} Society of Materials {
Curated by Manan Pahwa
“During my exchange in the Netherlands, I found my interaction with my surroundings filtered by materials, and began critically probing and analysing. This fascination for materials led to the curation of found objects, alternate materials and processes, exploration of Bio-materials and development of new forms, objects and processes�.
instagram | materionomics
}
Society of Materials
Materials share the same world as us. Where materials and the Society of Materials are as interesting and complicated as the society of people. We just introduce and get you acquainted to some of them so that these two societies can understand and live with each other better.
CONTRAST
ALTERNATE
Here I have tried to pick up daily observations around me and tried to think around them, trying to frame design problems and inquisitive questions to tackle these issues.
Geographical exchange brings a culture shock to everything. I tried to redirect my new found gateway of information by collecting and curating nonconventional materials and products I found during my exchange term.
The questions deal with the material life cycle and their relative product life cycle.
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10-23
COLLECTION
INVESTIGATIONS
This section is as the name suggests, a collection of things I found fascinating at thrift stores and college campuses. These products help me form a bond with the local European context.
This section is a collection of projects I did while I was in my exchange term.
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01
TRAVEL TRAVELLING TICKETS & OV CHIPKAART
While travelling across countries a simple thought occurred... people buy a lot of tickets to reach their respective destinations, using varied forms of transportation - a lot of paper waste is generated through these disposable tickets. An ‘OV chipkaart’ is a travelling card in the Netherlands valid for upto 5 years and can be safely returned to ‘Nederlandse Spoorwegen’ (principal railway operator in the Netherlands). Which one out of these two is better? Can’t there be a ticket which would perish in a short duration? Can we match the material life cycle with the product life cycle?
02
MICROPLASTICS LIQUID DETERGENT PACKAGING
When we wash our clothes, large amounts of micro-plastics invisible to the human eye end up in our oceans. Do we really need to couple it up with detergents packed in plastic pouches?
03
ALUMINIUM CROWN CAPS BEER BOTTLE CAPS
Crown Caps can be either made of steel or aluminium usually with a plastic backing. They’re so small that they go unnoticed by the automatic segregation machines. Do you know how to safely dispose a crown cap? The best way is to collect all of them in a can, and crush it so that the caps are unable to come out of the can. This way every cap will get recycled.
04
STRAWS
A variety of Straws are available in the market. Which one is more sustainable? Do we even question why do straws exist at the first place? Design for Special Needs > Universal Design > ( Design Disaster ?)
05
PRINTED SLIPS GOING PAPERLESS
Over 250 million gallons of oil, 10 million trees and 1 billion gallons of water are consumed each year in the creation of receipts for the United States alone, generating 1.5 billion pounds of waste. NO EASY RECYCLING : Paper receipts contain BPA or Bisphenol A, a plastic component which suspected to cause cancer, obesity, type 2 diabetes, premature puberty, etc. Merely touching a BPA-coated surface exposes you to the substance as it can be absorbed via the skin. What’s worse, you can’t compost BPA-coated paper as it can contaminate groundwater.
06
SPLIFF HOLDER
With legalisation of marijuana in the Netherlands, the industry started making the disposal of products more viable by producing more and more plastic accessories and containers. These single use plastics add on the existing woes of plastic consumption cycle. Can there be a better alternative for single use plastics? Is a system level intervention possible in this case?
07
TEABAG FROM CHINA
What is green for human body, is it also green for nature? While using a conveyor belt, we sometimes forget to do ‘nature centric production’.
08
REUSABLE GROCERY BAG
The reusable plastic bag is made to carry groceries to curb single-use plastic use. To fight against the irresponsible production and consumption, do we really need to manufacture more? Irrespective of the material they are made of, can we utilise the carry bags available already at our homes?
09
SPORK
Amsterdam Centraal is the 25th-busiest railway station in Europe by passengers (67.4 million). Imagine the foot fall in the Albert Heijn supermarket located at the station. These sporks are given away with any sliced fruit you buy. Can there be a rental model for cutlery? Should people start carrying their own sporks?
10
BIODEGRADABLE CIGARETTE FILTERS
Today, 1.1 Billion smokers consume 6 Trillion cigarettes per year. That equates to 18 billion cigarettes every single day, 365 days a year. Cigarette filters are made of a plastic called cellulose acetate. When discarded, cellulose acetate filters can take up to 15 years to degrade. These filters are biodegradable and decompose naturally. They are made from natural, unbleached cellulose, which gives them their beige colour. Why can’t mainstream cigarette manufacturers switch to alternate sustainable materials? How does a cigarette butt become so insignificant in a product’s life cycle that it gets thrown around mindlessly?
11
HOLOGRAPHIC LYCRA
Can this material be used as a new visual representation medium? *Try clicking a picture with your flash on!
12
BIOPLASTIC SPOON CORNSTARCH COMPOSITE
Alternatives to plastic hit the market. In the near future, where population growth will pose a problem of space. There will be a war between food, fuel and material. Will you change your consumption behaviour or switch to bioplastics?
