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Interesting facts about plastics and rubber

We come across plastics and rubber everywhere in our daily lives. Discover fascinating stories, surprising facts and interesting background information – from historical developments and well-known products to key figures and innovations in the industry.

Results (423)

  • #Rubber #Medical technology

    A brief lesson on condom production

    Condoms are mainly made from natural rubber, the sap of the rubber tree (latex milk). Originally, the rubber, which had coagulated and solidified on exposure to air, was crushed and liquefied again using a petrol mixture. However, this process was labour-intensive and also highly flammable – explosions were not uncommon in the production facilities.

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  • Plastic parade – the plastics commonly used in art

    Thermoplastics (plastics that soften and can be formed when heated): ● Polystyrene: standard plastic, in very widespread use, but sensitive, brittle (camping tableware, salad bowls, refrigerator containers), always transparent, easily confused with polymethylacrylate; impact-resistant polystyrene, made flexible and practically unbreakable by the addition of synthetic rubber; white or coloured, always opaque and matt (jugs, bottles); expanded polystyrene, formed into rigid foam, very low weight (heat-insulating, impact-resistant packs; white sheets or blocks as semi-finished products). Expanded polystyrene is primarily used in visual arts. Example in art: Cat on a Clothesline by Jeff Koons, 1994 ● Polymethyl methacrylate: used very frequently by artists. At room temperature, PMMA is a clear, colourless, volatile, flammable liquid with a penetrating odour. It reacts easily with halogens, halogen acid and sulphur compounds. Methyl methacrylate is mainly used to produce methyl acrylic resins. This material, which is known by its trade names Plexiglas, Perspex or Lucite, has established a particularly strong position in airship construction and optical instruments thanks to its low weight, its mechanical resistance and its ability to transmit light. Examples in art: Leda mit dem Schwan by László Moholy-Nagy, 1946; Compression Plastique von César, 1971; Zur Erinnerung von Wilhelm Becker by Uli Pohl, 1972 ● Phenolic plastics: Bakelite is the standard type of phenolic plastic. Phenolic plastics replaced porcelain in insulation applications, but they can only be produced in dark colours (black Bakelite telephones). They were therefore replaced by aminoplastics, which offer a more extensive colour range. One of the most well-known aminoplastic products is melamine. Example of Bakelite in art: Aphrodisiac Telephone by Salvador Dalí, 1936 ● Cellulose acetate: cellulose acetate is a well-known material frequently used in everyday life under such names as Cellophane and Rhodoid (Cellophane: films, bags, sausage skins; Rhodoid: combs, hair grips, artificial fingernails). Example of Rhodoid in art: Tête No. 2 by Naum Gabo, 1916 Thermosetting polymers (plastics that cure via heating): ● Polyester: laminates are produced from polyester resins. Compressed fibreglass polyester is familiar to us from the aircraft and car industries. Examples in art: „Portrait Charles Wilp“ (waste in polyester) by Arman, 1961; Violon (smashed violin in polyester) by Arman, 1970 ● Epoxy: epoxy resins are used particularly in the adhesive, ink and lacquer industry. They share some of the same applications as polyester. Some kinds of synthetic concrete are made with polyester resins, while epoxy resins are used for others (epoxy has the same density as stone or metal). Example in art: Arbre Biplan by Jean Dubuffet, 1968 ● Polyurethane: rigid polyurethane foam is used for heat insulation purposes in refrigerators and other refrigerated equipment. This material is, however, primarily used for furniture and car seats. Examples in art: Expansions by César, 1968-1970; „Mousses“ („Foams“) by Alexandre Bonnier, 1971 Chronological summary of the use of plastics by artists 1916: The Russian sculptor Naum Gabo (1890 – 1977) creates the first work of art from plastic (Rhodoid). It is a head sculpture with cubistic influences (Tête No. 2, in English: „Head No. 2". 