In a post-plastic future, where the only place to extract petrol-based plastics will be from nature in a new hybrid form, plastics will regain a new value, far beyond the way we see it in our current time.
Metamorphism is an ongoing research and design project that speculates on a future in which p
lastic waste further permeates Earth’s surface and its natural systems; how it could one day blend with natural matter to become an entirely new extractable resource.
To a certain extent, this scenario is already in effect. In 2014, researchers discovered rocks on Hawaiian beaches that were formed by both sand and plastic waste. They dubbed these new rock formations as plastiglomerates.
Environmental changes, deforestation, and the spread of man-made pollutants are inevitably threatening the existence of natural materials and transforming nature as we know it. At the same time, new natural materials which are the result of environmental contamination are emerging, and man-made materials such as plastic are proliferating in our surroundings.
Lithoplast is the result of thousands of years of natural metabolism and its encounter with the "golden spike" of humanity, plastics. Lithoplast is a new speculative raw material that can be processed in a similar way to clay and is acting as an ultimate symbol of the transformation of matter and the inevitable shifts between nature and culture.
In this project, I explore how people experience a matter which is originally regarded as synthetic, as a possible new natural material and how the qualities of the material can be a base for the design
