Plastikus Progressus

MEDIUMS: sculpture, touch screen, photography, sound, text, drawing, including the image & text artwork, Histories.

The installation, 'Plastikus Progressus’ takes the form of a futuristic museum display, featuring the history of the development of the solution to the plastics pollution of the trans-ecology of water.  This futuristic narrative goes back in time from 2054, to 2017, to 1907.

In 1907,  bakelite, the first synthetic plastic was invented and pristine natural environments were common place.

2017 is represented as a key moment when plastic pollution was recognised as a major environmental disaster. Photographs document how plastic was transported into the oceans off the streets of cities.

By 2054,  genetically engineered creatures consume the plastic rubbish polluting the trans ecology of water, cleaning up our mess.  These creatures are assembled in a diorama surrounded by photographs and works on paper accompanied by a touch screen.

This narrative is embellished with scientific information about plastics pollution, the formation of gyres of concentrated rubbish, three cities’ rivers as case studies showing how our casual littering is carried from the streets & parks into the sea - Sydney’s Cooks River, Athen’s Kifossis, Ilissos and Eridanos Rivers and the Fulda River in Kassel, Germany (Athens and Kassel both hosted the international event, Documenta14 in 2017, the exhibition of Plastikus Progressus).

Taxonomies of all the genetically engineered plastic eating creatures may be viewed on a touch screen and the diorama’s labels. The taxonomies are based on the characteristics of the creatures they ‘evolved’ from, bringing people’s attention to Earth's extraordinary life forms. The creatures are constructed from discarded vacuum cleaners and rubbish off the streets of Sydney. Some are funny, some poignant, some fantastic, many have a political sub-text, for example DJ Trumpussy combining the cat, box jelly fish and the plastic eating bacteria, Ideonella sakaiensis.

The works on paper: history charts from 2000BC to 2054AD, illustrated with imagery, list the expansion & contraction of nations’ dominance - wars, defeats, invasions, colonisation, dominance - punctuated by critical inventions that changed Homo sapiens’ technological capacities,  cultures, economies, etc.

2054 PLASTIKUSPROGRESSUS : THE PROGRESS OF PLASTICS

Today, the 26th of September 2054, we celebrate the 2450th anniversary of the birth of Lao Tze, author of the international bestseller the Tao Te Ching.

In 2016, Lao Tzu inspired the use of CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) to genetically modify the “plastic-munching microbe,” Ideonella sakaiensis, improving its genetic encoding and isolating the enzymes responsible for dissolving polyethylene terephthalate, or PET.

Since then, scientists have created a diversity of creatures that digest plastics to lead our attack on plastic’s toxic pollution of water’s trans-ecology. We now depend upon these creatures in 2054 to clean up our mess in the oceans, rivers, cities and our homes:

2017 FRACTALS, LITTER & CRISPR

Lao Tzu’s conception of the numinous unity of nature and Homo sapien’s place in it is expressed scientifically in the matrix of patterns called fractals - the underlying structure of natural forms:

In the early C21st, massive amounts of plastic litter in the trans-ecology of life-giving water was an environmental disaster. Plastic’s chemical structure was antithetical to the laws of nature, having no relationship to the organic structures expressed in fractals.

Plastic killed the life forms that ingested it. Plastic also slowly disintegrated into indestructible, toxic, micro-fibres, poisoning our food chains.

Scientists have since solved this problem. They have genetically engineered creatures whose digestive systems dissolve plastics into harmless chemicals. Classified as the genus, Plastikus progressus, we give thanks to Science and the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu’s ancient masterpiece, which inspired this brilliant solution to a seemingly impossible problem:

1907 MEMENTO MORI - PRISTINE NATURE

In 1907, when nature was relatively ‘pristine’, the first synthetic plastic, known as bakelite, was invented. This was the genesis of the scientific miracle that has delivered to us the species, Plastikus progressus -  an army of ‘environmental sanitation workers’, diligently cleaning up our pollution.

In 2017 an archive was established, recording nature in its pristine condition in three sites – the Hills of Athens, the Sababurg Forest near Kassel, and Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, Sydney. For us in 2054 it is a momento mori of a past era’s belief in the importance of environmental heterogeneity:

THE INSTALLATION School of Art Gallery, the Athens iteration of documenta14, 2017

THE TOUCH SCREEN

THE CREATURES’ TAXONOMIES

Each plastic eating creature has a taxonomy describing its classification and distinguishing features, for example, reproduction, habitat, diet, physiology. Much of the information quotes the taxonomies of the genetically engineered creatures bringing people’s attention to Earth's extraordinary life forms.

