Plastic (pronounced plas-tik)
(1) Any of a group of synthetic (and usually hydrocarbon-based)
polymer materials which may be shaped when soft and subsequently hardened.
(2) In slang, a credit card, or credit cards collectively
(an allusion to the material typically used in their manufacture); money,
payment, or credit represented by the use of a credit card or cards.
(3) Something (or a number of things), made from or
resembling plastic (sometimes merely descriptive, sometimes as a slur
suggesting inferiority in quality).
(4) Capable of being molded or of receiving form; having
the power of molding or shaping formless or yielding material.
(5) In psychology, the quality of being easily
influenced; impressionable.
(6) In biology of or relating to any formative process;
able to change, develop, or grow; capable of adapting to varying conditions;
characterized by environmental adaptability.
(7) Figuratively and in slang, something superficially
attractive yet unoriginal or artificial; insincerity or fakeness in an
individual or group.
(8) A widely used combining form (plastic surgery, plastic
bullet, plastic explosive, chloroplastic, protoplastic etc).
(9) A sculptor or molder; any solid but malleable
substance (both obsolete).
In physiology, producing tissue (obsolete).
1625–1635: From the Latin plasticus (that which may be molded or relating to that which has
been molded), from the Ancient Greek πλαστικός (plastikós) (fit for molding, capable of being molded into various
forms; pertaining to molding), from πλάσσω (plássō)
(to mold, to form). In Hellenic use, in
relation to the arts, there was plastos
(molded, formed) the verbal adjective from plassein
(to mold) and from the Greek plastikós
was derived both plaster and plasma. Words
vaguely or exactly synonymous (depending on context) include elastic, molded,
synthetic, bending, giving, yielding, cast, chemical, ersatz, phony, pseudo,
substitute, ductile, fictile, formable, moldable, pliable, pliant, resilient,
shapeable, flexible & amenable. Plastic
is a noun, verb & adjective, plastically & plasticly are adverbs and plasticity
is a noun; the noun plural is plastics and the seventeenth century spelling plastick is long obsolete.
Three decades of progress in consumer products, Soviet style: Two comrades approaching their 1957 Trabant P50 in stylish korallenrot (coral red) over creme (cream) and 1990 Trabant 601 in a by then more typical beige (right). In fairness, a 1959 and 2000 Mini enjoy a not dissimilar degree of visual similarity. Note the 1957 Trabant's amber turn signals; Trabants were factory-fitted with flashers at a time Rolls-Royce and other manufacturers in the “advanced West” were still installing antiquated semaphores.
Materials with plastic properties were
attractive for car producers for different reasons. It made low-volume production runs viable
because the tooling costs were a fraction of the cost of those using steel or aluminum
and in some cases the light weight and ease of modification was an
attraction. In the GDR (German Democratic Republic, the old East Germany), the long-running (1957-1991) Trabant's bodywork was made with Duroplast, a composite thermosetting plastic (and a descendant of Bakelite). It was a resin plastic reinforced with fibres (the GDR used waste from both cotton & wool processing) and structurally was similar to fibreglass although the urban myth Trabants were made from reinforced cardboard persists. The first Trabants left the Saxony production line in November 1957, only weeks after the Soviet Union had startled the world by launching Sputnik, the first man-made Earth satellite. Launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit where it circulated for three months, it did nothing other than transmit radio pulses which, because of the flight path, could at various time be detected just about anywhere below. Compared with what space programmes would become, it sounds now a modest achievement but at the time was a sensation and the event which triggered the “space race”.
Low-emission Trabant (rated at 1 PP (pony-power)) with driver using semaphore signal to indicate intention to turn left, Barnim district, Bernau bei Berlin, GDR, 1981.
In the Eastern Bloc there weren’t many marketing departments but there was a vast propaganda apparatus and opportunistically, the name Trabant was derived from the Middle High German drabant (satellite; companion; foot soldier) which at the time was a positive association with the famous Sputnik but it later became emblematic of the economic and moral bankruptcy of the whole communist project: While by the fall of the Berlin Wall (1961-1989) Soviet satellites and related technologies greatly had advanced, the “Trubi” remained a little changed “1957 time capsule”. Although much despised in the early 1990s in the aftermath of the break-up of the Soviet Union (1922-1991), opinions softened and the survivors of the more than three million produced (a greater volume than BMC's (British Motor Corporation) Mini (1959-2000)) gained a cult following. More correctly, the marque gained a number of cult followings, some attracted by the “retro-cuteness”, some with genuine, Putinesque nostalgia for the old Soviet system and other with a variety of projects as varied as EV (electric vehicle) conversions, the installation of V8s for drag-racing and the re-purposing in many forms of competition. The Trubi is now a fixture in the lower reaches (a notch above the Austin Allegro) of the collector market.
