Permanent Change
Plastics in Architecture and Engineering
Michael Bell , Craig Buckley
Publication in conjunction with:
THE FOURTH COLUMBIA CONFERENCE ON ARCHITECTURE, ENGINEERING AND MATERIALS
MARCH 30 — APRIL 1, 2011
Details of the conference
Plasticity
Formation/Information: The forming capabilities of now
The traditional modes of production like oil painting made
possible the flexible representation of flesh in bourgeois culture.
The development of photo emulsions made possible the instant
image, digitalization and the net, the all-over delivery of information.
New polymer materials together with digitally aided
technology make possible a new type of composite corporality.
These plastics change the predictability and sensations of
objects in relation to the body and between the objects themselves. Examples
are numerous but some are as intimate as sex toys and medical silicone or as
extroverted and structural as silicone sealants in glass steel curtain walls.
Most uses of polymers are as instruments for the circulation
of flows; the tubing between the body and medical machines, the machine parts
in the form of gaskets cushioning rigid parts, and in the making of electronic
chips.
This role as a sealant, circulant, cushion, gasket, filler
or prosthetic make new polymers essentially the passage between bodies and
objects. They are a structural plastic passage between rigid entities and soft
ones. They are in the interstitial spaces of everything that matters.
They are both what makes information possible and the form
of in-formation, an actual process of informing and forming. Plasticity is
present at the level of the digital information, hard mold formation, and the
distribution of information.
These new plasticities act as the flexible aura between things, a plastic
subjectification.
FM 2012