13
COMPOSTABLE PLASTIC BAG
Materials which exceed the balance of their production and destruction lead to the deterioration in the environment. Plastic is one such material which poses a big threat to the environment. Alternatively, if organic waste rots in landfills instead of a composting plant, it produces methane gas which contributes 25x to global warming than CO2. Ever wondered how switching to compostable bag can play a part in systemic lowering of the carbon footprint?
14
RECYCLED FELT SAMPLES
While I attended the global event of Material District in Rotterdam, I came across Recycled Felt. It is a unique upcycled product created from discarded clothing. 1000kg of clothing = 3200 m² of felt ~ 4000 bags. Material courtesy : i-did, Utretch Somebody’s waste is someone else’s treasure. How can we deal with rapid growing Textile waste?
15
SUGARCANE BAGASSE PLATES
Sugarcane Plates are a strong, grease and cut resistant alternative to traditional plastic or polystyrene. Sugarcane fiber products are BPI certified compostable and made from a 100% reclaimed and renewable material. Before industrial revolution, the world used to be a maker’s place. Can we shift from a blind consumer based market to a more aware and involved maker’s market again? Can we normalise composting culture?
16
WOOD FIBRE CUP
I found this cup at a Supermarket in Stuttgart, Germany. After the global uprising against plastic cups, several alternative took away the market. The Wood Fibre cup comes without a plastic lining making it easier to compost. We care about what the perishable cup contains, but do we do the same for the cup?
17
COW INTESTINE LEATHER
‘Billie van Katwijk’ is a leather designer who worked with Cow Intestine leather waste. While I was attending the event Leather Galore at Mediamatic. Leather made from a large waste source of the meat industry - cow stomach. Cow’s stomach and intestines are one of the largest waste of meat-based industry. The materials are directed towards potential leather substitute than ending up as dog’s feed. Can design bridge the gap between alternate materials & process and regional cultural ethos?
18
BIOPLASTIC BOTTLE OPENER
What materials are usually bottle openers made of? This bottle opener is made of a composite (Bio-Glassfibre reinforced PLA) PLA as a material doesn’t hold strength to perform high pressure tasks such as opening a bottle. The glass fibre reinforcement gives it excellent strength and increases the usability spectrum of the product. Is there a new wave of nano/micro structure in manufacturing? How may we reduce the time gap between a laboratory prototype and a successful market replacement? Material courtesy : Arctic Biomaterials, Finland
19
MUMMIA
While I was attending a workshop at Mediamatic, a bio-art residency in Amsterdam, I crossed paths with Dr. Daniel Soliman. Mummy, often sold as “mummia” was applied to the skin or powdered and mixed into drinks as a treatment for bruising and other ailments. Mummia became such big business that there was a trade in fake mummies— made from executed criminals, slaves, beggars, and camels—just to keep up with demand, much like today’s market for counterfeit pharmaceuticals. Does consumerism kill the natural flow of vernacular materials and ailments?
20
SEAGRASS
Seagrass is the only flowering plant that can live underwater. The raw material is a long grass species growing along the coasts. Depending on a wet or dry harvesting period the seagrass varies in colour, from a brownish color to a greener color. The grass is turned to a thread and twined to form a yarn and has a latex backing. The apparent global product by ikea couldn’t last a month in the temperate Ahmedabad weather. Is ‘global village’ actually a relevant term today?
21
FORM FOLLOWS ORGANISM
‘Emma Van der Leest is the Founder at the BlueCity Lab, Rotterdam’. ‘Form Follows Organism: The biological computer’ is a book about biodesign and the shifting role of the (product) designer. She investigated on: ‘how can we control the process of growing materials or products?’ and: ‘how can we design new tools and algorithms that unlock the power of living cells?’
22
THE ART OF DECEPTION
Isaac Monte is a Belgian design activist based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Humans use deception to achieve perfection in society, art and science. Reacting to this through art, Isaac has taken discarded pig hearts and transformed them into elegant vessels for new life by decellularizing them and re-populating them with various techniques, into aesthetically improved hearts for humans.
23
APPLE BIOLEATHER
The randomest of all the visiting cards I collected was bioleather made out of apples by Danielle Ooms, a Dutch designer. Mould growth can be seen on the material sample due to high humidity in Ahmedabad. Can we implement globalised solutions to variable contexts?
24
BLUE FOAM
EXPANDED POLYSTYRENE FOAM
What makes a blue foam different from a white polystyrene foam we see today? What is the difference between expanded polystyrene foam & extruded polystyrene foam?
25
OVAL FORM GLASS
The unusual form and ergonomics of the glass excited me enough to pick this up from a thrift shop in Rotterdam. Why are we used to what we are used to?
26
DELFT BLAUW
This mug was bought in Blaak flea market in Rotterdam. During the Dutch Golden Age, the Dutch East India Company had a lively trade with the East and imported millions of pieces of Chinese porcelain in the early 17th century. We can see a similar local practice in blue pottery of Jaipur.
27
GOLF BALL
How amazing is it that a tiny ball of diameter 42.67 mm can travel upto 400 yards of distance. This is to celebrate the micro-engineering that goes behind manufacturing. Several details like the arrangement, number, size, depth of dimples on the surface, material of core are key ingredients to this great achievement.
