THE NUTSHELL ARTS CENTRE - Design for Social Media, Web & Print.

CHRISTMAS CARDS - Design & Photography

LIFESTYLE PHOTOGRAPHY - Hannah Castleman

MAKERS MARKET AT THE NUTSHELL - Marketing Content

THE SPITFIRE SISTERS - Styling, Photography & Design

PETER SYMONDS COLLEGE ADULT & HIGHER EDUCATION - Marketing Design

ACADEMIC WRITING - Thesis Extract

THE PLASTICS MAN                                                                           

“This creature of our imagination, this “Plastic Man,” will come into a world of colour and bright shining surfaces, where childish hands find nothing to break, no sharp edges or corners to cut or graze, no crevices to harbour dirt or germs…As he grows up he cleans his teeth and brushes his hair with plastic brushes with plastic bristles, clothes himself in plastic clothes of synthetic silk and wears shoes of plastic…in his home he still finds the universal plastic environment…In industry it will be the same story, in fact the manufacturer of the future will say, not “of what material shall I make this article?” but “what kind of plastic shall I use?”…”

(Yarsley and Couzens, 1941: 155-158)

British chemists Victor Emmanuel Yarsley and Edward Gordon Couzens prophecised the future of their plastic man with disturbing accuracy. Taking a moment to gaze upon the surroundings of this plastic woman, seventy three years later, one would find these words being typed on a rounded and worn plastic keyboard (a copolymer of Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) that sits upon a waxy vinyl coated tablecloth (to protect the hand crafted oak table beneath) beside the author who is fully clothed in viscose and modal blend machine woven garments. This author lives well and truly within the Plastic Age, an era defined as much by its material innovation as the Stone and Iron Ages. And yet, even after a lifetime of exposure to plastics as predicted, if asked: What does plastic look like? Or how does plastic behave? Preparing a concise answer would be understandably challenging. 

The initial obstacle lies in understanding the question. ‘Plastic’, after all is fundamentally used to describe a material property. Originating from the Greek ‘Plastikos’ meaning ‘to form,’ to be plastic is to be pliably formed through moulding, casting or extrusion and to be capable of retaining this form once hardened. Since its earliest uses in the English language from the sixteenth century the use of the term plastic has been transformed from adjective to noun, functioning as a collective name for materials with plasticity (Williamson, 1994). The suitability of this umbrella term has been challenged on numerous occasions; Colin J. Williamson, contributing author of The Development of Plastics,states that the first year of the British Plastics and Moulded Products Trader journal, published in 1929, was dominated by discussions on the renaming of plastic so as to be well understood by the general public (1994). Suggestions for alternative names included Korox, Synthoid and PUCCA (an inspired acronym of Phenol, Urea, Cresol, Casein and Acetate) and yet none of these were deemed adequate. Eventually, in 1951 the British Standards Institute and British Plastics Federation formally settled on the pluralisation of ‘plastic’ to ‘plastics’.

While it is commonly assumed that plastics were not prevalent until the mid twentieth century, around the time of Yarsely and Couzen’s publication, natural materials with plasticity have been used throughout ancient history. As early as the sixth century the Ancient Egyptians used a natural protein now known as Casein as a fixative coating on their paintings (Plastics Historical Society, 2011). In more recent history, the moulding of organic polymers such as beeswax, resinous caoutchouc and horn was favoured over traditional labour intensive production methods in order to produce multiples at a reduced price for the less affluent. This capacity to produce more, quicker and cheaper is “the prime motivating force behind the development of plastics and the plastics industry as we know them today” (Williamson, 1994: 4). 

As the story of plastics steps away from the use of materials with natural plasticity toward the invention of fully synthetic plastics, it becomes increasingly a tale of alchemy and imitation. Environmental activists such as Williams Haynes recognised the relentless strain placed on natural polymers to meet demands and encouraged the race for synthetic alternatives. He states, “the use of chemical substitutes releases land or some natural raw material for other more appropriate or necessary employment” (Haynes 1936:155). Thus, spurred by increased funding, chemists working in Europe and America began to experiment with the production of semi-synthetic polymers for applications such as electrical insulation, photographic film and billiard balls (as described colourfully by Mark Miodownik in chapter six of Stuff Matters). In 1862, Alexander Parkes the father of semi-synthetic Celluloid, successfully exhibited the first collection of impressive Parkesine artefacts, a small selection of which is currently on show at London’s science museum as part of an exhibition celebrating Parkes’ 200thbirthday. Unfortunately, Parkesine was not set for commercial success due to its explosive nature, but it laid the foundations for further synthetic exploration. Soon after, in 1907, Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland produced the first fully synthetic thermosetting plastic, a phenol-formaldehyde resin known as Bakelite: the material of 1000 uses.

