ICI and the Senses

Abstract

This chapter charts the stellar rise and then subsequent break up of ICI over the 1980s and 1990s. In those final years, in the context of globalisation, there was a shift in emphasis from bulk commodity chemicals to higher growth, higher margin chemicals. A postmodern-inspired consciousness of branding and consumer markets meant that a rhetoric developed that focused on sensory gratification. This was a, presumably unintentional, echo of the smells and feelies in the dystopian novel Brave New World (1932), written by an early company employee, Aldous Huxley. What affects the chemical made by the company had on the body is followed up in this chapter in a different way, through an exploration of the fatal industrial diseases that plagued those who had worked in the factories, many of which came to light only at the end of the company’s life. The chapter closes with a reflection on memory of ICI in the Tees valley region and how it is communicated through the channels of social media and meshes with a history of conspiracy and secrecy that has shadowed the works in the region, and continues into the days of the new freeport to be built in the region. The chapter includes reflections on what remains of all this, including what toxicities—and asks if even the clouds—and the stars—have been transformed by the factory.