Is plastic 'authentic'?

You may remember a few years back when Apple introduced an “unapologetically plastic” iPhone, and it was such a hit that all iPhones are made of plastic now.

I think I have that right. (Editor's note: Not quite.)

Unfortunately for polymer fans, plastic is often seen not as a design asset, but as something to be compensated for. I often run into this perception reading reviews of new vehicles — it seems the word “plastic” rarely appears referring to car interiors without a scornful “cheap” hanging off the front of it.

Andrew Smith, GM's lead on Cadillac design, talked about materials choice during a presentation he gave at the WardsAuto Interiors Conference a few months ago. In response to a question about how the materials of choice in vehicle interiors may shift as Baby Boomers age out of car buying, he first noted that he's a big fan of science fiction, and in science fiction, “plastic is huge.” But for some reason that look doesn't translate to what consumers want in their vehicles today.

He continued:

“I think there is always going to be something around authenticity in materials. Whether it stays being leather and wood or whether it moves into other areas is a great question. But there's always some cues that people recognize as a luxury cue. For now, in the foreseeable feature leather and wood are probably those cues. … I think the key is authenticity.”

The implication being that wood and leather are authentic in some way that plastic is not.

But could it be?

Over the past few months I've asked several people — designers, engineers, executives — for their thoughts on achieving authenticity with plastic.

Sometimes the answer is “You don't.”

But there are other ideas, too: Incorporate natural fibers. Use soft-touch plastics instead of hard ones. Take advantage of the full range of finishes, additives and formulations available for plastics today.

A common thread is this: Stop making plastic pretend to be something other than plastic.

I get it. In my aging car there are hard plastic panels dressed up with a texture suggesting genuine leather. And let's face it, 12 years ago, no one would've put real leather in a base model that didn't even rate automatic windows. It's kind of silly, and, I submit, absolutely deserving of those “cheap plastic” cracks.

But then you have the work of Jack Craig, an artist here in Detroit who creates striking tables, chairs and other items from a distinctly prosaic material: PVC water mains. (The line is even called PVC Series, if we're talking about unapologetic.) In a process he developed, he heats the material with a propane heater and applies pressure to form it around a rock or other foreign object. His creations are glossy, elegant — and plastic, front and center.

I asked Craig for his thoughts on plastics and authenticity. He didn't choose to work with PVC intending to be discursive about plastics, he says, but subverting that expectation of cheap and disposable is part of the fascination.

Here's Craig:

“What's striking about a PVC water main is its mass. It's 600 lbs of plastic. The shear volume and weight of the raw material alone change out understanding of the material. My backyard lives in the shadow of kind of a Super Mario Brother's pipe forest. It's the scale — standing on end like that, they become very architectural. It's hard to remember that they are just plastic. It's an immediate shift in value.”

As plastic is a relatively modern material, he noted, we haven't actually had much time to fully realize its potential.

“Our unfamiliarity with it naturally limits us to rendering plastic into forms that we already know and are comfortable with. We see plastics emulating wood paneling, stone textures, etc. Those are immediately disappointing because they are already inherently inauthentic. They are set up for failure because they can never fully be those things. Plastic is a modern marvel. It has an incredible range and uniqueness to its performance and we are only limited by how much we can make. We are just scratching the surface. I'm interested in seeing plastics that explore the limits of plasticness.”

You can see more of Jack Craig's work at his website. And if you think you've found the key to authenticity in plastics, let us know in the comments.