Two comrades with their 1960 Trabant P50 in stylish two-tone pastellblau (pastel blue) over creme (cream) admiring the Leipzig Opera building, Saxony, circa 1961.
The photograph of the horse-drawn Trubi, while not representative of the entire Eastern Bloc experience under communist rule, captures a sight which would not have been uncommon away from large urban centres (which could be grim enough). Dr Henry Kissinger (1923-2023; US national security advisor 1969-1975 & secretary of state 1937-1977) said his abiding memory of Eastern Bloc cities was of “the smell of boiled cabbage and an unrelenting greyness.” In fairness, English cooks probably inflicted worse on the noble cabbage than anything done behind the Iron Curtain but his sense of “greyness” was literal, the appalling air pollution of the GDR (its industrial base powered by burning lignite (from the Latin lignum (wood)) and other forms of low-grade, “dirty coal”), thus the griminess of the buildings. Places like London similarly were affected and it was only after the 1952 “Great Smog of London” that the Clean Air Act (1956) became law, meaning air quality began slowly to improve. That the photographs of the era look so drab was not because of the film stock; buildings literally were “dirty”. Because of various advances in health care, it’s difficult to quantify the contribution to reducing mortality achieved by reducing air pollution but few doubt it was significant.
By 1952 the
success in the US of MG and Jaguar had made it clear to Chevrolet that demand
existed for sports cars and the market spread across a wide price band so with
the then novel GRP (glass reinforced plastic, soon better as “fibreglass”)
offering the possibility of producing relatively low volumes of cars with
complex curves without the need for expensive tooling or a workforce of
craftsmen to shape them, a prototype was prepared for display at General
Motors’ (GM) 1953 Motorama show. Despite
the perception among some it was the positive response of the Motorama audience
which convinced GM’s management to approve production, the project had already
be signed-off but the enthusiastic reaction certainly encouraged Chevrolet to
bring the Corvette to market as soon as possible. The name Corvette was chosen in the hope of
establishing a connection with the light, nimble naval vessels.
1969 Chevrolet Corvette (C3) L88 Convertible.
The haste
brought its own, unique challenges. In
1953, Chevrolet had no experience of large-scale production of GRP-bodied cars
but neither did anybody else, GM really was being innovative. The decision was thus taken to build a batch
of three-hundred identical copies, the rationale being the workers would be
able to perfect the assembly techniques involved in bolting and gluing together
the forty-six GRP pieces produced by an outside contractor. Thus, by a process of trial and error, were
assembled three hundred white Corvettes with red interiors, a modest beginning
but the sales performance was less impressive still, fewer than two-hundred
finding buyers, mainly because the rate of production was erratic and with so
few cars available for the whole country, dealers weren’t encouraged to take
orders; uncertainty surrounded the programme for the whole year. Seldom has GM made so little attempt actually
to sell a car, preferring to use the available stock for travelling display
purposes, tantalizing those who wanted one so they would be ready to spend when
mass-production started.
2023 Chevrolet Corvette (C8) Z06 Coupe.
From this
tentative toe in the plastic pond, seventy years on, the Corvette remains in
production as one of GM’s most profitable lines. Introduced in 2020, the eighth generation
(C8) Corvette is for the first time mid-engined and the materials used are
radically different from the steel & GRP of 1953. The platform is now a spaceframe (of six
die-cast aluminium-alloy assemblies, augmented with stampings, extrusions,
castings and hydro-formed tubes augmented by a single CFRP (carbon
fiber-reinforced composite) piece) atop which is attached a body fashioned from
CFRP. Radically different though the C8
is in design, construction and the use of materials, the concept of a “plastic”
body over a metal structure remains true to the 1953 C1.
The notion of being "capable of
change or of receiving a new direction" emerged in 1791 and this idea was
picked up in 1839 when the term plastic surgery was first used to describe a
procedure undertaken to "remedy a deficiency of structure" is
recorded by 1839 (in plastic surgery). The most familiar use referring to the hydrocarbon-based
polymers dates from 1909 when the expression "made of plastic" gained
currency which remained literal until 1963 when the US counterculture adopted
it as slang meaning "false, superficial", applying it both the political
and consumer culture. The noun plastic (solid
substance that can be molded) however appears first to have been used in 1905
and was applied originally to dental molds.
