The Lives and Afterlives of Plastic

Welcome to the “Lives and Afterlives of Plastic” archive. This online conference ran between June 26th and July 14th, 2017. You can access the panels and presentations using the green links below. While you can view the comments below the panel, these discussions are no longer monitored.

About 'The Lives and Afterlives of Plastic'

Welcome to the “Lives and Afterlives of Plastic” conference archive. This event was conceived as a forum to facilitate and an interdisciplinary dialogue on the social and environmental issues that surround plastic. We hope that the work that was done at this conference will continue encourage collaborations that cross boundaries between the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities.

This conference was fully online at a time when the online conference format was novel, and aimed to be nearly carbon neutral. While traditional conferences involve academics flying from all over the world to a specific venue, emitting huge amounts of fossil fuels into the stratosphere, an online format meant that there are no carbon costs associated with transportation. There are still significant ecological issues surrounding the mineral extraction, manufacturing, waste disposal, and energy costs of the computational and networking technologies required for an online conference. However, unlike the carbon emissions associated with travel to a venue for a conference, the costs associated with computers, cameras, and undersea fibre-optic cables do not correspond to a one-off event; they will continue to be used long after the conference finishes. Indeed, when UCSB attempted to calculate the relative carbon costs of online and in-person conferences, their conclusion was that an online event reduced the carbon footprint by around 99%.

The conference ran over three weeks. Each week had one keynote speaker and several panels running. You can access the panels using the Green links below. While you can view the comments below the panel, these discussions are no longer monitored.

We hope these discussions will continue to open up new conversations, perspectives and debates about the lives and afterlives of plastics.

An open-access volume, Plastic Legacies, was published following the conference by AUP. It is available here.

Week 3: July 10 – July 14

Lives and Afterlives of Plastic Plenary Forum

Keynote Address

The Long-term Impact of Plastics on Human and Ecosystem Health
Professor Ian Shaw

Panel 8: Fabrics

Materials that Linger: A Geographical Biography of Polyester Fabrics
Elyse Stanes and Chris Gibson

Weaving Solutions to Microfibre Pollution: The Social Practices of Apparel Production, Consumption, Wearing, and Washing
Lisa Heinze

Panel 9: Waste Management

Addressing the Issue of Bio-Material Contamination in Commercial Composting
Jonathon Hannon

Evaluating Sustainable Practices at Christchurch City Council Events: Analysis of Waste Diversion and Event Attendees Perceptions of Compostable Service Ware Initiatives
Emma McCone

Plastic Debris: Recycling Options for Closing the Loop
Isabel Cañete Vela and Henrikke Baumann

Pollutants, Polymers and Pigments: The Material Contingencies of PET Bottles
Tatianna M. P. Silva

Panel 10: Public Awareness of Marine Plastics

Currents of Plastic Awareness: An Anthropological Study of NGO Efforts to Create Knowledge and Awareness of Plastic Pollution in the Ocean
Johanne Tarpgaard

Making Sense of Plastic Pollution: A UK Study of Images, Messages and Perceptions of (Micro)Plastics
Lesley Henderson and Christopher Green

Plastic Pollution in Marine Environments: Trans-Disciplinary Approaches Promoting Public Stewardship of Aquatic Environments
Luisa Galgani and Steven A. Loiselle

The Evidence to Change the Culture – Issues Around Marine Litter
Marie Russell and Colin Moffat

Panel 11: Materiality Two

Plastic Inheritance
Heather Davis

Toxicity and Technofossils: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue
Sy Taffel and Trisia Farrelly

Making Plastics Bio- Bioplastics’ Making
Damla Tonuk

Week 2: July 3 – July 7

Keynote Address

Governed by Plastic
Professor Gay Hawkins

Panel 4: Packaging, LCA, and Design

Maui’s Ark
Stephen Harris

The Importance of Promoting Healthy Eating to Solve thePlastic Pollution Problem
Anna Dawson

