From May to July 2024, I engaged with visitors at both the Unama’ki Cape Breton Centre for Craft & Design and the Anna Leonowens Gallery through two interactive art pieces addressing our complex and intertwined relationship with plastic marine debris (PMD) and the Archive.

 

Rooted in feminist new-materialism, and guided by the concept of the counter-archive, participants were invited to contribute to a dynamic ‘living archive’ of coastal plastic waste, and asked to consider the complex entanglements of the human and more-than-human, in the age of ‘petrotime’ (Davis, 2021).

 

The activities prompted thoughtful and affective interactions with the discarded plastic objects, which were collected within the Cape Breton Highlands National Park and the Halifax Regional Municipality during my time as a master’s student in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and during the Ground Rules artist residency.

 

Respondents engaged in creative expression through written and visual means, providing valuable insights into the local impact of plastic pollution in coastal regions. This thesis examines and reflects on these diverse responses, advocating for the use of participatory, community-based art as a way to address living-with plastic using a cross-disciplinary approach.