Saturday, February 26, 2011

The Myth of Plastics

The Myth of Plastics
Imagine a hypothetical future where the continuity of history as we know of it now has been lost after the earth has experienced a catalytic event that has destroyed most of the planet.  In this future a landfill site is mistaken for an ancient pilgrimage site.  All that remains in the landfill are particles of different types of plastic.  This leads anthropologists and scientists to assume that our society worshipped plastic.  Experts deduced that traces of everything from food and liquids (mostly water) to the excrement of animals (primarily dogs and now extinct) were detected on these particles of different types of plastic.  It has been assumed that these items had different values of importance depending on the type of plastic used.  Ultimately these substances were offerings to the Gods of Plastic.

I decided to spoof this as much as I could.

My first mash-up video references The Kingdom of Plastics (1945) a propaganda film encouraging domestic use of plastics after WWII.  In my version of The Kingdom of Plastics (2009), I used other found footage from around that era as well as my own footage of making plastic waffles with a couple of children.

The Worship of Plastic 1:12 the ritual of plastic wrapping (2010).  This second video interlaces The Best Made Plans (1956), a promotional video for Saran Wrap, with my own footage.  I invited people to recreate the sacred practice of wrapping items in plastic wrap to place in a location of worship in the home.  The refrigerator and freezer are highly regarded for their preserving qualities.   Items are also wrapped and placed in a suitcase for the annual plastic pilgrimage.

The third phase is the actual pilgrimage to a plastics manufacturing plant that borders on the undeveloped park of the Bois de Saraguay, on the island of Montreal.