Plasticized
Katarina Dimitrijevic

Panel 5: Representations/Aesthetics

Plastics, Pollution, Art and Activism: Artists who Denounce theImpact of Plastics on the Environment
Gala Arias and Hernando Gόmez

The Petroleum Manga
Marina Zurkow

Panel 6: Materiality One

The Inescapable Plastics of Being? On Extricability, Care, and British Hedgehog Death-by-Plastic
Laura McLauchlan

Plastiglomerate: New Materialism and the Anthropocene
Christina Gerhardt

Plastic Waste Flows Between Us
Bella Adams and Joanna Croft

Panel 7: Marine Microplastics

Agglomeration of Nano and Microplastic Debris in Seawater byBacterial Exopolymers
Stephen Summers, Theodore Henry, and Tony Gutierrez

Can Citizen Scientists Identify Microplastics Ingested by Atlantic Cod? A Single Blind Comparison Across Four Methods
Natalie Richárd

Week 1: June 26 – June 30

Keynote Address

Marine Debris: Are There Solutions to this Growing Problem?
Professor Richard C. Thompson

Panel 1: Civic Laboratory of Environmental Action Research

A Review of Marine Plastic Pollution in the Environment of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
Ammendolia, J., Liboiron, F., Bradshaw, H., Dawe, N., Melvin, J., Novacefski, M., Saturno, J., Wells, E., Mather, C., Liboiron, M.

Plastic Ingestion in Atlantic Cod (Gadus Morhua): Results From A Citizen Science Monitoring Project on the Eeast Coast of Newfoundland, Canada
Jessica Melvin

Citizen Science Tools, Practices, and Ethics for Monitoring Marine Plastics Developed in a Feminist Laboratory
Max Liboiron

Panel 2: Marine Plastics

What Sticks, What Leaches: Human Health Implications of Plastic Marine Debris
Sasha Adkins

Dawn of the Plastisphere: Problematising Plastic in the Ocean as Emerging Naturecultures
Sven Bergmann

The Ocean as Thingspace. Plastic Pollution and the Changing Narratives of Recurring Things
Petra Beck

Panel 3: Representations/Aesthetics

Witnessing the Afterlives of Plastic: The Emotional Geographies of Chris Jordan’s Midway
Kathryn Gillespie

Sand, Sky, Bottle Caps, and Bird Bones: Recovering the Animal in Chris Jordan’s Visualisations of Marine Plastic Pollution
Micha Gerrit Philipp Edlich

Dead Nature: Repackaging the Still Life
Catherine Barcan

Comments 16

Daniel Lanzilotta
June 25, 2017 at 11:35 am

http://www.welcome2thebronx.com/wordpress/2015/09/23/bronx-born-bred-artist-raises-awareness-of-marine-pollution-through-his-sculptures-made-from-garbage/

1. Trisia Farrelly
  June 25, 2017 at 8:54 pm
  
  Thank you for this link Daniel. Welcome to the conference! The impact on contributors and visitors will no doubt be significant. Absolutely stunning! Is this a colleague of yours?
  
Emilie Crittin
June 26, 2017 at 3:28 pm

Hello there ! Thank you so much for this awesome conference project, I am so happy to be able to follow it from Switzerland !

I am a socio-anthropologist and artist, making creations with plastic waste I find on the shores of Lake Leman in Switzerland to raise awareness on waste in nature and consumerism issues in a more creative way.

You can have a look at my work on http://recupartivisme.org !

1. Sy Taffel
  June 27, 2017 at 2:21 am
  
  Hi Emilie. Thanks for sharing your work with us. I really enjoyed the still life photography. Hope you continue to enjoy the conference!
  
  1. Emilie Crittin
    June 29, 2017 at 5:35 pm
    
    Hi, thank you so much for your kind reply, I am glad you liked my work. Cheers from Switzerland !
    And yes, I am enjoying the conference !
    
