The history of humans and their environmental impact can be understood through the development of plastic production. Plastics were heralded as a milestone in human ingenuity because of their ability to outlast existing alternatives such as glass, metal, and ceramics. They are flexible, durable, and cost-effective. Plastics, however, have outlasted their initial uses. Obsessed with this toxic innovation, we cannot imagine a world without plastics. They have enriched all aspects of life with beauty and ugliness. One day, we perceived being plastic, and today, we are losing ourselves to becoming plastic. Plastics infiltrated our world, and they can now be found in the soil, air, water, and our bodies. Plastics are a defining feature of the Anthropocene.

Being Plastic/Becoming Plastic, the Spring 2024 exhibition and symposium at the University of Virginia, attempts to answer the obvious question: how to live with plastics. Methods for repurposing plastics and revitalizing their properties will be discussed across varying scales of production, from the macro level of the global supply chain and policy to the micro level of designing objects. This event consists of two sessions: “Being Plastic,” which presents how our identities have been shaped around built plastics, and “Becoming Plastic,” which highlights how processing this material made our world plastic.