Polystyrene

Mathieu Gallois

A lightweight thermoplastic polymer foam, polystyrene is unusual for a foam
in that its molecular structure is rigid. Unlike other petroleum-based plastics,
it has a degree of surface tension which resonates when strummed, and it
snaps in two in a clean and satisfying way ‹ qualities that other
plastics lack (the accoustic dullness of most such materials being one of the
signifiers of their 'inferiority' when they were first introduced in the 1950s).
Today, both omnipresent and hidden from sight, polystyrene's ubiquitous
non-status is definitive. It is a material that defies definition.

Reaching into a bag of polystyrene balls provides few answers. Due to their
weightlessness, the balls both evade ones grasp and, with a little static
electricity, 'stick' to one's skin. (A single ball weighs approximately 15
times less than a grain of sand). When held up to the light in sheet form it
is surprisingly translucent and empty looking, the surface dissolving itself
into the whole. A material without a shadow. It floats, burns like fuel and,
when I tried to eat a chunk, its dry, mushy sub-texture and elasticity
repelled each bite; it was almost impossible to swallow.

While it sounds adventurous to claim that the pillars of our society rest on
slabs of polystyrene, it is actually the case that the concrete foundations
of our homes, offices and factories are more often than not poured onto
polystyrene. Furthermore, the exceptional insulative properties of the
material mean that its use as an insulator is universal in the walls of
fridges, factories and aeroplanes.

Most significantly (for me), polystyrene occupies a special metaphorical
place in our materialistic and consumeristic society, acting as a physical
insulator ‹ filling in the negative spaces between the glossy/smooth outside
surfaces of our new consumer goods and their unspecific, polyform contents.
This negative-insulated non-space is expressive both of a deep sense of
alienation and a need to insulate oneself against an empty material culture.