2. Winnie Courtene-Jones
  June 30, 2017 at 9:10 am
  
  HI Emily
  i like your work, especially the ‘compositions’ portfolio, i really like how the plastic items ‘mimic’ nature, or are mixed in with the surroundings, i feel this really gets the viewer thinking, and challenges idea about how much plastic there is in the evnironment Vs untouched nature. Thank you for sharing.
  
  1. Emilie Crittin
    July 10, 2017 at 10:09 am
    
    Hi Winnie !
    
    Thank you so much for your words, I am always happy to have a feedback on if/how my work gets the viewer thinking !
    
3. Trisia Farrelly
  July 12, 2017 at 1:15 am
  
  Lovely to see fellow public anthropologists sharing their work at this conference. Thank you.
  
Hannah Scott
June 27, 2017 at 2:59 pm

Hello from another visual artist working with plastic!

I’ve just graduated from the MA Art and Science programme at Central Saint Martins in London, UK where I have been researching the effect of plastic on the environment. It’s such an important subject to raise awareness about, thank you for organising this.

If you’d like to view my work please visit: http://www.hannahscott.com.

I have been shortlisted for the MullenLowe NOVA award 2017, which is now open to the public for online voting. You can see all the shortlisted artists talking about their work and vote for your favourite until 4th July here: http://mullenlowegroup.com/nova/your-nova/. Winners will be announced on the 7th July.

All best,
Hannah

1. Trisia Farrelly
  July 12, 2017 at 1:20 am
  
  Congratulations Hannah! I have just learned that you were awarded the MullenLowe NOVA Award Runner Up. Here is what they said about Hannah’s work:
  
  “MA Art and Science student Hannah Scott, whose project what goes around comes around, displays a sculptural side to the medium.
  
  Hannah’s project is both personal and open to the public, examining Britain’s consumer lifestyle and its relationship with the Arctic environment. In exploring “ways of visualising and communicating climate change…inspired by a fusion of my interests in science, nature and travel,” her work continually asks questions. “It challenges the audience to question the impact of their own lifestyle choices, central to this is an exploration of the ways art can effectively communicate scientific and environmental issues without being didactic or overly moralistic.”
  
  Hannah’s final piece references “current scientific research on climate change and plastic pollution,” coupled with the personal loss of both her parents. As a result the artist has created a unique practice, one that is “partly auto ethnographic, centring myself within my exploration as an observer and as one of the observed”.”
  
Regina Santos
July 2, 2017 at 3:33 am

I want to participate in Online conference

1. Sy Taffel
  July 2, 2017 at 6:16 am
  
  Hi Regina. To participate in the conference, follow the links above that take you to the panel and keynote presentations. You’ll find the various presentations there, and then you can ask questions or participate in discussions in the comments thread for each panel.
  
Emilie Crittin
July 10, 2017 at 10:11 am

Hello !

I am really enjoying the conference and am learning so much, but I’ve been very busy these days and unfortunately lack of time to see all the panels. Will they still be available after July 14th ?

Thank you !

Emilie

1. Sy Taffel
  July 10, 2017 at 11:34 pm
  
  Hi Emilie. Yes, the presentations will still be available after the conference finishes – so long as the presenters are happy for them to stay up and no one has said they aren’t – so you should be able to view them all when you have time. Best, Sy
  
Evelien Janson
June 29, 2018 at 12:48 pm

Hi-team,

So interesting that you do this! We would love to show you your discussions in our community, Impact Hub Amsterdam, but how does it work? I have seen the program but there is no timetable

Look forward to your answer,

Evelien

1. Post
  Author
  
  Lisa Vonk
  June 29, 2018 at 11:12 pm
  
  Kia ora Evelien.
  
  If you click on the green hyperlinks on this page you will be taken to the presentation. The conference was last year, but we have left all of the material online.
  
  If you do screen some of the presentations at the Impact Hub, we would love to hear how it goes! If you have any more questions feel free to send us an email PERC@massey.ac.nz
  
  Ngā mihi
  Lisa – PERC admin