Blog

Back in June 2022, I wrote a blog post about the touring exhibition Plastic: Remaking our world. At the time the exhibition was on display at Vitra Design Museum. I was lucky enough to meet with one of the curators, Charlotte Hale, and visit the exhibition when it was on display at V&A Dundee...

One of the cases in our current exhibition, Reuse , looks at the problems that black plastics have when it comes to the recycling system and therefore how the material is then reused. When products and packaging made of plastics enter the recycling system, they need to be separated into individual...

The collection of household plastics for recycling through the UK’s Local Authority bin collection service began exactly twenty years ago with the introduction of the 2003 Household Waste Recycling Act. Looking back, it now seems crazy that up until that point, we had all been throwing our plastics...

In the late 1950s, furniture manufacturer Hille approached Robin Day with the idea of producing a one-piece chair shell to add to their range. Up to that point, there were a limited number of materials that could achieve such a design, such as pressed metal, structural ply or glass-reinforced...

Since the introduction of the first disposable hot drinks cups by American company DART in the mid 20th century, the consumer has become used to the concept of single-use. Dart Manufacturing Company was established in 1937 in Mason, Michigan, USA making plastic key cases, steel tape measures and ID...

As a museum curator of a small museum, I find that my work each week can be varied and extremely interesting. This last week has been full of working out budgets for the coming year, thinking about new acquisitions, updating object records, and thinking about our next exhibition. I have also been...

AIBDC : 008605 Image credit: MoDiP This bright and sunny, yellow coloured frisbee is in an amazing condition given that it is over 70 years old. That is largely due to the fact that it has been unused: 1600 of these Arcuate Vanes were discovered in a warehouse in 1977, where this example is believed...

Given that it is Nordic Day tomorrow, Thursday 23rd March 2023, I thought it would be apt for this blog to celebrate a lovely piece of Danish design from the MoDiP collections. AIBDC : 008850 and 008849 Image credit: https://www.modip.ac.uk/collections?columbo%5B0%5D=person%3A14306 The Margrethe...

This week we have been busy taking down our last exhibition, Endurance , and installing our new exhibition, Reuse . We have been joined by one of our volunteers, MA Fine Art student Sourabh Sharma, seen in the images below emptying the cases and wrapping objects for their return to storage. Although...

This is the final blog post relating to our current exhibition, Endurance , which closes at the end of this week. Every year, an estimated 236,000 people drown, making drowning a major public health problem worldwide [1] . This figure includes in rivers, pools and at sea. The best way to prevent...