Building Theory
This post is basically just musings about my motivations, my material and the rationale for working with algae-based bioplastic. It is just capturing thoughts, things I know, and things I perhaps need to research to develop the context of my work. It’s not meant to be an essay nor impeded by referencing writing, it’s just flowing thoughts to build on!
Motivations
What are my motivations for using algae-based bioplastics?
Algae-based bioplastics are an alternative material that are plant-based, eco-friendly, biodegradable and is recyclable. This is a motivation because the world is saturated with items and substances that just end up littering our planet and choking ecosystems. Why as an artist should we contribute more to this? We should have some accountability, and responsibility for the materials we use and look for alternatives. As such, for me it is important to explore however the algae-based bioplastics. Can it be utilised within my practice? Can it also showcases for other artists an alternative to plastics. They may choose algae-based bioplastic over acrylic. Acrylic takes approximately 250 years to degrade. Farming seaweeds (micro and macro algae) has many benefits (expand)
Conditioning and Possible Detrimental Implications of Good Intentions
In commencing my studies in art, both at Whitecliffe and Toi Ohomai, it was apparent that there was a kind of conditioning that artists must be agents of change, little activists to push boundaries and bring attention to the unethical, the immoral, the injustices and wrongdoings. Create meaningful change, teach the ignorant and arrogant masses the errors of their ways. On the other hand, we are taught to make and engage in capitalist economic system and the rampant culture of consumerism. Make art, make merchandise, generate more ideas to make more, make different, make new, collaborate to make more.
But in doing this, creating works for pleasure or to convey a message are we creating more problems? And considering the materials used by artists to convey these messages, if they are not ecologically friendly, If we are not considering the environment, are we accomplices in the eco-slaughter of our planet? What if we consider we are an accomplice in manslaughter? An accomplice: who helps someone else to commit a crime or to do something morally wrong? (Cambridge dictionary). Accomplices to companies that produce products that are detrimental to our planet in unethical ways, raping our planet such as mining companies. In relation to works that highlight wrongdoings of the past, if they are not made with eco-friendly products are our good intentions in fact part of screwing over future generations but this also includes the decedents of those who have been wronged in the past. Are many artists, not considering the future and the choices that we make. The materials we are creating our well-intentioned messages from adding to the destruction of people, flora, and fauna.
Creation and the Detrimental Effects
As humans, we are born to create. We always have been creators. We exist to procreate. And within that we create ways to survive, we create tools, we create ways to store food (carry bag), we create weapons, we create ways to keep warm and as we have evolved, our creations have become excessive and detrimental to ourselves the earth, and the living organisms we share it with.
Everyone creates in different ways to contribute to society. everyone has a role. Is the artist's role essential? They are so many artists making artworks, abstracts, portraits, making sculptures, installations, and digital works, temporary, and permanent. Within this desire/need to create we need to consider our responsibilities in protecting the earth's ecology.
A sustainable practice, be eco-friendly … paints, solvents, adhesives, sealants, papers, canvases, resins, acrylic, tools…an ongoing list of supplies that may or may not be as good as they seem or we just turn a blind eye. The digital solution? The computer, the display vehicle, the electricity, the mining for the petrochemicals … the resources. The popularity of acrylics and resins; acrylic takes 200 years before it breaks down. Breaks down to what? Every piece of plastic made is still in existence and will be well beyond our lifetimes.
As artists do we need to let go of the idea of our precious creations being permanent, lasting forever? Chefs are able to create masterpieces that are consumed within hours of completion and that’s okay. Chefs seem to accept that creation is more about the experience of taste, smell, and sight. Performance actors there in the moment artists. Visual artists/fine artists often seem to be created from a point of things lasting forever. But why does this need to be the case, why do things need to outlive our lives? Is it to do with the ego? Is it to do with money?
Algae-based bioplastic is something that will degrade over time, much like Eva Hess's works with latex. Does this impermanence really matter? Is it now more important to look at using materials that we know will degrade? Focused more on the experience that the work gives you in that moment or in its life span. People plant beautiful gardens with annuals which only last a year then they die. They do this knowing that they're going to die.