1920: Gabo’s brother Antoine Pevsner (1884 – 1962), who was also a painter and sculptor, uses plastic films for his Masques. 1922: The Hungarian painter and sculptor László Moholy-Nagy (1895 – 1946) starts to teach at Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau. The artist, who is considered to be a constructivist, uses polymethyl methacrylate (Plexiglas) film and metal in his works. Moholy-Nagy counts as one of the pioneers of what is known as kinetic art, since his works include movement, light and shade. 1937: MoMoholy-Nagy establishes “The New Bauhaus” in Chicago. In the USA, he creates three-dimensional objects with the help of transparent Plexiglas panels. These objects include the Space Modulator, which is now owned by the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg. 1948: The French painter and sculptor Samuel Guyot, known as Saint-Maur (1906 – 1979), creates the first work of art in the world that is made from polyester resin with the sculpture “Femme assise” (“Sitting woman”). This is followed in 1968 by a monumental sculpture made from polyurethane foam; Saint-Maur makes the six-metre-high, inhabitable “Maison de mousse” (“Foam house”) from the same material in 1969 (Inside view). 1958: The German sculptor Uli Pohl, who was born in Munich in 1935, creates light sculptures from compact acrylic glass blocks. Art historians report that this is a premiere for the material. 1961: Marcel Garrigou (1916 – 1998) organises the “First international exhibition of paintings, sculptures and decorative art objects made from vinyl and polyester” at the Plastics Museum in Toulouse. 1968: The Bulgarian artist Christo Jawaschew (born in 1935) and his French wife Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (1935 – 2009) install their “Air Packaging” at documenta in Kassel on 3. August. The people in Kassel call it the “sausage”. It is the biggest work of art ever inflated without an internal framework (height: 85 metres, diameter: 10 metres, volume: 5 600 cubic metres). The surface consists of 2 000 square metres of PVC-coated Trevira fabric. 1968: Group exhibition “Art & Plastic. Plastic as the Material used by Artists” at the Wiesbaden Municipal Museum (7. April to 2. June 1968), at Bürgermeister-Ludwig-Reichert-Haus, Ludwigshafen (14. June to 21. July 1968) and at the Dortmund Museum am Ostwall (28. November 1968 to 5. January 1969). 1985: Christo and Jean-Claude wrap the Pont Neuf in Paris, the oldest bridge over the River Seine, in 40 000 square metres of sand-coloured polyamide fabric from 25. August to 22. September. 1995: Christo and Jean-Claude wrap the whole of the Reichstag Building in Berlin in 100 000 square metres of aluminium-metallised polypropylene fabric (Wrapped Reichstag) from 24. June to 7. July. 15 600 metres of blue polypropylene rope are used as well. 1998: The special show “Art and Plastic” is held from 22. October 1998 to 6. January 1999 in the context of the opening exhibition at the German Plastics Museum in Düsseldorf “Faszination Kunststoff”. 31 “Flossis”, brightly coloured clinbing figures 3.80 metres high made of polystyrene laminated with fibreglass-reinforced epoxy resin, climb up the front of the NRW-Forum Kultur und Wirtschaft (Ehrenhof). The installation by the Stuttgart artist rosalie developed into the symbol and landmark of the plastics trade fair in Düsseldorf. The large sculptures are now attached to the front of a non-listed municipal building in the “Medienhafen” district (Photo 1 und Photo 2) 2009: The exhibition Plastic:material revolution for design + art is held at the Museum for Applied Art in Cologne from 20. October 2009 to 29. November 2010 and is then extended until 24. January 2011.

