Approach One:
Photographic Stories

This approach uses the medium of photography to share and communicate the existence of the warped plastics. It uses Bennett’s question—“how, for example, would patterns of consumption change if we faced not litter, rubbish, trash, or ‘the recycling’, but an accumulating pile of lively and potentially dangerous matter?” (2010, p. viii)—to drive the intent behind this approach; to frame the warped plastics as evidence of the ‘lively’ existences of post-use plastics. Photography is used as a vehicle to present a ‘lifelike’ or ‘true-to-eye’ account of these plastics; providing ‘visual evidence’ for the longevity and liveliness of plastics through its material warping. This approach is framed around creating outcomes to disseminate to consumer audiences as a way of raising awareness and dialogue about the longevity of plastic, and thus inspiring ecological concern.

In reference to psychologist Per Espen Stoknes’ argument that “people tend to disregard problems they cannot see or feel” (2015, p. 33), this approach to photography seeks to generate indisputable evidence for the indisposable nature of plastic. This approach fundamentally assumes that presenting unmanipulated, ‘true’ accounts of these warped plastics will be enough to persuade and encourage shifts in consumer perceptions about plastic.