DESMA 9 Event 2 | Ecology + Art (Jessica Irish)

I attended the Ecology + Art event by Jessica Irish on the 12th of May. We had the opportunity to watch her short film, “This Mortal Plastik”, how she developed the project, and what drove her towards working on this project. The film provided a great insight into the role that plastics play in society today, considering the various shapes and forms that it can take, and also briefly explained how they rose to prominence in society. The link between plastics and whales, which was driven by Jessica’s personal reasons to make the film, helped add another perspective that further highlighted the issues that plastics pose in today’s society.


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The tying in of whales to the creation of plastic, as well as our methods of disposing of plastics stood out to me the most. The cycle starts with the extraction of petroleum, which is derived from fossil fuels deep beneath the ocean that are composed of living things that have been decomposed for many years. This petroleum is then used to create plastics, which after their use are discarded into the same oceans that we obtain petroleum from. This cycle highlights some of the main issues that come with our reliance on plastic: reliance on fossil fuels, as well as the high levels of pollution that plastics create. According to the IUCN, every year around 14 million tonnes of plastic (out of the 300 million produced yearly) end up in the ocean, and these contribute to 80% of marine pollution ¹. 


As a part of the short film, there were some depictions of some of the molecules that constitute plastics. These were pretty interesting to see, as the chemical structures of such molecules often contain artistic value in itself. This is especially due to the fact that the smallest change in the placement of any one molecule can change the entire chemical identity and properties. This is due to the chemical property called isomers, which means that while two chemicals might constitute the same components, they can “look” and behave differently ². 


Image of a Plastic Molecule


Lastly, one of the things that stuck with me was a quote from Neil Postman’s “Technopoly'' that Jessica presented, which states that “Technological change is neither additive nor subtractive. It is ecological” ³. This is definitely something that we see reflected in any part of our world that interacts with technology, for instance, medicine (things like X-rays), finance (cryptocurrency), etc. 


The quote by Neil Postman that Jessica shared



Sources:

  1. “Marine Plastic Pollution.” IUCN, 17 Nov. 2021, www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/marine-plastic-pollution. 

  2. “Hydrocarbon Structures and Isomers.” Khan Academy, Khan Academy, www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/properties-of-carbon/hydrocarbon-structures-and-functional-groups/a/hydrocarbon-structures-and-isomers.

  3. Postman, Neil. Technopoly: the Surrender of Culture to Technology. New York: Knopf, 1992.

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