Flip-flopsam and jetsam: a study examining the agency, values and narratives embodied in materials and artefacts

These products form part of the methodology of ongoing research in collaboration with Gant, that explores the process of constructing, enhancing and exploiting inherent narratives and meanings embedded in waste materials. This continues a 15 year exploration of material language formation and articulation The work also functions to promote the work of NGOs and charitable agencies who engage with and promote awareness of material ethics and sustainability. The flip-flops are heat-formed on a converted t-shirt press from plastic beach waste on the beach as part of an awareness raising and engagement event to support marine conservation. The flip-flops are provided as a reward for volunteers who collect the material from beaches as part of the Marine Conservation Society's clean-up campaign. Each pair are also embossed with a map of the area from where the materials were collected to further enhance the sense of provenance. The act of collecting the materials to conserve one's local environment provides enhances the value and meaning of the product, with the material taking a unique aesthetic. The creation becomes a 'performative production process', a memento and celebratory, communal act manifest in the material object. The Flip-Flopsam and Jetsam products were presented and evaluated at the ‘Meaning Making’ Exhibition at PUMA HQ, featured in a paper and exhibition at the ‘Poetics and Praxis’ and ‘Making Futures’ Conference and featured in the On Our Doorsteps-Local Design Activism Exhibition at 100% Design London. The products were chosen to support the Marine Conservation Society’s Summer Clean-up campaign and featured in numerous press articles