28
MINIATURE BOTTLE
The production of the angular, green bottle is an expensive undertaking even today, because it is more difficult to shape than an ordinary round bottle. The dark green glass is opaque to most UV rays.
29
SEA-SHELLS
I picked up a handful of seashells from the unlimited availability at Hook of Holland. These shells were collected as souvenirs when I volunteered for a beach cleanup. Historically, shells have been an important part of human culture : acting as a globally traded currency (Johnson 1970) peaking in the mid 19th century. Currently, sea shells are under research since they are a potential source of CaCO3 (Calcium carbonate)
30
MOULDED WOOD
Humans have become so capable of manipulating and taming material. The 3d leaf form has been achieved by segmenting and moulding the wood pieces together.
31
COINS
While travelling around in different countries, I picked up the coins with detailed metal-working in copper, brass, steel and other composites.
32
RISO INK
RISO is adopting vegetable-based ink which is made from rice bran oil. RISO was the world’s first to develop and commercialize rice bran oil ink for digital duplicator. Artwork by ‘Manasa Krishnan’
33
HONEYCOMB CORRUGATED PANEL
The inner core of HCP is arranged in an interlaced grid of hexagons somewhat similar to honeycomb constructed by bees. The majority of the core is air, hence it is lightweight and acts as an excellent packaging material.
34
LEGO
A set of these LEGO pieces were picked up from the LEGO flagship store in Copenhagen, Denmark. The LEGO Group is a privately held, family-owned company, based in Billund, Denmark. It was founded in 1932 and today LEGO products can be purchased in more than 130 countries.
35
RICE PAPER
Rice paper is a product made of paper-like materials from East Asia made from different plants. These include various pulp-based papers like rice straw or other plants, such as hemp and bamboo.
36
MAGNETS
These self-adhesive magnetic sheets are printable, can be laser cut ending up for various applications like temporary graphics.
37
NATURAL DYE BOOK
Investigation into natural materials Made as a part of Elective at WDKA, I chose to research plant pigments. I learnt about dyeing while extending my research . Can natural dyes be stark? Can natural dyes replace synthetic dyes with the same quality output?
38
RECYCLED PLASTIC TILE - HDPE
Manifesting insignificant plastic waste into a physical form. This tile was created using all the HDPE plastic waste is generated in the first two months of my stay in the Netherlands. The plastic Swatch has been created from milk cartons and other HDPE bottles that I’ve used and gathered from the last two months ( ~ 400 gm of plastic recycled)
39
RECYCLED PLASTIC TILE - POLYSTYRENE
Upcycling waste generated by vacuum forming Production - Consumption. OverConsumption - OverProduction - [¿disposal? - ¿reuse?] One plastic wrapper on the street, a heap load on a landfill.
40
SCULPTING TEXTILE
How can you use unconventional materials and techniques to manipulate textile in shapes, textures and patterns? Manipulating fabrics with basic techniques like smocking, heat manipulation and bioplastics. The workshop was facilitated by Margherita Solidati, a member at MediaMatic.
41
THERMOCHROMIC PIGMENT
Thermochromism are materials stimulated by heat. Use colour to indicate temperature Baby fidders Touch me wallpapers Conversation piece Protection Food packaging Medical thermography Battery testing Indicate skin temperature for diagnosis What could be other potential applications? *Please use fire to react with dye.
42
PHOTOCHROMIC PIGMENT
Develop colour in UV light (Sunlight) Spectacles which become sunglasses (opthalmic) Security printing (bank notes) *Use your phone’s torch to draw on the ink!
43
HYDROCHROMIC WHITE PIGMENT
Hydrochromic white is a special binder which changes colour from white to transparent when in contact with water and changes to original white when dried. Potential applications: Babies nappies, umbrellas.
44
GLOW IN THE DARK EMBROIDERY
Glow in dark material, a type of photoluminicent material, is generally based on the principles of Phosporescense. Photoluminicent : it is when a material emits light after having absorbed photons (electro magnetic radiation). However the time frame between absorbtion and radiation may vary. In simple terms, phosphorescence is a process in which energy absorbed by a substance is released relatively slowly in the form of light. This is in some cases the mechanism used for “glow-in-the-dark” materials which are “charged” by exposure to light.
45
SALT BIOMATERIALS
The hypothesis was to create a tile out of salt and use no synthetic adhesive. These tiles are experiments with salt as a biomaterial.
46
TIN HOUSE
My exchange school, Willem de Kooning Academie has its own system of archiving material experiments. They follow a syntax of ‘Houses’ for archiving and analysis of their materials. This House was made of Tin while learning the process of soldering.
47
MYCELIUM
Known as a “Miracle material” Mycelium can inhibit properties as soft as leather to as hard as structural arches. It holds the potential to make plastic packaging obsolete with its ability to grow faster, consume lesser water, compostability and being a complete circular material. How will Mycelium bend the conventional manufacturing processes in future?
The Society of Materials is so vast and overwhelming that this is just an initiation of a quest to explore more... We all are a part of this Society and this Society shall expand and evolve.
materionomics