CAMAKANGA, JOEY Classification: Chamelion micro-tripodidae : Common names, Camakanga, Joey; χαμαιλέοντας καγκουρώ (με το μωρό,) [chamailéontas kankouró (me to moró)] – Marsupial (kangaroo)

CamaKangas and their Joeys serve as a classic example of the effectiveness of the gene editing method, Crispr-Cas9, otherwise known as CRISPR. This process is used to create a specifically designed mutation that permanently alters the genes of an organism and its offspring. In 2012, Professor Jennifer Doudna pioneered the method at the University of California, and by 2017 it was commonly used to create permanent mutations of embryos. The method was cheap, fast, precise, and so easy school children were taught the process.
A miniscule dose of CAS9 protein and synthetic ‘guides’ called ribonucleic acid (RNA) - a molecule essential in the coding, decoding, regulation, and expression of genes - search out the organism’s targeted string of genetic bases. The CAS9 protein chops both strands of the selected genes’ double helix, and a new functioning segment is implanted to permanently change the organism. CamaKangas and their Joeys are small mutations of the kangaroo and bacteria, Ideonella sakaiensis, whose enzymes digest plastic. The kangaroo’s characteristics are ideal for an organism designed to live on and devour ‘garbage patches’ of plastic rubbish way out on the ocean. Kangaroos can swim. They jump across rough terrain, such as the South Pacific Gyre, the elastic energy of their tendons are, in effect, perpetual motion machines when in motion. They have polyphodontic molars that grow back when ground down by tough abrasives. Their young are raised inside a pouch protected from inhospitable environments. Their neonate Joey’s development may wait ‘on hold’ if circumstances do not favour its growth. They have polyphodontic molars that grow back when ground down by tough abrasives.
In addition, CamaKangas and their Joeys deploy magnifying lenses to search out miniscule plastic fibres and chips, amplifying the impact of their grazing on the gyres.

DOGTOR Classification: Medicus plastikos  : Common name, Dogtor; Γιατρός [Giatrós] – Mammal (dog).

Known fondly as ‘man’s best friend’, the dog is by far the most selectively bred mammal, its genesis going back 130,000 years to the grey wolf. Throughout time and in all cultures the Canis familiaris has endeared itself to Homo sapiens, guarding them, tracking their enemies and prey, snuggling up on cold nights, expressing affection in exchange for security and food. The most recent breed, affectionately named the Dogtor (Doc for short), has all these character traits, in volumes. The canine’s defining social attributes are retained in the process of breeding the Dogtor, using CRISPR to genetically engineer a plastics processing, domesticated pet. Canine genes combine with a plastics munching  bacteria, Ideonella sakaiensis to  rid urban and rural human habitats of water polluting, toxic rubbish. Over half a century on from its beginnings as Bakelite in 1907, plastic became, internationally, a ubiquitous, multi-purpose material so useful in its flexibility and endurance: air and water proof, cheap, indestructible, made from plentiful crude oil. However, its usefulness was eventually outstripped by its toxicity. But somehow people could never control their everyday littering of ‘disposable’ plastic containers, accoutrements, and useless consumer products. Enter Dogtor, whose endearing qualities include a diet of pure plastics, the tougher and chewier the better, its teeth augmented by plastic brushes, knives, even surgical syringes, used to inject nutritious, microfiber juices - not forgetting a plastics devouring, vacuum cleaner digestive system.   Walking the dog has never been more productive. Dimensions variable.

CHAMPION Classification: Vacuumus champion plastikos:  Common name, Champion; Πρωταθλητής  [protathlitís] – Insect (mayfly)

Although descended from the mayfly, the Champion’s spoon-like wings achieve uplift comparable to rotorcrafts’ flight. Like helicopters, the champion’s blades rotate at speeds up to 600 rpm. Their mechanism is locked inside uniquely notched joints in a cartilage housing that resembles, in outward appearance, a Melbourne Cup trophy. Unique to Australian rivers and coastlines, this insect is believed to have evolved from tiny, plastic, souvenir replicas of the Cup, an uncanny, ‘off target’ CRISPR effect. Hence the name, ‘Champion’. The two cups’ handle-like protrusions steer with horizontal thrust in syncopation with the force of the rotating blades’ vertical aerodynamic lift. Champion’s sturdy physique in its mature, terrestrial stage is born aloft over rivers and streams, scouring, devouring plastic debris.  They love the plastic flowers and plants that are another ‘off target effect’ of CRISPR. Rather than the mayfly’s primitive ancestral traits - long wings and tail inherited from the Earth’s first insects - the Champion has a unique, bushy protrusion that combines with tongs to form a very effective triangulated outreach. Hence its success as a highly efficient aquatic scavenger. As nymphs, champions crawl from mud nests to the edge of a stream, rest in protective clusters while the moisture, strengthened with plastic microfibers, pumps through their veins to extend their rotors upwards. After just 10 to 15 minutes they are fully equipped to take off over land and sea in pursuit of plentiful, plastic nourishment.   

