means to placate eco-conscious consumers who feel good about reading “compostable” on their cups, even when they are throwing it in landfill bins where it will never decompose. By collecting these used cups, washing them, drying them, shredding them, extruding them, and 3D printing them into naturalistic forms like leaves, I attempt to further muddy the concept of these plastics by making them appear even “more natural.” Littering these leaves in public complicates the work further: if these objects are natural, as their advertising claims, than putting them in the park is like a return to habitat – organic material going back into a so-called “natural” context. If, however, they are “unnatural”, i.e. not belonging to nature, then they are just another plastic/synthetic material not at home in the environment, and the act was littering. This poetic act interrogates the false nature-culture binary that has led to many of the ecological issues we find ourselves dealing with in the twenty-first century. The complexity of PLA and its physical-formal properties is such grey and complex territory that it is nearly impossible to make oversimplified assertions about what it actually is. The binary of nature and culture has broken down to irrelevancy. In this productive terrain we can assess the oversimplified ways in which we view the disposable objects we interact with: where they come from, what they are, and where they will go.
Leaves is a collection of over one hundred 3D-printed maple leaves made from disposable cups which were littered site-specifically in Montréal in Parc Jarry for an exhibition with Studio XX. The cups used to make these 3D prints are made of PLA (polylactic acid)—a polymer derived from corn sugar through a fermentation process that has been designed to be compostable at an industrial scale. Under the right conditions (high temperature, condensation, microbes) they may break down, but without such conditions they are similar to ordinary plastics. PLA is the most commonly used 3D printing material, and yet I have discovered through intensive research that the industrial compost facilities where these plastics are meant to decompose often won’t accept it because it doesn’t break down fast enough. It contaminates the soil they produce. Yet more and more cafés and beverage companies are using this plastic as a means to placate eco-conscious consumers who feel good about reading “compostable” on their cups, even when they are throwing it in landfill bins where it will never decompose. By collecting these used cups, washing them, drying them, shredding them, extruding them, and 3D printing them into naturalistic forms like leaves, I attempt to further muddy the concept of these plastics by making them appear even “more natural.” Littering these leaves in public complicates the work further: if these objects are natural, as their advertising claims, than putting them in the park is like a return to habitat – organic material going back into a so-called “natural” context. If, however, they are “unnatural”, i.e. not belonging to nature, then they are just another plastic/synthetic material not at home in the environment, and the act was littering. This poetic act interrogates the false nature-culture binary that has led to many of the ecological issues we find ourselves dealing with in the twenty-first century. The complexity of PLA and its physical-formal properties is such grey and complex territory that it is nearly impossible to make oversimplified assertions about what it actually is. The binary of nature and culture has broken down to irrelevancy. In this productive terrain we can assess the oversimplified ways in which we view the disposable objects we interact with: where they come from, what they are, and where they will go.
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