How Sad!
Is it just me who thinks how sad we are to make a New Year’s resolution concerning plastic bags? In the 21st century we finally came to the conclusion that it would be a good idea to bring our own carrier bags when out shopping. The value of a plastic bag seems to have re-gained its original status as something worth to carry at all times. We actually do not see how dependant we are on things that are so much in our faces and therefore have become undetected by us for being too self-evident within the everyday?
Judy Attfield argues that when a product ‘termed design is re-contextualized as an aspect of material culture, it loses its visibility to become a part of the everyday’ (Attfield 2000,13-14). In other words, its value changes according to how we measure its importance in our lives. She sees design as ‘things with attitude’ and therefore when perceived as an object placed out of the usual, we can see its new role depending on our understanding of its identity and social change. Similarly, Gay Hawkins expresses her concern when stating that in our everyday the role and movement of the plastic bag ‘from container to rubbish’ creates different readings. Hawkins brings up the term ‘ethics’ in terms of the relationship between the individual and the ‘thing’ (Hawkins, 2001,7).
Let us question this relationship. I propose to take a ‘thing’ such as a plastic bag out of the usual and turn it into a live being. Let us feel like a plastic bag for a while. Its role as a ‘container’ makes it feel proud. It has a responsibility towards the ‘human’ therefore it is valued. It carries the shopping, it is reused to carry a lunch for the same ‘human’, it gives itself to the user. The infinite is to be recognized for its properties and turned into a new object. It is however also seen as an object that can be easily replaced. At this point it has degraded to ‘rubbish’. In most cases, it is never reused and is thrown away by the creature called ‘human’. It ends up on a landfill, it becomes dirty and cold and it feels rejected. Its value was not recognized.
‘Why doesn’t anybody appreciate that I behave normally?’ (Fischli&Weiss, 2006) We as the most intelligent creatures in the world gave the plastic bag its life and at the same time we rejected it as an object that can be easily replaced. Of course the plastic bag does not understand this attitude. After all, it is a ‘thing with its attitude’. Bearing this in mind, everything around us is a design with its attitude. The way we ‘perceive’ or better ‘consume’ depends on our understanding of it. Perhaps now is the time for us to rethink our relationship to objects seen in the everyday. The plastic bag cannot comprehend our attitude. Therefore it ends up thinking: ‘Should I punish the world by ignoring it?’ (Fischli&Weiss, 2006) A plastic bag can. But can we?
Is it just me who thinks how sad we are to make a New Year’s resolution concerning plastic bags? In the 21st century we finally came to the conclusion that it would be a good idea to bring our own carrier bags when out shopping. The value of a plastic bag seems to have re-gained its original status as something worth to carry at all times. We actually do not see how dependant we are on things that are so much in our faces and therefore have become undetected by us for being too self-evident within the everyday?
Judy Attfield argues that when a product ‘termed design is re-contextualized as an aspect of material culture, it loses its visibility to become a part of the everyday’ (Attfield 2000,13-14). In other words, its value changes according to how we measure its importance in our lives. She sees design as ‘things with attitude’ and therefore when perceived as an object placed out of the usual, we can see its new role depending on our understanding of its identity and social change. Similarly, Gay Hawkins expresses her concern when stating that in our everyday the role and movement of the plastic bag ‘from container to rubbish’ creates different readings. Hawkins brings up the term ‘ethics’ in terms of the relationship between the individual and the ‘thing’ (Hawkins, 2001,7).
Let us question this relationship. I propose to take a ‘thing’ such as a plastic bag out of the usual and turn it into a live being. Let us feel like a plastic bag for a while. Its role as a ‘container’ makes it feel proud. It has a responsibility towards the ‘human’ therefore it is valued. It carries the shopping, it is reused to carry a lunch for the same ‘human’, it gives itself to the user. The infinite is to be recognized for its properties and turned into a new object. It is however also seen as an object that can be easily replaced. At this point it has degraded to ‘rubbish’. In most cases, it is never reused and is thrown away by the creature called ‘human’. It ends up on a landfill, it becomes dirty and cold and it feels rejected. Its value was not recognized.
‘Why doesn’t anybody appreciate that I behave normally?’ (Fischli&Weiss, 2006) We as the most intelligent creatures in the world gave the plastic bag its life and at the same time we rejected it as an object that can be easily replaced. Of course the plastic bag does not understand this attitude. After all, it is a ‘thing with its attitude’. Bearing this in mind, everything around us is a design with its attitude. The way we ‘perceive’ or better ‘consume’ depends on our understanding of it. Perhaps now is the time for us to rethink our relationship to objects seen in the everyday. The plastic bag cannot comprehend our attitude. Therefore it ends up thinking: ‘Should I punish the world by ignoring it?’ (Fischli&Weiss, 2006) A plastic bag can. But can we?
Attfield, J. (2000), Wild Things: The Material Culture of Everyday Life, Berg, Oxford
Fischli, P., Weiss, D. (2006), Will Happiness Find Me? (quotes translated by Catherine Schelbert), Koenig Books, London
Hawkins, G. (2001), Plastic bags: Living with rubbish, (article found in INTERATIONAL Journal of Cultural Studies), Sage Publications, London
Fischli, P., Weiss, D. (2006), Will Happiness Find Me? (quotes translated by Catherine Schelbert), Koenig Books, London
Hawkins, G. (2001), Plastic bags: Living with rubbish, (article found in INTERATIONAL Journal of Cultural Studies), Sage Publications, London
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