Museum of Design in Plastics

MoDiP is a specialist research resource at the Arts University Bournemouth.

Have we helped you in any way? Please fill in our survey.

Stay in touch by subscribing to our mailing list after reading our Privacy policy.

Current exhibition

Being me: plastics and the body

March - September 2020

Being me: plastics and the body explores the ways in which plastics materials, and the products made from them, help us to be ourselves; by changing our shape, keeping us safe, aiding us when our bodies struggle, and by keeping us alive.

Before your visit to MoDiP please check for any planned closures advertised on the visiting us page.

MoDiP collection

The MoDiP collection offers a wide spectrum of objects, from the 19th, 20th & 21st centuries, which illustrate the role of plastics against social and historical contexts.

Learn more

PHS collection

The Plastics Historical Society, which was formed in 1986, is an independent society affiliated to the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.

Learn more

Horners collection

The Worshipful Company of Horners is both an ancient craft guild and a modern City of London Institution promoting the interests of the polymer industry.

Learn more

Visiting MoDiP

MoDiP is open to the public and we welcome individual and group visits.

The museum is on the first floor of the Arts University Bournemouth library and can be accessed via a lift. For more information about coming to the museum for a visit, to do research, or have a group session, click on the link below.

Learn more

MoDiP Blog

Student Creative: Ellie Jones

25 Mar 2020

MoDiP Final Blog PostMy initial inspiration for this project was the large archive of photographs in the MoDiP collection. The majority of them are black and white and show British plastic factories and workers of the 1960’s and 70’s which was a time when there was a massive increase in demand for plastic items. It amazed me how this microcosm of society was…

Being me: plastics and the body

23 Mar 2020

Due to the Covid-19 outbreak the museum is closed along with the rest of the AUB campus. As such you can't come and see our new exhibition in the flesh (as it were) but you can still enjoy it on our website.The problems that plastics can create for the human body are now becoming better understood. Plastics materials cause health issues for people in a variety of ways, most notably…

Plastic bags

18 Mar 2020

From the beginning of this month (01/03/20), New York became the eighth state in America to impose a single-use plastic bag ban. Many countries have already phased out the ‘disposable’ plastic bag including Bangladesh, the first to do so in 2002. In the UK, a 5p plastic bag fee was first introduced in 2015 with much debate ever since over the number of bags that have been removed from circulation…

Current & Past Exhibitions

Being me: plastics and the body

20 Mar 2020 - 4 Sep 2020

The problems that plastics can create for the human body are now becoming better understood. Plastics materials cause health issues for people in a variety of ways, most notably through microplastics entering the food chain via pollution in our seas, and when chemicals, such as bisphenol-A (BPA), leach from containers through our food and into our blood streams. However, through good design and…

Output

11 Sep 2019 - 13 Mar 2020

Renowned industrial designer, A H ‘Woody’ Woodfull, stated in 1959 that ‘the designer must have a wide range of working knowledge of industrial processes of all kinds.’ By understanding manufacturing processes, designers can make the best decisions for their application. They must ask themselves key questions: What material do I want to use? How many products do I want to make? How much do I…

Revolution: environmentally conscious design in plastics

15 Mar 2019 - 6 Sep 2019

In 2018 Collins dictionary declared ‘single-use’ as the word of the year. They define the term as describing items whose unchecked proliferation are blamed for damaging the environment: Single-use refers to products – often plastic – that are ‘made to be used once only’ before disposal. Images of plastic adrift in the most distant oceans, such as straws, bottles, and bags have led to a…

Plasfort helmet

Sony Walkman TPS-L2 personal cassette player

Dropp! bowl

Valentine typewriter

Minnow Skateboard

Roomii

Trees cuff

Packing tape basket

Remington 60 shaver

Lea Stein Attila cat brooch

Mary Quant umbrella

Telephone numbers book

GPO Model 746 telephone

Dachshund knife stand

Parkesine snooker ball

Orange Confetti bowl

Lucite brooch

Electric EG1 MX goggles

Mottled green salad servers

Itza hole punch

Recycled polyethylene pellets

Orange Beatl cup and saucer

Queen Victoria jubilee medallion

Submarine cable

Kasimir cheese grater

Cable Turtle cable tidy

Sawyer's View-Master

Terrain Hydromax siphonic roof drainage system

Oval Charles I snuff box

Trumpet style hearing aid

Reynolds 2010 Assault T

Aramith snooker balls

Presta alarm clock

Bergfield and Scwahn door stop

Sport Ferrari folding sunglasses

Kodak Instamatic 104 camera

Children's red jelly sandals

Smiths QLR 300 kitchen timer