Can Plastics Be a Muse for Future Feminist Innovation?
- Submitting institution
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Royal College of Art(The)
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- McLean2
- Type
- C - Chapter in book
- DOI
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- Book title
- Provocative Plastics: Their Value in Design and Material Culture
- Publisher
- Springer International Publishing
- ISBN
- 9783030558819
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- -
- Year of publication
- 2021
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- Yes
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The chapter argues that plastics have not only the power to transform women but also to enable them to find their own, individual routes to power and self-actualisation.
During the writing process, McLean also experimented with material innovation and constructions, including pneumatic structures. This was combined with a historical review of fashion figures from the 1920s through to present day, including journal publications, extracts from books, curated exhibitions and archival imagery. To support the development of her perspective on plastics and feminism she carried out interviews with artists who identify as women and women who have transformed their bodies with plastic and synthetics. Further interviews with students from the Fashion Master of Arts at the Royal College of Art helped provide context. McLean also carried out an auto-ethnographic reflection of her past practices, processes and behaviours through examining her House of Flora Fashion accessory outputs since 1997.
These methods helped confirm that plastics are undervalued as a material and seen as off-the-shelf, single-use, cheap and ‘throw away’. McLean highlighted how, if things are well made from plastic, they will last and not go into landfill, and that the material can actually transform women, often as a tool of self-expression. It can encapsulate the body and reference its phoniness and fake-ness, particularly with body alterations.
This research communicated via the book chapter re-evaluates the facts of plastic, both good and bad, its content, its uses as an ingredient and its history. It maintains that the definition of the term ‘plastic’ is not fully understood by the public or even many who create with it; they do not fully understand its ubiquity and significance.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
