PLASTICPLASTIC

The Nieuwe Instituut presents a critical programme about plastic and 3D printing in PLASTIC: Promises of a Home-Made Future.
The exhibition is on show at Het Nieuwe Instituut from 16 January to 6 April 2015.

3D printing is seen as the promise of Do It Yourself culture. A material largely processed industrially thus far, plastic is now becoming applicable for individuals and bottom-up initiatives. But will this democratic promise become reality? There is a possibility that control of the technology and material will remain in the hands of industrial monopolies. In PLASTIC: Promises of a Home-Made Future, Het Nieuwe Instituut illuminates the perspectives of commercial, political and artistic parties.

The exhibition takes the form of a 3D documentary in which visitors learn about the significance and history of plastic by means of videos and objects. Once a symbol of progress, plastic is now synonymous for increasing environmental pollution and blind consumer excess. But the emergence of 3D printing technology and recycling possibilities transforms this controversial material into an ecological promise. PLASTIC: Promises of a Home-Made Future shows how far-reaching innovation in materials has fired the imagination for a century, yet has always evoked doom scenarios.

In the lead-up to the opening and while the exhibition is on show, Het Nieuwe Instituut is presenting a lecture series. Among the speakers during the _Hello Plastic _introduction evening on 23 October 2014 was Susan Freinkel (author of the book Plastic: A Toxic Love Story).

Friday 30 January 2015: Forming Plastic Futures (debate).
Saturday 31 January 2015: Official opening (by invitation) + press opening.
Thursday 12 March 2015: PLASTIC Material Night, with Sophie Krier.

Following Biodesign and WOOD, PLASTIC: Promises of a Home-Made Future is the third exhibition in the programme track Things and Materials. This programme track focuses on renewed interest in craft and in the quality of materials used to make objects. An important area of attention is the radical change in tangible reality bought about by the current cross-fertilization between nature, science and creativity. PLASTIC is developed in collaboration with researcher and designer Tal Erez, who is studying the effect of current technological innovation on society, politics and economics. He also teaches design at Hadassah College and Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem.