Conference
Exhibition 2022
Filippa Pettersson
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Plastic-plastic
In the year of 36 047 Post Organic, termites all over the world are desperate. The plastic which they feed on, once upon a time a seemingly un-endless resource, is getting scarce. Through clever and scientific methods, as well as by collaborating with the cockroaches, they work hard on finding out as much as they can about the Hu-man. The termites’ greatest wish is to understand how plastic once was produced, thereby possibly being able to start their own production of poly-synthetics. The text below is an introduction to a new exhibition coming up at the Royal Museum of Termitology and Plastic-plastic. Text by Kristin Reiman, sculptures by Filippa Pettersson.
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Plastic-plastic: the de- and re-construction of Our Sole Source of Being in the time of Polymer Famine and re-imagining the original maker of the pre-synthetic era
The Termite Folk has been struggling since the early 36 000s p.o. (post-organic) – the once-endless source of plastic has since been on the verge of being completely consumed, resulting in famine, caste extinctions, and forced collaboration with the
Cockroach Kind in search of new plastic sites. Given the dire situation of our species, our leading scientific motivation has become recreating and restarting the production of our sustenance – synthetic polymers – as we believe were once made by the now-extinct Hu-man.
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This exhibit here in the Royal Museum of Termitology and Plastic-plastic presents our latest finds and advancements in the fields of drill-scanning, excro-printing, and Hu-man studies. We cannot believe our luck to have stumbled upon a Major Plastic Site with very insignificant guidance from a Cockroach merely 10 months ago and are overjoyed to present the findings in the form of this exhibition and conference with presentations from top expert Termites.
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THE SITE
The Major Plastic Site was discovered by the Royal Expedition Crew on the 10th of Polystereneber, 36 046, with the guidance – that was actually not really necessary – of Dr. Crumbert Crumbo from the National Cockroach University. Dr. Crumbo, who mainly works in the field of oral history and folk songs, relied on the poetry book and scribble-maps of his grand-grand-grand-...parent who was believed to have been a witness of the last of the Hu-mans.
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The site included the biggest and most whole plastic findings of the last century, the amount and placement of which hints at a former habitat of wealthy and influential individuals, if not even leaders or royals (the hierarchical system of the Hu-mans is still unclear). We can proudly say this is one of the greatest finds from the pre-synthetic era to date.
RESEARCH METHODS
Although the size of the plastic finds could feed a few hundred Termites, we are determined to not opt for quick fixes and delve into research of self-sustaining plastic production instead. There is very little of note from how the Hu-mans manufactured polymers but from the recent developments in the fields of drill-scanning and excro-printing, we have managed to unveil a lot of helpful meta-data from the found relics.
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Drill-scanning
Invented by Prof. Jawson Tooth, drill-scanning has become one of the two main practical research methods in the last decade. Instead of consuming the whole plastic artefact, one uses a drill-implant to bore into the polymer, extracting the knowledge as one would when chewing, only with a significantly smaller consumption rate. It is usually possible to still retain the dimensions of the fragment while gaining almost 100% of the available meta-data of Hu-man activity.
Excro-printing
Excro-printing has come to prevalence in the past 2 years as a way to reproduce the missing physical shape of a drill-scanned remnant. Although rooting in the design sphere as a creative tool in order to create commonplace objects using plastic excrement, it has become an important imagining tool in science after numerous collaborations between the Royal Institute of Plastic Design and the Royal University of Polymeria. The technique’s most notable developer, designer Chewtin Poopenschlag, has been working with the meta-data from drill-scans from the Major Plastic Site to help our Royal Scientists reimagine the found objects in their heyday.
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THE EXHIBITION
The exhibition will present a choice of drill-scanned relics found at the Major Plastic Site, with the support of excro-printed and surface-chewed imaginings of their wholes. In collaboration with the Royal Institute of Hu-manology, we will also proudly present the first imaginings of the Hu-man: the original maker of the pre-synthetic era, as well as exhibit an extensive archive of related folk songs from the department of Oral History and Its Preservation of the National Cockroach University, which is really not necessary, but they were of a very minor help to us in finding the Major Site.
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On the first week of Polyvinyluary, the Royal Conference of Plastic-Plastic 36 047 will take place on the museum site, with presentations from the top drill-scanners, excro-printers, hu-manologists and Cockroaches. The conference will end with a panel talk. Tickets are available at all Polymeria ticket points. Attendance free with the annual Royal Museum of Termitology and Plastic-plastic pass.
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All glory to Plastic and the Termite Queen of Polymeria
