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PLASTICRoland Barthes

Despite having names of Greek shepherds(Polystyrene, Polyvinyl , Polyethylene),plast ic, the products ofwhich have just beengathered in an exhibi t ion, is in essence thestuff of alchemy. At the entrance of thestand, the publ ic wai ts in a long queue in

' order to witness the accomplishment of themagical operation par excel lence: thetransmutation of matter. An ideal ly-shapedmachine, tabulated and oblong (a shape wellsuited to suggest the secret of an i t inerary)effort lessly draws, out of a heap of greenishcrystals, shiny and f luted dressing-roomtidies. At one end, raw, te l lur ic matter, atthe other, the f inished, human object; andbetween these two extremes, nothing;nothing but a transit , hardly watched over byan attendant in a cloth cap, half-god, half-robot.

So, more than a substance, plast ic is thevery idea of i ts inf ini te transformation; as i tseveryday name indicates, i t is ubiqui ty madevis ib le. And i t is th is, in fact . which makesit a miraculous substance: a miracle isalways a sudden transformation of nature.Plastic remains impregnated throughout withthis wonder: i t is less a thing than the traceoI a movement.

And as the movement here is almostinf inite, transforming the original crystalsinto a mult i tude of more and more start l ingobjects, p last ic is, a l l to ld, a spectacle to bedeciphered: the very spectacle of i ts end-products. At the sight of each terminal form(sui tcase, brush, car-body, toy, fabr ic, tube,basin or paper) , the mind does not cease

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from considering the original matter as anenigma. This is because the quick-changeartistry of plastic is absolute: it can becomebuckets as well as jewels. Hence a perpetualamazemenl) the reverie of man at the sight ofthe proliferating forms of matter, and theconnections he detects between the singularof the origin and the plural of the effects.And this amazement is a pleasurable one,since the scope of the transformations givesman the measure of h is power. and since thevery it inerary of plastic gives him theeuphoria of prestigious free-wheelingthrough Nature.

But the pr ice to be paid for th is success isthat plast ic, subl imated as movement,hardly exists as substance. Its reality is a

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negative one: neither hard nor deep, it mustbe content with a osubstantial ' attributewhich is neutral in spite of its uti l i tarianadvantages: resistance, a state which merelymeans an absence of yielding. In thehierarchy ofthe major poetic substances, itf igures as a disgraced material, lost betweenthe effusiveness ofrubber and the flathardness of metal; it embodies none of thegenuine prodrice of the mineral world: foam,f ibres, strata. I t is a 'shaped'substance:whatever its f inal state, plastic keeps af l oeculent appearance. someth ing opaque.creamy and curdled, something powerlessever to achieve the triumphant smoothness ofNature. But what best reveals it for what it isis the sound it gives, at once hollow and flat;its noise is its undoing, as are its colours, forit seems capable of retaining only the mostchemical- looking ones. Of yel low, red andgreen, it keeps only the aggressive quality,and uses them as mere names, being able todisplay only conc.epts of colour.

The fashion for plastic highlights anevolution in the myth of imitation'materials. It is well known that their use ishistorically bourgeois in origin (the firstvestimentary postiches date back to the riseof capitalism). But unti l now imitationmaterials have always indicated pretensionothey belonged to the world of appearances,not to that of actual use; they aimed atreproducing cheaply the rarest substancesodiamonds, silk, feathers, furs, silver, all theluxuriqus bril l iance of the world. Plastic hasclimbed down, it is a household material. Itis the first magical substance which consentsto be prosaic. But it is precisely because thisprosaic character is a triumphant reason forits existence: for the first t ime, artif ice aimsat something common, not rare. And as an

immediate consequence, the age-oldfunction of nature is modified: it is no longerthe Idea, the pure Substance to be regainedor imitated: an artif ical Matter, morebountiful than'all the natural deposits, isabout to replace her, and to determine thevery invention offorms. A luxurious object issti l l of this earth, it sti l l recalls, albeit in aprecious mode, its mineral or animal origin,the natural theme of which it is but oneactualization. Plastic is wholly swallowed upin the fact of being used: ult imately, objectswill be invented for the sole pleasure ofusing them. The hierarchy of substances isabolished: a single one replaces them all: thewhole wor ld canbe plast ic ized, and even l i feitself since, we are told, they are beginningto make plastic aortas.

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Polythene cups andfood containers.

Tupperware PlasticsCompany. USA

1940s-1960s.

Plast ic sunglasses.I950s.

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