First generation synthetic plastics had an enduring effect on the way future generations would think about plastics. In so many instances synthetic plastics were invented as a means to imitate another material, invented primarily to be ‘like’ a natural substance that was in high demand. As stated by Roland Barthes, early plastics were considered inferior to their counterparts; he suggests plastics “belonged to the world of appearances, not to that of actual use” (2000: 98). Plastics have never portrayed authenticity, as Barthes elaborates, “In the hierarchy of the major poetic substances, it figures as a disgraced material, lost between the effusiveness of rubber and the flat hardness of metal; it embodies none of the genuine produce of the mineral world: foam, fibre, strata” (2000: 98). Instead, plastics were associated with falsehood and in opposition to materials that are considered pure, true or transcendent. It is evident that this comparison remains a public conception today where plastic flowers, breast implants and false teeth are deemed not quite the real thing. The conviction has been firmly established in linguistics where phrases such as ‘cheap and plastic-y’ refer to items that are prone to breaking and a person might be referred to as plastic to stress their superficiality. Whilst early synthetic plastics instigated this perception of inferiority it is also crucial to highlight that in doing so, they became more socially inclusive than their pricier counterparts, particularly during times of economic hardship. In contemporary Britain, while it is generally agreed that plastic items are of inferior quality to their wood or metal equivalents, these same plastic commodities make up a significant proportion of contemporary material culture. 

WINCHESTER JAZZ FESTIVAL

- Branding, Photography & Design examples, 2016-2019.

PETER SYMONDS COLLEGE ADULT & HIGHER EDUCATION

- Brochure Design

PETER SYMONDS COLLEGE ADULT & HIGHER EDUCATION - World Poetry Day Social Media Campaign.

PETER SYMONDS COLLEGE - Salon Identity & Price List

PETER SYMONDS COLLEGE ADULT & HIGHER EDUCATION

- Virtual Open Event Website Co-ordination and Design (Screenshots) - www.ahedopenevent.co.uk. Video’s Filmed by tutors.

INFORMAL WRITING - extract from personal travel blog

(…) After a little research I stumbled across the website for the Uacari Floating Jungle Lodge, an eco lodge positioned in a bend of the Japurá River in the Amazon basin. Unlike many of the lodges in the Amazon, Pousada Uacari is floating, meaning that it rises and falls with the dramatically changing water levels that are characteristic of the region. Situated within the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve, parts of the forest around Pousada Uacari are flooded seasonally. Water levels here can rise and fall 10-12m over the course of the year, creating one of the Amazons most unique eco-systems that plays host to an astonishing array of wildlife. During my visit in January, water levels were low and it was stunning to see the marks left by the river only a few months previously on the trees towering above us. 

In order to reach Pousada Uacari, visitors pass through Tefé (by ferry or plane from Manaus), where they are met and transferred to the lodge by boat, a journey that takes about an hour. The lodge itself consists of 5 floating cabins each with two bedrooms and bathrooms as well as a large communal dining space, which also hosts a research station upstairs. Staying in one such floating hut has some serious perks, such as swinging in a hammock during the heat of the day whilst caiman nonchalantly swim past in search of lunch. There aren't many creature comforts in these cabins, with the exception of a tiny daily allocation of electricity which is wisely spent on a fan over the bed in the evening and a flushing toilet, but there are no complaints. As night draws in the reserve falls into complete darkness, with just the light of the stars above and the hum of the nocturnal residents in the surrounding forest. 

During my stay, the research station played host to staff from the Jaguar Conservation Alliance who enthusiastically recounted tales over breakfast from their nightly excursions in search of Jaguars. The Mamirauá reserve has one of the highest densities of Jaguars in the world, making it a unique location for experts in the field. The lodge now runs expeditions specifically focused on spotting these fantastic big cats, but these tours only run when the river is high when the animals are forced off the ground to hunt into the trees, thus making them easier to spot. In line with the ethos of the lodge, the profit made from these expeditions is used to fund the scientific research taking place on site.

The variety of wildlife that I saw at Pousada Uacari was phenomenal, ranging from the beautiful Amazonian kingfisher to sleepy looking sloths and from enormous pirarucu fish to river dolphins. The lodge is named after one of the areas endemic species, the white Uacari monkey which we were lucky enough to spot on our last day of exploring the region. With white fur and an angry-looking red face this monkey is also referred to as the English monkey, due to its visual comparison to a white man that has been in the Brazilian sun too long! The success of our excursions was entirely down to the sharp eye of the guides (both those from the local community and further afield) who were extraordinarily knowledgeable and generous with their time. Throughout my stay I got the overwhelming impression that every member of staff was fully committed to the success of the lodge, which is managed in joint partnership between the Mamirauá Institute and the ten communities that live within the reserve, who work as managers, guides, contractors and salespeople. 

Needless to say, this was a once-in-a-lifetime trip. Once again I got home from the Amazon planning to return for an extended period, albeit this time with my anthropologists hat on.