Material Storytelling
When is it right to tell the story behind a material and when not? We use materials to make functional products and often we don't know where it comes from or what the process behind it is.
As an example, the story behind Fair Trade coffee is that the farmers in Colombia harvest the coffee berries, which are processed into beans and traded so that they are available in the store for the consumer. With Fair Trade products, the company shows the consumer how it is made and that the farmers get a share of the percentage of the coffee that they buy in the store. By doing this it may sell better. What the consumer does with it is up to him to finish the story.
A company like McDonald's likes to talk about the beef they use in their burgers. They say that the cows have had a good life and in their beef there is no other processed stuff. On the other hand, the chicken nuggets are concealed how they are made. The chicken they use is so fattened that it contains a lot of meat and it is cheaper to buy per chicken and the average consumer is against it, but McDonald's does not tell that as quickly because the consumer might not want to buy it. As hard as the truth may be, it is sometimes wise not to tell the whole story behind a product or material.
I had a hard time working with bioplastics. I often got nauseous which made it very slow. After every example I made I had to take a break. I had enough material and it was fun to experiment with what I had at home. I didn't have a scale that made it difficult, but Summer had helped me from a distance by saying the amount of which ingredient is in a tea spoon.
Most of the time I had no idea what I was making and what would come out and I actually liked it. Because we still had to work from home, I asked my roommate to assist me with the material properties and it was quite hard to explain what everything was.
What I'm going to take with me from this week is to reflect on materials where it comes from and what the story and process behind it is. It was also interesting to think about other applications that could be created by using different kind of plastics.
It has created an awareness in me of the usage of materials.
A tea bag or its contents
In this first part of the assignment i'm going to try out and discover bioplastics with the materials i received for this week.
Because this is a whole new thing for me i want to start easy and cook "Agar Agar" from the Bioplasics Cookbook from Margaret Dunne.
I don't have a small scale at home for weighting ingredients so Summer helped me from a distance and measured it for me with a tea spoon.
The ingredients I've used for Agar Agar:
3/4 tea spoon agar
1 1/2 tea spoon glycerin
40 ml water
Materials:
2 tea spoons
Measurering cup
Pan
Whisk
Electric hob
Vaseline
Cup to pour in
First I filled the measuring cup with 40ml water. Then put 3/4 tea spoon of agar and 1 1/2 tea spoon glycerin in the pan and then added the water. I turned on my electric hob and set the heat to just above the middle.
I stirred as much as possible with a whisk so that everything is well mixed.
While I let it boil further, I lightly rub the cup with Vaseline so that the bioplastic is easy to take out the next day.
I found out that I had to act quickly because the mix started to boil in the pan and I was close to messing it up.
Tip for the next time: Rub the vaseline before cooking.
It all went fine and i poured the mix in the cup and moved it to my windowsill with the window open.
The first Agar Agar bioplastic i made was transparent and now i want to experiment with giving it a color and I will use coffee for that.
The ingredients I've used:
3/4 tea spoon agar
1 1/2 tea spoon glycerin
40 ml water
Coffee, 1/3 of a Dolce Gusto Espresso Intenso cup (any other Dolce Gusto cup without milk will do as well)
Materials:
2 tea spoons
Measurering cup
Pan
Whisk
Electric hob
Vaseline
Cup to pour in
I've put the agar, glycerin and water in the pan the same way as before. Before cooking I've cut open the cup with the coffee and poured 1/3 from the cup in the pan. I turned on the heat again and start stirring again with a whisk.
I haven't mentioned before but during cooking it will all smell bad.
When it started to boil i stirred a bit more and poured the mixture in the cup.
When i was done i moved it next to the first one on the windowsill to harden for 24 hours.
Now i wanted to try to make foam. Because of the ingredients that I received and the materials I have at home, I chose this recipe. Instead of the plastic cups i received I used a metal plate, that i found lying around, as a mold.
The ingredients I've used for Agar Agar Foam:
3/4 tea spoon agar
1/2 tea spoon glycerin
40 ml water
1 tea spoon dishwash soap
Materials:
2 tea spoons
Measurering cup
Pan
Whisk
Electric hob
Vaseline
Metal plate that I use as a mold
I mixed everything back together and cooked until it started to boil and then poured into the mold. Afterwards I put it with the other ones on my windowsill.
I still have the mold from the 3D print week and want to make a bioplastic that feels harder than the others so I used a different amount of the same ingredients.
The ingredients I've used:
3/4 tea spoon agar
1/4 tea spoon glycerin
40 ml water
Chili powder from a pack of noodle soup and about 1/3 from the powder for the Bumbu sauce from the same pack.
Materials:
2 tea spoons
Measurering cup
Pan
Whisk
Electric hob
Vaseline
Mold from the 3D print week made from PET
I rubbed a little bit of Vaseline inside the mold before i started with cooking. I mixed the ingredients together in the pan and keeped stirring with a whisk until it started to boil.
