Fantastic Plastic

Plastic is the defining material of the twentieth century. From the first man-made plastics exhibited in the 1862 Great International Exhibition in London and the patenting of Celluloid in 1870, plastics originally provided an attractive replacement for ivory, tortoiseshell and bone. Fantastic Plastic shows how product design has developed and considers its usability, technology and appearance.

In Fantastic Plastic: Product Design & Consumer Culture, esteemed contemporary designers, artists and scientists explore the evolution of this ubiquitous and endlessly malleable material, through its trademarked names - Spandex, Teflon, Nylon, Rayon, Formica, Tupperware - through to looking at how its function and reputation have changed over its lifetime. Plastics have been used in the manufacture of everything from children's toys, to furniture, to clothes and has played its part in the creation of contemporary design icons from the ipod to the Tom Vac Chair.

The history of plastics is in so many ways the history of contemporary industrial design, and the book provides a fascinating look at how designs using plastics can be considered as works of art, as well as objects of our everyday lives. Fantastic Plastic provides a comprehensive survey of the ecological, technological and aesthetic qualities of plastic and considers the future of the material that made such a mark on contemporary life. An essential book for designers, academics and everyone interested in our consumer culture.

Susan Mossman was curator of Plasticity-100 Years of Making Plastics at the Science Museum in London.