"The Fate of the Earth"

I wanted to share this video with you guys because I thought that it gave an interesting outlook on the fate of our planet. Since we are all designers and artists, this video shows some interesting insights as to how other artists react on the topic of our world's fate.

- Michael E.

art and vanity

In the coming weeks we will be looking into how we, as individuals, are the driver, the response , AND the solution to unsustainable consumption, and how this has come to be. These photos show a piece of artwork by Chris Jordan in which he gathered/arranged 32,000 Barbie dolls, equal to the number of elective breast augmentation surgeries performed monthly in the US in 2006. Consumption doesn't stop with 'things' - it extends right into our bodies. For more of his interesting work in this vein, see the link at upper right of the blog page.

Healthy consumerism

With my consumption journal I organized my findings with a pretty obvious chart looking at whether what I was using was essential for my everyday life or just something I use only occasionally. I decided though to focus on a more human aspect and how my activity and consumption during the day related to my health. I basically decided to categorize each thing as either being a health conscious consumption or not, and I was surprised to find that a lot of my activity is not based on improving my health. I always thought that health was a very important aspect of my day to day life, and to see the facts in a chart stating any differently was unnerving to say the least. Im not sure though if this categorization really works when it comes to any kind of comparison between another persons health chart, because everyone has their own definition of what is healthy. I still think it would be interesting to see what people come up with. 

Zones of Response

Here is a diagram that I showed on the blackboard while we were at FoodShare - it illustrates that key responses can come from anywhere - civil society (you and me), government, or businesses. There are many projects and initiatives that occur in the overlapping area between two of these - for example, when governments fund development efforts in Africa; or when an NGO like Greenpeace works with private industry to develop new refrigerators that don't use harmful CFC chemicals; or when government requires minimum prices be paid for certain goods (like milk or wind energy) to ensure that part of the marketplace (dairy farmers, renewable energy producers) remains viable. Initatives like FoodShare are working at the intersection of all three, and initiatives of that kid are particularly interesting since they exploit the strengths of all major institutions in society.

youtube video

If you have some extra time on your hands check out this music video on youtube that I thought was pretty cool and related to this course: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBvaHZIrt0o It's a specific video for the song "remind me" by Royksopp about our daily consumption and it reminded me of the journals we just did.