DJ TRUMPUSSIE: Classification: Dísk ‎arrogans conflo faeles. Common name, DJ Trumpussy; δίσκος  αναβάτης ατού γάτος  [dískos anavátis atoú gátos] - Mammal  (cat) Cubozoa (jellyfish)

This extraordinary feline is two faced - Face #1 is crowned by DJ Trumpussies’s distinctive cream coloured head cover. Like cats, they are obsessed with grooming – Trumpussy’s tongue is equipped with 500 micrometre long keratin papillae which are backwards facing and act like a hairbrush. They are known to regurgitate hairballs. A single, bar code-like eye is located on a perfectly transparent, up-side-down container-like skull that appears to contain a vacuum. Biologists have established a genetic connection to the box jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri), which can have up to sixty tentacles, three metres in length, containing millions of nematocysts, microscopic hooks containing and delivering venom.

They do not have a brain.

Face #2 extends from its groin down to the ankle. The eyes resemble popped plastic pill containers while the nose, a bristled tooth-like structure, hovers over the characteristically cute, pursed open lips associated with the DJ Trumpussy’s permanent, smile-like facial expression.  A bubbled cloak and serving tray protrude from the rear of the cat’s proudly upright physique. Its spine may extend and contract. Its mobility, colloquially known as the ‘hoover maneuver’, is powered by an energy efficient, 1000 watt ‘projectile mobility’ mechanism that functions as a repetitive suck up to, then discharge of the terrain it inhabits. Any plastic garbage encountered is ingested, neutralised to its chemical composition, then spat out.

Skin tone - shiny gold.

CHARIOT: Classification: Ecuo curruum brrrroomus.    Common name, Chariot; άλογο που άρμα [álogo pou árma]. Mammal (draft horse)

An outstanding characteristic of the Chariot is its extraordinary endurance, matched by the tenacity to gather massive loads for up to 10 hours a day. Chariot trundles over deep ocean floors, then, rising up to the surface, harvests the floating rafts of plastics in the oceans’ gyres. These traits are an outcome of selectively breeding robust, draft horses adapted to aquatic environments, then genetically combining them with enzymes and bacteria that enable unique microbes to efficiently ingest PET (polyethylene terephthalate) and PP (polypropylene). The Champion harvests PET and PP in a cart hooked onto the back of its sturdy body. The cart doubles as its digestive system where rotating bristles churn the waste to break it down into a liquid slurry of concentrated plastic microfibers, which are then converted into harmless chemicals. If we turn back the clock 100 years to 1954, beasts of burden, the draft horse, had largely been replaced in industrialised countries by tractors, cars, trains, trucks and military vehicles. Go back just 50 years further to 1905, the horse was the means of transport. They could haul a dead weight one tenth of their body weight – up to 180 kilos (400lbs). In comparison, the Chariot’s loads are decidedly light weight, comprised of indestructible plastic waste. But this creature has extraordinary stamina, scouring the oceans and rivers up to ten hours a day, every day, to collect massive volumes of garbage.  Having inherited the draft horse’s healthy appetite, Chariot devours it all in a single session, helping to protect the ocean’s creatures, and our food chain also from toxic plastic.

MOTHERSHIP Classification: Maternavis : Common name, Mothership; μητρικό [mitrikó]  - Reptile (alligator). 

Scientists agree that the genetically engineered creature, Mothership, is the most experimental, if not the most successful application of CRISPR, the gene editing tool used to create this re-booted, plastic eating alligator, now adapted to fresh and saline waterMothership not only reproduces herself, but also provides surrogate umbilical attachments for ovocytes whose mature physical forms mirror the random plastic rubbish a Mothership ingests at the time of their conception. Conception occurs at a critical stage called estrous in Mothership’s ovulation cycle in precise confluence with her ingestion of food. Estrous triggers the fertilisation of surrogate fetuses, patterned on the object, or objects ingested. A Mothership’s diet is exclusively plastic trapped in the trans-ecology of the planet’s water. Mothership has 13 major umbilical stations, and can harness multiple minor staging points when required.  Her whole body is, in effect, an external uterus for essentially parasitic ovocytes.  As adults her offspring are hermaphrodites, so reproduce themselves.

