Aim

To create a fossil artefact that would facilitate conversation about the future state of plastic in the world and our deep time footprints.

Precedents

Ideas from Jazvac’s Plastiglomerate (2013) that plastic is a part of our geological record are built on in this experiment to consider the geological imprints these plastics will leave in our world.

Methods

To create this fossil, samples of the warped plastic were 3D scanned (Figure 23). This scan was then imported into 3D modelling software, where an impression or cavity of this original scan was created (Figure 24). It was here that I ran into some technical difficulties in building this cavity, as well as concerns over how this 3D model would then eventually be 3D printed.

Reflection

While this experiment did consider more creative methods of communication, I wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea of creating more objects to critique the waste of our existing ones. As such, this experiment was deemed an exercise for thinking through more material ways of communicating and eventually abandoned.

Insights

Although dissatisfied with these means of making, this lens of deep, geological, future time—and framing the plastic through these stories—was intriguing. These were concepts that I wanted to unpack and explore further.