The power of Design: how project 2050 turns overconsumption into meaningful objects
Project 2050 is a design research project from Elisabeth Vidal, exhibited in Montpellier during last year’s France Design Week. The work is the result of years-long reasoning about the single use of everyday materials that have inevitably been part of our lives, especially during the hard times of the COVID pandemic. Generally speaking, the convenience of single-use products often associated with technological developments and economic success, started revealing its true costs, exposing environmental consequences and changes in our relations with goods.
As in 2020 the global scenario was suddenly changing, disposable objects such as masks, gloves, other DPIs and single-use plastic food and non-food containers have been extensively consumed, due to hygiene purposes and have indeed been set as mandatory as the first basic tools available for transmission prevention.
This whole situation naturally sped up the creative process, as it prompted strong evidence of the designer’s concepts, in a very distinctive and undeniable way.
The use of disposable plastic containers and tools thanks to high capacity in manufacturing facilities and fast production rates, together with those materials’ key features such as light weight, water and dirt repellency and simple management and transport has inevitably created huge waste, and a sort of collateral detachment from the action of use, eventually overcoming individual responsibility.
Such infinitely manufactured Produits Pérennes à Usage Unique, as conceived by the artist, existed only through the replica of their multiples, and were at the time almost absent from the collective imaginary and partially aside from reality, due to the really short time of usage.
Being overwhelmed by accumulation and the amount of wasted matter, the designer decided to take action in order to completely disrupt this trending concept of use via creating original designs, which ultimately led to the creation of these manifesto objects, whose value is stored in the principles they represent.
The creative act of these manifesto objects, crafted by her hands in a simple, artisanal way, was an essential part of the project, as it also allowed to understand the preciousness and real value of the specific, high qualities of these industrial disposable products. (PPUU).
Via upcycling the waste material generated by face masks, the designer created this food container exploiting the non-woven textile and the elastic band components, which were combined to resemble a traditional rope material made of natural fibers.
Photo by Elisabeth Vidal, L laundry detergent container, polypropylene fabric from face masks
In this other case, some black dyed face masks have been assembled together with a huge capacity plastic container to recreate the concept of a fashion element and restore the idea of a prolonged, sustainable use of materials.
Foto by Elisabeth Vidal, Vase made of 500g yogurt container, decoration in face masks’ polypropylene fabrics
Every creation is correlated with a particular label, which doesn’t identify the product for its specific purpose or brand, but is aimed to communicate the principle it represents..
The copyright symbol reported on labels is intentionally reversed, as, unlike materials protected by copyright, those actions and principles are supposed to be shared within our society and meant to be free to use.
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