Some examples:

Light Snail (Leviora cochlea) - outcome of a Mothership’s simultaneous ingestion of plastic cigarette lighters and electrical plugs.

Wag Tail (Testudo trahens) - ingestion of plastic measuring devices and a slide viewer.

Plug snapper (Obturo clostellum) - simultaneous ingestion of diverse electrical devices.

Porkupine  (Arithmetica ericius) - simultaneous ingestion of a plastic  tool for tracing circles, a plastic toothbrush, a plastic stake, a plastic plug, a power cord, a plastic bag.

Elephant tank  (Elephanti  lacus)  - ingestion of a fish tank pump and toothbrush attachment.

BLACK GENIUS MOUSE Nigrum ingenium mus: Common name, Black geni mouse; ιδιοφυία μαύρος Ποντίκι [idiofyía  mávros pontíki]  -  Mammal (mouse).

WHITE LOGIC MOUSE Alba logicae Mus : Common name, White logi mouse, Λευκό λογική του ποντικιού [Lefkó logikí tou pontikioú] - Mammal (mouse)

COMPUGATOR Classification: Computo crocodillus  :   Common name, Compugator;  Υπολογίζω αλλιγάτορας [ypologízo alligátoras] – Reptile (alligator)

Compugators have a small body, broad face and strong jaws. They are often seen cooling off in wetlands, swimming pools, waste water channels, reservoirs, roaming around in the shade of adjacent industrial precincts. Their energy source is a battery on their tails that recharges when exposed to out gassing concrete or any other source of carbon dioxide, such as freeway tunnels, smoke stacks, furnaces and power stations burning coal. In cities and towns they are often observed lounging around on concrete -  footpaths, city centres, industrial developments, new apartments blocks, their tail clamped to the concrete, soaking up the CO2 atmosphere. They are also programmed to report illegal dumping in industrial areas, using secret codes based on ‘obsolete’ Indigenous languages. To begin communications to Base, they open their mouths wide, then snap it shut suddenly, making a sharp ‘pop’ sound, then signaling resumes. Their mouths are obsolete computers that are periodically replaced, so they may go through up to 200 to 300 during their long life time. Compugators are habituated to interact harmlessly with humans having been sensitized as babies to apply empathetic telepathy to all their behaviors – they are community pets. Everyone treats them with affection. They are super smart, running dynamic self-diagnostics on their working parts, travelling up to 750 kilometres to return to the Base where they were ‘born’ for reprogramming, repairs and E-waste recycling as required. They can re-boot themselves.

GARBOGRAFFI (male) Classification: Amor masculum vacuumo  : Common name, Loverboy; εραστής άνδρας [erastís agóri]  - Mammal (Giraffe) 

 GARBOGRAFFA (female), Classification: Amor female vacuumo : Common name, Babe; φιλενάδα [filenáda] – Mammal (Giraffe)

Babe The Garbograffs, Babe (female) and Loverboy (male), evolved as an adaption to the increased pollution index from the 1950s when consumerism took hold in response to the indoctrinating influence of Pop Art and advertising. Like their genetic forebear, the giraffe, Babe’s maternal bond to their calves is very strong and mothers often gather in nursery groups to help each other, minding each other’s babies, giving each other time to graze, the males having departed after fertilisation. They tend to gather in gender separated groups, but also gather and travel together in mixed herds. Like many species, Loverboys and Babes often display affection and sexual attraction for their own gender, softly rubbing each other’s neck and engaging in same sex relations. Their habitats are the coast lines of continents where they wade into deep water, reaching down to the bottom to devour plastic objects on the sea bed, the location of unknowable quantities of plastics pollution. Garbograffs are able to completely close their nostrils, which is handy during sandstorms on the beach, as well as enabling deep sea scavenging. They may practice natal philopatry, returning to the place where they were born to mate. Males lick the females’ urine to detect oestrus, its presence an indication the Babe is ‘on heat’.

Loverboy Loverboy has inherited all the graceful, regal and amorous characteristics of giraffes. Loverboys grow up to an elegant 5.7 metres tall and can weigh 1200 kilograms. Loverboys establish hierarchies, attempting dominance by ‘knecking’ each other with thumps aimed at throwing their opponents off balance as well as delivering blows. But after the contest is over the opponents often display affection as if to make friends having established their pecking order. Loverboy’s diet is exclusively plastic waste, having been engineered, like the females, to eat and neutralise the toxic chemical bonds that poison food chains in the oceans. They chew their food twice, sending it partially masticated down their throats, then regurgitate it for more grinding and shredding before swallowing it down to the vacuum cleaner action of their stomachs where digestion is completed. Like the females, they make a significant contribution to cleaning up our plastic waste on sea beds.

