Engaging with Bioplastic: A Padlet Exposé

<p dir="ltr"><b>Bioplastic investigations by:</b></p><p dir="ltr"><i>Nnenna Okore; </i><i>Geraldine Burke; and </i><i>Melissa Miles</i></p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr"><b><i>(This visual entry links to the visual research essay ‘Beyond the matter: Collaborative learning with bioplastic and Padlet’ (In Press 2022)</i></b></p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr"><b>KEY TERMS: </b>Bioplastic, call-and-response, eco-pedagogy, art-based inquiry, Padlet exploration, socially engaged learning</p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr"><b>Call and response Bioplastic Investigations</b></p><p dir="ltr">The call-and-response bioplastic research draws on African and Western materialist perspectives that support intensive and elastic participation by human and nonhuman collaborators (Kariamu Welsh-Asante 1996). Used as an important pedagogical tool for social engagements, our call-and-response research with bioplastic embodies cohesiveness, and generative learning that is beneficial to all involved.</p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr"><b>Call-and-response Padlet Investigations</b></p><p dir="ltr">Resulting from a web-based Padlet exploration with text, images and web links, these vignettes show how research participants (Nnenna Okore, Geraldine Burke and Melissa Miles) engage with ‘call-and-response’ provocations (Okore, 2022) to bioplastic, to creatively reflect of the waste issue.</p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr"><b>Space for Social Engagement during the Pandemic</b></p><p dir="ltr">In times of COVID, the online Padlet tool served as a useful tool for the research participants to enliven dialogue, creative experience, and learnings around waste through provocations, exchanges and art-making. The online platform offered a space for multilayered artful interventions with bioplastics.</p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr"><b>Far-reaching Eco-pedagogies activated by Padlet</b></p><p dir="ltr">The Padlet call-and-response experience fostered other connections in our homes and kitchens; and with friends, family and other nonhuman co-actants. It invited different conversations and eco-pedagogies beyond the online platform.</p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr"><b>References</b></p><p dir="ltr">Kariamu Welsh-Asante. (1996). African Dance: An Artistic, Historical, and Philosophical Inquiry. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press</p><p dir="ltr">Nnenna Okore. (2022). Making Kin. Exhibition Catalogue, North Park University, Chicago. (In press, 2022)</p><p dir="ltr"><b><i>Images</i></b></p><p dir="ltr"><br><i>1. An invitation_Call-and-response with bioplastic</i></p><p dir="ltr"><i>2. Getting to know the bioplastic_ the abject effect</i></p><p dir="ltr"><i>3. The overwhelming and discomforting effect of waste</i></p><p dir="ltr"><i>4. A packet of provocation calls on Geraldine, Melissa, and Nnenna to play</i></p><p dir="ltr"><i>5. Domestic experiments with bioplastic</i></p><p dir="ltr"><i>6. Nnenna's inspired responses to Melissa's kitchen experiments</i></p><p dir="ltr"><i>7. Geraldine's playful experimentation_Contrasting material properties</i></p><p dir="ltr"><i>8. Speculative possibilities of bioplastic_ serious play</i></p><p dir="ltr"><i>9. Reflections in action_where to next?</i></p><p dir="ltr"><br><i>10. Collaborative Padlet _with bioplastic engagement.jpg</i></p>