I don't know how long algae bioplastic will last – does this matter?
So why investigate bioplastic as a medium?
Algae is fast-growing and it is responsible for creating about 70% of the earth’s oxygen. Algae is part of the reason we exist today. Could embracing the use of algae help fix some of the problems our earth has? Biofuel, bioplastics, biostimulants, food, and animal feed are among the few things which can be manufactured from algae. It is the fastest growing biomass in the world which flourishes without using land, freshwater or fertiliser.
How eco-friendly is the production and harvesting of agar from red seaweed which is predominantly done around Morocco? Are there any detrimental effects to the harvesting of Agar?
Why is algae relevant?
Originally algae formed from cyanobacteria. Algae created the atmosphere which plants and animals could involve into. It was the catalyst of life on Earth as we know it. Photosynthesis of algae creates oxygen, algae is responsible for creating about 70% of the earth's oxygen. Red algae is the oldest form of algae known. Agar is harvested from certain species of red algae. Algae has a relationship with water given that is the environment it grows. Originally algae formed from cyanobacteria. The connections are in the connection to water, its integral part in creation, and perhaps embracing the use of it as a eco-friendly resource.
Bodies of Water
Water makes up the majority of bodies. Humans are 60 to 90% water. Our planet is about bout 80% water. Bioplastic also has a high percentage of water in its constitution of about 90% water. The water content on Earth remains consistently the same. The earth cycles this water, the water in our bodies, the water in plants, the water and oceans of water. Water is recycled through evaporation, rain, and decomposition. The blood, sweat, urine, amniotic fluids and tears of humans, indeed all creatures, are leaked back into the earth and reformed and reabsorbed into other beings. Eventually, there is this connectivity and unification by water of everything. Everybody else's ancestors flow through us. We are all connected. By this water, everything that is being and that will be. In partly reading Bodies of Water by Astrida Neimanus, I Considered how algae bioplastic brings together some aspects of this cycle. When sitting, algae by plastic will absorb moisture from the atmosphere and through the process of syneresis will release it, particularly when exposed to heat. The liquid that is oozed out will then evaporate back into the atmosphere, which then the algae bioplastic will again absorb when it's wet, as will other living organisms, and their bodies of water will absorb moisture. This becomes its own little loop which you can observe happening in the algae-based bioplastic in a relatively short time span. The tests showing the transference of colour using ink shows how the fluid is shared, which could also be indicative of how water connects us all, that we carry the essence of everything that has been.
“This is a fact of our existence: We are a body of water. On a spiritual level, we acknowledge that the water coursing through our physical being is connected to the rivers, streams, lakes, and oceans: we are kith and kin. When they are polluted and harmed by our careless acts, we suffer with them. When we work to protect and save the waterways, we are healing ourselves.” (Brussat, 2013 Retrieved 7 March 2023 from https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/blogs/posts/body-spirituality/148/i-am-a-body-of-water)
Amniotic Fluid
Algae-based bioplastic work which gave the impression of embryonic growth within amniotic fluid
Consider and explore a connection. The look and life-giving properties. Does the presence of algae in the algae-based bioplastic, the body of water, the bioplastic: material in its embryonic stages of development in as a medium of art and in other fields?
“Given that the surface area of Earth is about 197 million square miles (510 million square kilometers), there's around 37.5 million-billion gallons of water in the atmosphere” https://www.livescience.com/how-much-water-earth-atmosphere
Can the moisture in the atmosphere be likened to amniotic fluid that sustains life within a womb until they move on?
Ephemerality and Immortality
Ephemeral: Lasting for only a short time
Immortal: Living or lasting forever
Consider that algae-based bioplastic is ephemeral in its lifespan as a material, but also immortal in that water contained has and will continue to circulate in and in the Earth’s atmosphere and transfer between living organisms until the end of time.
