Tag Archives: plastic ocean

January 29, 2024

Human Lasagna

By DP

No, we are not referencing the village of cannibals among The Walking Dead, but rather the world’s most recent spasm of human supremacist oblivion, being a bloated vessel christened by “iconic” genius of global footie Leo Messi, here transmuted into a feckless shill for commercial whatevs; a megametamaxi casserole of kitsch launched (perversely) as “Icon of the Seas.” Below, a few images from the promo video; captions added by DP.

MOTHER OCEAN NOT WELCOME INSIDE THIS STORY

ICON OF THE ME, ME & ME: STICK A FORK IN IT

PASSENGER PREPARES TO BE FLUSHED

SO MUCH PASTA REQUIRES A LENGTHY DIGESTIVE TRACT

BAKE FOR TWO WEEKS AT 350 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT AND THEN PROCEED TO THE VOMITORIUM

APPARENT SIMULACRUM OF A GHOST MALL IN PARAMUS NEW JERSEY INVADED BY A HOVERCRAFT IN THE SHAPE OF A SUPPOSITORY.

Bon voyage!

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Leave a comment | tags: against human supremacism, anthropogenic climate breakdown, inverted utopia, plastic ocean | posted in bearings, DP

June 3, 2018

Sometimes Lies Are Prettier

By DP

A few weeks ago, a report by the Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute in Athens was released, with the conclusion that most of the endangered sperm whales that have been found dead in the eastern Mediterranean since 2001 have experienced slow and painful deaths as a result of their stomachs becoming clotted by indigestible globs of plastic, often in the shape of bags.

Yesterday, the Guardian reported that a pilot whale died in southern Thailand after ingesting eighty plastic bags. A marine biologist who assisted in the autopsy commented: “If you have 80 plastic bags in your stomach, you die.” The sentence would also be true with the pronoun “we”.

Now comes Timothy Morton, with a few paragraphs from his Being Ecological. Images are from Tavares Strachan, whose work is included in an exhibition at Storm King, and from whom we also borrow our title.

WHO DESERVES AQUAMARINE, BLACK AND GOLD (FLAG)

STANDING ALONE

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Longtime DP readers are familiar with the name Gunther Anders, and his concept of inverted utopia, where we are able to imagine endless technologies that, in the end, suggest a world without us. We offer our slight amendment: the world will be without an abundance of other sentient creatures as well, those that we will have erased along the path of ecocidal utopian inversion.

Leave a comment | tags: ecology of being, plastic ocean, sixth extinction, tavares strachan, timothy morton | posted in bearings, DP

April 6, 2018

Of Plankton and Plastic

By DP

In the wake of recent research documenting the transformation of the world’s oceans into plastic soup, we turn to artist-scientist Mandy Barker, who writes:

“The aim of my work is to engage with and stimulate an emotional response in the viewer by combining a contradiction between initial aesthetic attraction along with the subsequent message of awareness. The research process is a vital part of my development as the images I make are based on scientific fact which is essential to the integrity of my work. The impact of oceanic waste is an area I am committed to pursuing through visual interpretation and in collaboration with science, hoping it will ultimately lead to positive action in tackling this increasing environmental problem which of current global concern”

In her most recent project, Barker uses John Thompson’s 19th century research into plankton as a conceptual template for proposing a new class of organism, “hatched” from degrading plastic debris. As Barker notes, plankton actually ingest plastic microfibers, thereby entering the food chain. We are what we eat.