Fossilight!

It has been exciting, interesting, hard in places and extremely satisfying making molds of my headlight to fossilise it in different ways. But what has been the cost to me to experience such riches??

Petrol to pick up light - £3

Silicone rubber, Resin and general nik-naks for mold - £40

Wet 'n' Dry sandpaper - £4.38

Print - £6

Frame & Glass - £2!!

Chocolate biscuits! - £1.49

Grand Total: £56.87

FREE STUFF!

Plaster Cast

Polyresin

Teaching and coaching - care of Dave (the master) Taylor!

Patience!

Moulding Away!

I have been rather fortunate to have the advice and guidance of one Dave Taylor, Sculptor extraordinaire to create my fossil in various forms. I first cast it in plaster, which was fairly simple, then we went on to cast it in concrete - a touch more involved, then finally I have convinced Dave to teach me the process of making a silicone mold so that I can make a model of the headlight made with resin, which we have tested using various mixtures of dye to get the amber colour I am trying to achieve...a very complex process as you can see - and this was only the half of it...literally!!

The Ageing Process!

Sign of the times

Without an ‘exchange value’ we are left with just the form of this object - it’s essence. Do we look at it just to estimate the value of its parts for salvage? Afterall, the motor industry aren’t bothering to recycle these parts, even though the thermo-plastic used in the moulding is perfectly re-useable. It is a sign of the times perhaps - a memorial of the industrial age, or rather it’s slow-reaction to climate change. If the doom and gloom merchants turn out to be right maybe one day in the future, when the earth has regenerated itself after our extinction, this object will be discovered once more by the next round of evolutionary formation, as a fossilised impression of a by-gone world. They’d perhaps wonder why there were these crazy beings with plastic bones and metal veins and think “these beings were robots, totally removed from organic life!. They created the circumstances for their own demise by stripping the planet of its resources to reproduce themselves in one almighty ironic spasm!” … Perhaps not, but perhaps this little light is an indication of value in the equation of the world economy.

Fossil Fuel

Out of all the objects I have obtained from Freecycle, this one has been the most difficult to deal with. I have several options for this item though. For instance, I could take it out of context by placing it in a photograph, painting or other medium. I could make a sculpture from it, take away its function, deconstruct or reconstruct it. The crucial point though is that the idea must in some way reflect the notion of value. So, I started thinking about what value this object has, without it’s usual context of being part of a car. In that context the indicator light is there as a sign of indication, intention and basic information. This kind of base level communication, from one human being to the next, from within the psychological bubble that is ‘the car’ is very interesting to me. So the indicator light in some way represents the importance of inter-human connection and that communication itself is an essential aspect of our lives everyday. Also, this object has been removed from hat context, so what happens now? How do we view this object? Do we view it from the perspective that it is useless without its only real use or can we somehow see an aspect of ourselves in it? I like to think we can.

Plastic-Fantastic?

I was curious to see what this indicator light was actually made of. Obviously it is made of plastic, but what plastic is used for the construction of car parts? It turns out that many different plastics are used for cars but for parts found on the outside, like this indicator light, it is a mixture of Polycarbonate (PC)- used in a multitude of consumer and engineering products because of its high impact resistance, temperature resistance and optical properties - and Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) - used to make a range of products from musical instruments (recorders and plastic clarinets) to Lego, pressure-piping, golf club heads, furniture edging and joinery panels!
These plastic are both ‘Thermoplastics’, which means they can be melted down into liquid form and re-shaped and frozen, back into a hard, glassy-state. This is very interesting.

In fact there has been a lot of movement in the automobile industry to make new plastics because of the drive to reduce weight and hence increase fuel efficiency, for many years now. However, the gains that have been made in reducing weight in cars through the use of plastics have been negated by additional parts in new cars, replacing that weight, and so there has been no real saving in fuel efficiency overall. Also, although many new plastics being developed for use in cars can be recycled, when cars are put through the mill, as it were, at the end of their ‘cycle’, there is little effort to separate the plastics from other materials and so it rarely gets recycled. There has been a ‘drive’ to create processes that allow the extraction of these plastics in the still rather crude process of dismantling / crushing of cars at the end of their 'life' but I think this is a rather vulgar reminder of our place and responsibility at the crest of the cycle of life on our planet. Maybe we should think harder about how industry waste can feedback into the life cycle of our planet so that our ecology might benefit. After all, we can only purchase products that are made by industry, so surely the onus is on governments to enforce policies that ensure any product of industry has a process that re-uses or recycles its component parts / materials, no? Maybe these can be sold on and used to make a profit. It seems ridiculous that, given the international focus on climate change AND the issues surrounding sustainability that this hasn’t happened already. But what do I know, I’m just an artist!
Some technology has been developed to turn some plastics back into fuel, but this is a complex and expensive process that involves creating more greenhouse gasses and is not 100% efficient or widely available at a cost effective price (yet). And that is the crux of the problem really. For an industry that moves extremely fast, it's reactions, and those of governments, to the 'social cost' of its produce is far too slow - and we are literally paying the price for it.

Headlight, Camera, Action!

I suppose I chose this item from Freecycle because it seemed like a challenge...So it begins! I must first ask myself some questions and then ask some questions about this item! What attracts me to this object? What is its use once it's original function has been detached? I like to think that when you take away an objects function it just becomes a simple combination of materials that can be extracted and used elsewhere. Or maybe this light can be used as a light?

Whatever happens along my path of research into the origins of this object and its composite nature, I shall always bear in mind that the lovely lady who gave me this object didn't necessarily view it without value, it's just that her car got written off and she didn't see any point holding onto it when there are people like me out there who are ready and waiting to re-use it and, more importantly, stopping it going to some dirty landfill!