VIEW OF PLASTOPIA

Coincidence or not. I came across "map of synthetica" while sifting and sorting my massive pile of readings.

This photograph titled Synthetica: A new continent of plastics, featured in fortune magazine in 1940s. It depicted a relief map of continent called Synthetica. The continent was divided into different countries named after chemically distinct types of plastics. The surreal visions of the map implied an odd denial of organic chemistry’s promise to free human race from reliance on geographic accidents on scarcity and supply. The bright unnatural colours and deep contrasts within the continents evoked images of the abundance of ephemeral wastes that plastic has created.

Source: Jeffrey. L. Meikle, 1995, Extract Plastic materials and dreams of dematerialization.

A view of plastopia’, it shows an assemblage of various colourful plastic pieces, made by applying heat, folding and compressing plastic bags into solidified forms. The organic forms created were solely based upon the materials and how it reacted to the compression process. The conceit of the continents aims to represent a substance that lifted us from the constraints of our natural world that has opened up an array of synthesizable possibilities. Countries no longer disadvantaged due to their geographical locations and everyone has access to the material.