Our plastic age can be said to have begun in 1909 when a US patent was
issued for Polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride (marketed as Bakelite), a resin
created by the reaction between phenol & formaldehyde. Chemists had for years been experimenting with
various compounds, much of the research funded by the petroleum industry which
was seeking some profitable use for its by-products but Bakelite was the first plastic
material which had characteristics which made it suitable for manufacture at
scale and adaptability to a wide range of uses.
Thus the first commercially available plastic made from synthetic
components which retained its formed shape if heated, it was developed by Belgian
chemist Leo Baekeland (1863-1944) while working in the US.
The “plastics” at lunch with product-placement, plastic packaging and plastic
trays, Mean Girls (2004). Note the plastic straws.
On 10
March 2025 the White House issued a fact sheet advising Donald Trump (b 1946;
US president 2017-2021 and since 2025) had signed an executive order to “end the
procurement and forced use of paper straws.” Explaining the policy of the previous
administration had been an “irrational campaign” which “forced Americans
to use non-functional paper straws”, Executive Order 90 FR 9585
(2025-02735) was part of the “BRINGING BACK COMMON SENSE” theme of the second
Trump administration. To avoid the fake
news media being able to accuse the fact sheet of pedalling “alternative facts”, the White House
provided a scientific rationale, noting “paper straws use chemicals that may carry risks to human
health – including ‘forever chemical’ PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl
substances) which are known to be highly water soluble and can bleed from the
straw into a drink. A study found that while PFAS were found in paper straws,
no measurable PFAS were found in plastic straws.” Additionally, “Paper straws are more expensive than plastic
straws, and often force users to use multiple straws. Paper straws are not the eco-friendly
alternative they claim to be – studies have shown that producing paper straws
can have a larger carbon footprint and require more water than plastic straws. Paper straws often come individually wrapped
in plastic, undermining the environmental argument for their use.” Executive Order 90 FR 9585 (2025-02735) was
an indication the second Trump administration will not be “…caving to pressure from woke activists who
prioritize symbolism over science.”
Like face-mask wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic whether one uses
paper or plastic straws may enter the culture wars as a marker of one’s
political position.
Plastic explosive (explosive material with a putty-like
consistency) became familiar to the military only in the Second World War and
more generally in the 1950s but the first use of the term dates from 1894. Earlier uses include describing the creative
or formative processes in art generally as plastic, an echo of the use which
sometime prevailed in Hellenic culture but this faded after a few decades
during the seventeenth century although the noun plasticity (capability of
being molded or formed; property of giving form or shape to matter) endured after
first being noted in 1768. A nineteenth
century adoption was in the biological sciences in the sense of “organisms capable
of adapting to varying conditions; characterized by environmental adaptability
and in the same era, in engineering it came to mean “of or pertaining to the
inelastic, non-brittle, deformation of a material”.
The success of Bakelite triggered a rush of development
which produced the early versions of the numerous substances that can be shaped
and molded when subjected to heat or pressure. Plastics gain their plasticity because they
consist of long-chain molecules known as polymers which flex but don’t break
their bonds when subjected to all but extreme stresses. They’re almost always artificial resins (but
can be made from some natural substances such as shellac) and the best known
are Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polystyrene.
Useful as it is, plastic (with a life measured in some cases in
centuries) has emerged as a significant environmental threat, both as visible
waste (and thus a threat in many way to wildlife) and as micro-plastic, microscopic-sized
fragments which exist in the environment including the human food chain.
Piet Mondrian, neo-plastic painting and adhesive tape
Piet Mondrian’s (1872-1944) 1941 New York City 1 is a series of abstract works created with multi-colored adhesive paper tape. One version first exhibited at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in 1945 has since 1980 hung in the Düsseldorf Museum as part of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen’s collection and recently it was revealed for the past 77 years it has been hanging upside down. The work is unsigned, sometimes an indication the artist deemed it unfinished but Mondrian left no notes.
Mondrian’s 1941 New York City 1 as it (presumably correctly) sat in the artist's studio in 1944 (left) and as it was since 1945 exhibited (upside-down) in New York and Düsseldorf (right). Spot the difference.