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  • Art and artificiality

    It is a platitude of traditional aesthetics that art is the imitation of nature. It is not unusual for this sentence to be interpreted as normative, but it is practically impossible to support the theory even if imitation is not made mandatory for art. It is contradicted / corrected by art in practice: art does not imitate, it keeps its distance; it does away with the corset into which we are forced by the existing world (nature, society) by eliminating and surpassing what already is. Art has therefore been accused of being artificial. This accusation is fair neither to art nor to nature, however, because it makes the unspoken assumption that art is not of this world and that nature is static. Anyone who vilifies what is claimed to be artificial as unnatural cements the existing conditions. The tendency to create a division between nature and art therefore needs to be countered by considering how the imitating and surpassing theories, which are said to be contradictory, can be reconciled with each other. In other words, the question that needs to be answered is whether a basic theory can be developed that incorporates both “opposites” and, if at all possible, reconciles them. If nature and art are interpreted not as opposites but as two sides of the coin which has been given the name “reality”, then the result is: art anticipates the dormant possibilities of nature (potential reality) and makes them visible – as staged pseudo-reality. Potential reality is concealed, on the one hand, because it can only develop in the course of time, i.e. gradually, and cannot be realised simultaneously, all at the same time (at least, not in the world that we are familiar with). Purpose of art On the other hand, there are obstacles to the development of potential reality that can in principle be eliminated – against resistance that is sometimes more and sometimes less fierce (political and economic balance of power, conventions, fashion, habits). Put in somewhat dramatic terms, the purpose of art is to liberate nature to be itself, to “imitate” its inherent potential, i.e. to help it to become reality. In this interpretation, the surpassing theory therefore incorporates (or “overrides”) the imitation theory. “Imitation of nature” cannot as a result be abused as dogmatic handcuffs any longer; it can be seen instead as free, liberating creation. About art and artificiality Art could only be described as “artificial”, if it claimed that the pseudo-reality it stages was “true” nature, “actual” reality, a kind of hyper-reality behind the scenes and alleged that it surpassed everything else. Art would lose its subversive power in this case and would reduce nature to what is only part of the truth. Art only remains true to itself if it intimates in what it is and produces that everything could be completely different instead. By creating something, art at the same time negates and already tries to go beyond the perspective it currently holds. It is only thanks to these incessant, art-driven changes in perspective that we are able even to sense what reality in all its richness means – something that we can never fully understand and that we can only experience in fragmentary form. What art has to offer is only fragmentary too, but it acts on behalf of what is not fragmentary and demonstrates to us that the search for entirety is a never-ending task. Art helps us to leave convention and ossification behind us. To do this, it makes use of concepts, processes and materials that arrange the world in the work in a way that it is “not yet”, but can be imagined or brought to light via creative use of the imagination. And in reflecting on the work, we see the world as we know it with different eyes, find a new attitude towards it. Provided our focus on art enables us to train our minds in such a way that we overcome conventional perception patterns or at least break free from them for a time. Plastic as an ideal medium for art to express itself Working with plastics artistically neither makes art artificial nor does it produce “substitute nature”. On the contrary: the material helps artists to give what is possible a real form – ideally in a way that other materials are unable to do (otherwise the plastic would merely be a substitute material). Plastics make art more artistic rather than more artificial. “Nature imitates art” is how Oscar Wilde turned the old aesthetic principle round. A clever remark that confused and provoked his contemporaries – which was perhaps Wilde’s strongest motive. The sentence has depth even so. In view of the thinking that has been outlined here, it can be explained as follows: nature is shown its own potential in art, because art anticipates what is possible. Nature finds itself, catches up with itself and in fact is only able to keep up with its own potential when it imitates art. Due to all these interrelationships, plastics can even take on natural characteristics in art, as if they were part of nature. When polyurethane foam resembles lava, for example, the idea that nature is something which is encountered is transformed into the conviction that nature is something that has been produced. Art with natural characteristics reveals, if you like, the fact that nature is a work in progress too. The inherent powers the material has to form and create become issues, in the same way they are in the work of art itself. Paradoxically enough, one loses sight of the material artificiality of the work of art in this context – at least for a time – while it is not forgotten completely, because the work is only reminiscent of nature and must not be confused with it. Plastic as a source of the arts The situation is different when plastics act as copies in everyday contexts and are not supposed to be distinguishable from marble, wood or metals at the visual level. “People find this so satisfying that they sometimes even process (genuine!) leather or fabrics in such a way that they look like a plastic imitation. The natural originals gradually become less interesting to them; their attention is restricted to the symbols and the appearance of the things that are sometimes ‘more genuine than nature’ “ writes the French artist and philosopher Hervé Fischer (born in 1941) in his 1973 essay “Hygiene of art”. It is reported, on the other hand, that a contemporary of Fischer, the French sculptor César Baldaccini (1921 – 1998), once said: “I would be interested in making imitations, but only on the condition that they are recognisable as imitations.” In other words: art that “imitates” destroys the illusion – irrespective of whether it uses natural or synthetic materials in its imitation exercise. Plastics in art are not therefore their sentence to death; on the contrary, they are in actual fact a rejuvenating force that can be a source of new forms of artistic expression.

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