 FLINGER    Classification: Multo lautus vacuumo : Common name, Flinger; πατούρα [patoúra] – Bird  (stork)

Flinger is typical of its genesis, the Ciconiidae family of aquatic birds known as storks, whose wing span of up to 3 metres enables them to support their heavy bodies in flight - up to 8 kilos in some species. They soar upon thermal air currents to conserve energy. However, the Flinger has been genetically engineered to swim, dive and surf propelled by its large, oar-like wings, harvesting toxic plastic waste that gathers in huge volumes where the oceans’ warm and cold currents meet to form huge, slow moving whirlpools. Fed by water’s trans-ecology, these whirlpools, or ‘gyres’, are located in the North and South Atlantic, North and South Pacific Oceans and the Indian Ocean. Flingers also inhabit land locked waters such as the Mediterranean Sea, Sydney Harbour, the Baltic Sea, where trapped plastic garbage is plentiful. Modeled by geneticists on Bram Stocker’s Dracula, the Flinger’s large, sharp teeth rapidly break down large volumes of solid plastic and polystyrene. Diving with its tail arched and held aloft, it simultaneously scoops up a stew of plastic bags, bubble wrap, synthetic textiles to feed its chicks who require 15 feeds a day. Like their relatives, they usually gather in flocks, but unlike storks that feed in shallow water there is no indication of kleptoparasitism [stealing food from others] as their food supply is always plentiful.

HELLS ANGEL Classification: Inferna angelus  : Common name, Hells Angel; άγγελος της κόλασης [ángelos tis kólasis] – Reptile, (tortoise)

Symbolising longevity - living up to 150 years and more - the tortoise in many Eastern cultures is also known as the Black Warrior, hence the appellation, Hells Angel. Named for the motor cycle macho men whose expertise at sand drag racing hardly mirrors the slow gait of the species, which averages 0.27kms/hr. Their black protective shell resembles Shogun head gear, with horn shaped vodka bottles sending low sound vibrations to the Hells Angel’s eardrums. The Hells Angel has a long tail in which its exclusive diet of plastic flowers is digested and stored, much like a fuel tank. Ironically the females are usually larger than the males. Their brain is small with no hippocampus, which anatomically enables behaviors such as emotion, learning, memory and spatial navigation. They are known to have survived after decapitation for up to 6 months. 

OCELOT Classification: Leopardus pardalis  : Common name, Ocelot; Αιλουροπάρδαλις [ailouropárdalis]  - Mammal (ocelot)

Ocelots may wander up to 7.6 kilometres in a single night searching through sea grass for their plastic food. Their tail scoops up plastic bags, fish nets, bubble wrap before it disintegrates into microfibers, hauling it to the ocean’s floor to sleep in and eat at their leisure. Their diet suits their mating pattern, spending much time together with their cubs. They can mate at any time of year, feeding from moving arrays of plastic floating by on ocean currents. It was estimated there were only 50 land based ocelots in the wild at the time these ocean-going plastic eating relatives were genetically engineered.

                                                         PRISTINE NATURE - 1907

Surrounding the diorama featuring the genetically engineered creatures, examples of pristine nature in the vicinity of Sydney, Australia, Athens, Greece and Kassel, Germany, documented in 1907 when bakelite was invented, illustrate how the Earth’s ecosystems’ have changed.

                                        THE PLASTIKUS PROGRESSUS DADO

Along with the sounds of birds in the diorama, the dado around the room composed of plastic waste ‘ties’ the installation together.

EXHIBITIONS:

2017 Documenta 14, Athens School of Fine Arts Gallery, 8 April - 16 July 2017.

2018 Plastikus Progressus, taxonomies and touch screen. Brewery Tap Gallery, Folkestone, UK.

2019 Plasticity of the Planet, Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for    Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland. Plastikus Progressus. March 15 - September 22, 2019.

2019 Bonita Ely: Future Tense, Griffith University Art Museum, Brisbane. Survey exhibition.

2019 How the City Cares, Customs House, Sydney. Plastikus Progressus Taxonomies, prints and touch screen.

2020 Momento, Penrith Regional Gallery, Interior Decoration: Trench, Watchtower, Sewing Machine Gun, Tour of Duty, DUKw.  Plastikus Progressus.

FUNDING: Visual Arts Board, Australian Council; Arts NSW; University of New South Wales Faculty Research Grant.