Afterwards i poured it in the mold and saw that i had some left over. I thought it was a shame to throw it away so I quickly picked up a new cup that I quickly rubbed with Vaseline. Then i sprankled some oath flakes in there to see what that will do later and poured the left overs into it.
In these 3 days I left my window open as much as possible during the day and kept it closed at night. And this is the result:
It was crazy to see how it changed every day. The thing I was most curious about was whether the engraved mold and the crocodile mold changed anything in the texture of the bioplastic.
Actually it did!
And I'm very happy with the result from the crocodile mold, especially with the details.
For the left one, I first ironed the PLA in baking paper so that it would stay in the same shape without shifting. The right one is a PLA spider web that was in my material bag that I was lucky with.
I doubled the ingredients from the Agar Agar recipe so it will be thicker and the tulip petals will be inside the pastic.
I teared oped a teabag with ginseng tea and cooked it with the other ingredients.
In this assignment I've asked my roommate Djordi to assist me.
From each bioplastic I made, I asked questions according to the MA2E4 toolkit worksheet that Djordi answered.
Here is the video where Djordi is discovering every piece of bioplastic. The video is in Dutch.
Watch the video above from 00:00 - 00:35.
Djordi describes this as a jar of hair gel that is very old.
Meanings of the material:
Calm
Aloof
Vulgar
Frivolous
Futuristic
Feminine
Strange
Not sexy
Professional
Hand-crafted
Frustration
Boredom
Disappointment
Reluctance
Confusion
Rejection
Disgust
Curiosity
Distrust
Doubt
Watch the video above from 00:36 - 01:25.
Shoe polish
Licorice colored
Coffee
Meanings of the material:
Calm
Aloof
Vulgar
Sober
Nostalgic
Masculine
Strange
Not sexy
Professional
Manufactured
Frustration
Boredom
Surprise
Reluctance
Confusion
Rejection
Disgust
Melancholy
Distrust
Doubt
Watch the video above from 01:25 - 01:51.
Old
Soap
Candle wax
Meanings of the material:
Calm
Cosy
Elegant
Frivolous
Nostalgic
Feminine
Ordinary
Toy-like
Natural
Hand-crafted
Love
Amusement
Surprise
Confidence
Enchantment
Respect
Attraction
Curiosity
Fascination
Comfort
Watch the video above from 01:51 - end.
Chocolate
Nuts
Cookies, "kletskoppen" in Dutch
Meanings of the material:
Aggressive
Aloof
Elegant
Frivolous
Nostalgic
Masculine
Strange
Not sexy
Professional
Manufactured
Love
Amusement
Disappointment
Reluctance
Confusion
Respect
Disgust
Melancholy
Distrust
Doubt
I tested the technical properties with two of the bioplastics I've made.
Fire resistance: No / It burns easily
UV resistance: Poor / Exposing it to the sun makes it dry
Weather resistance: Poor / Putting it in a glass of water makes it losing its color
Scratch resistance: No / Easy to tear up
Weight: Light
Chemical resistance: Unknown / Not able to test this
Renewable: No
Fire resistance: Moderate / First it melts and after a few seconds it burns
UV resistance: Poor / Exposing it to the sun makes it dry and shrinks a lot
Weather resistance: Poor / Putting it in a glass of water makes it transparent. After touching it the soap comes off
Scratch resistance: No / Easy to tear up
Weight: Medium for its size
Chemical resistance: Unknown / Not able to test this
Renewable: Yes / Can be melted
By playing a little with the Gelatine Foam I've made I discoverd that i can press it/squeeze it with whole my weight.
My fingers moved a bit from side to side while pressing and i got an idea for an application.
You could create a balance cushion for working out. Especially if you are doing an exercise where you have to stand on one leg and your whole weight is on the cushion it is hard to keep balance. This would be a better application than my current balance cushion.
Property
1
2
3
4
5
Property
Soft
x
Hard
Smooth
x
Rough
Glossy
x
Matte
Reflective
x
Non-reflective
Cold
x
Warm
Non-elastic
x
Elastic
Opaque
x
Transparent
Weak
x
Strong
Light
x
Heavy
Property
1
2
3
4
5
Property
Soft
x
Hard
Smooth
x
Rough
Glossy
x
Matte
Reflective
x
Non-reflective
Cold
x
Warm
Non-elastic
x
Elastic
Opaque
x
Transparent
Weak
x
Strong
Light
x
Heavy
Property
1
2
3
4
5
Property
Soft
x
Hard
Smooth
x
Rough
Glossy
x
Matte
Reflective
x
Non-reflective
Cold
x
Warm
Non-elastic
x
Elastic
Opaque
x
Transparent
Weak
x
Strong
Light
x
Heavy
Property
1
2
3
4
5
Property
Soft
x
Hard
Smooth
x
Rough
Glossy
x
Matte
Reflective
x
Non-reflective
Cold
x
Warm
Non-elastic
x
Elastic
Opaque
x
Transparent
Weak
x
Strong
Light
x
Heavy