The decades-long, trans-Atlantic mistake came to light during a press conference held to announce the Kunstsammlung’s new Mondrian exhibition. During research for the show, a photograph of Mondrian’s studio taken shortly after his death showed the work oriented in the opposite direction and this is being treated as proof of the artist’s intension although experts say the placement of the adhesive tape on the unsigned painting also suggests the piece was hung upside down. How the error occurred is unclear but when first displayed at MOMA, it may have been as simple as the packing-crate being overturned or misleading instructions being given to the staff. However, 1941 New York City 1 will remain upside because of the condition of the adhesive strips. “The adhesive tapes are already extremely loose and hanging by a thread,” a curator was quoted as saying, adding that if it were now to be turned-over, “…gravity would pull it into another direction. And it’s now part of the work’s story.”
1941 New York City 1, Paris Museum of Modern Art.
The curator made the point that as hung, the interlacing lattice of red, yellow, black and blue adhesive tapes thicken towards the bottom, suggesting a sparser skyline but that “…the thickening of the grid should be at the top, like a dark sky” and another of Mondrian’s creations in a similar vein (the oil on canvas New York City I (1942)) hangs in the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris with the thickening of lines at the top. Whether Mondrian intended 1941 New York City 1 to be part of his oeuvre or it was just a mock-up in adhesive tape for the oil-on canvas composition to follow isn’t known, artists having many reasons for leaving works unsigned. Mondrian was one of the more significant theorists of abstract art and its withdrawal from nature and natural subjects. "Denaturalization" he proclaimed to be a milestone in human progress, adding: "The power of neo-plastic painting lies in having shown the necessity of this denaturalization in painterly terms... to denaturalize is to abstract... to abstract is to deepen."
Plasticity in catwalk fashion
Bella Hadid, Coperni show, Paris Fashion Week, October
2022.
Although many in the industry prefer to talk about natural fibres like
silk or linen, it’s plastics like nylon or polyester which make possible both the
shape and behavior of many modern garments and their mass-production. One possibility offered by plastics was
illustrated at the 2022 Paris Fashion Week in October when as the concluding
set-piece of the Coperni show, Bella Hadid (b 1996) appeared on the catwalk wearing
only G-string knickers. There she paused while for
about a quarter hour, two men sprayed her body with what appeared to be white
paint. Once done, a woman emerged to cut
a thigh-high asymmetric slit and adjusted things slightly to render an
off-the-shoulder look. Essentially a free-form
exercise in 3D printing, the spray-on dress was left deliberately unfinished so
as not to detract from the performance; had such a creation been built behind
closed doors, either on a human or mannequin, re-usable and adjustable formwork
would likely have been used to catch overspray and allow things like hems, straps
and splits more precisely to be rendered.
On the night though, the fraying at the edges was just part of the look and Ms
Hadid looked wonderful, a thinspiration to the whole pro-ana community. The term “sprayed on” had long been used to describe
skin-tight clothing but the Coperni show lent it a literalism new to most.
On the catwalk, spray-painting a model had been done
before, two robots used in Alexander McQueen’s spring 1999 show to adorn Shalom
Harlow (b 1973) after the fashion of those used in car assembly plants but that
was literally just paint onto a conventional fabric whereas Ms Hadid’s dress
appeared over bare (though presumably some sort of lotion was used to suit the properties
of the plastic) skin. The spray-on
material is called Fabrican, created by Dr Manel Torres who first demonstrated its
properties in 2006. It’s a liquid fibre,
bound by polymers, bio polymers and greener solvents which evaporate on contact
with a surface (like Ms Hadid’s skin and including water). As a fabric, it’s said to have a similar texture
to suede and can be manipulated like any other but the feel can be altered
depending on the fibers (natural or synthetic) used in the mix and the shape of
the nozzle used on the spray device.
Although an eye-catching example of the technology, Fabrican’s
place in fashion business is likely to be as an adjunct device rather than one
used to create whole garments. It would
be invaluable for Q&D (quick and dirty) solutions such as effecting repairs
or adding something but it’s been demonstrated as long ago as 2010 at London
Fashion Week without demand emerging though it may yet find a niche. What more likely beckons is a role in
medicine (perhaps especially for military medics in the field) as a sterilized
(perhaps even an anti-bacterial) bandage-in-a-can. Indeed, the style of dress created in Paris
is known as the “bandage” dress.
Bella Hadid, Coperni’s 2023 show, Paris, 2022
Shalom Harlow, Alexander McQueen’s spring show, London, 1999.
