Weekly Response 13: consclusions

Write about a specific, broad-reaching "system" that you learned about in this class (either you had never heard of before, had heard of but never contemplated, or knew a little bit about). In whichever case, choose something that stood out and has some relevance to your personal life/interests.

1.) Choose a complicated, far reaching topic (i.e. the carbon cycle, the agro industry, consumerism, biodiversity, Haber Bosh process, evolution, CAFOs, GMOs,... really anything from the class that most profoundly affected your way of looking at the world).

2.) Explain your topic, (give it's history, definition/description, why and if it's controversial, etc.). Then explore what other systems it affects, including your relationship to it.

So if you talk about logging, you might start by talking about a general historical overview, explain what logging is (what's the process), why it's done, pros and cons, and importantly, what are the farther reaching ramifications (or indirect effects) of the logging industry? (erosion/ loss of bio diversity/ reduction in land's capacity to absorb melting ice/ the watertable lowers/ more CO2 in the atmosphere because fewer trees/ on the other hand, it provides jobs, timber, cleared land ready for agriculture or development, etc. Then you can talk about how this may affect your particular community/ family/ self.

Good luck and it's been a pleasure getting to know all of you!

Reed

World Changing Post # 7

Lauren Korany

For my final post, I would like to talk about something that I have personal ties in. The Chapter “Engineer It Yourself” considers the DIY (Do It Yourself) movement happening in America (pg 93). Although the chapter is not lengthy, it still puts into context a very interesting ideal. Every citizen is able to spread their wealth of knowledge (sometimes considered extraneous) with others who may be able to use it for themselves. In the United States, these “engineers” are using the Internet as a tool to collaborate with others and to share their ideas. This sharing and making process has saved people money. Not only that, it takes back the control from large corporations.

Instructables.com is a website that allows people to share their knowledge about DIY projects. I was shocked to find that the website was created by half a dozen MIT PhDs (pg 95). I have visited the website recently to learn how to create a master copy template for a zine project I was working on. My brother visits the site frequently, learning how to create somewhat dangerous science projects. This results in grounding on occasion, but the fact is, his interest in creating for himself is prominent.

My father has the same inclination for DIY creation. He focuses on one hobby and masters it. His knowledge begins purely from instruction books or websites much like instructables.com. Over the years he has mastered creating an outdoor foundry, metal-casting (in the backyard), antique bike repair, canoe and kayak building, fishing boat design, gun restoration (and creation of parts), and paper model building. After doing these things and accumulating the hands-on information, he shares it with others online as well through forums. I find that DIY mentality really allows us to take control of our consumer habits; a very important role in changing the routine shopping we do.

world Changing Response 3 Pete

World Changing Response #3

Collaborative Design Pg. 123

Two things about this article stuck out to me. One, a 3-D design program that automatically tells you the environmental impact of your design choices would be quite nice and very visual (which is good, I, and most designers are, very visual people), but I’ll believe that when I see it. How in the world would you implement this? What would it base its impact analysis on? Would you need to inform it of the context you are designing in? It’s an interesting question, and I would certainly try and give their solution a chance, but something has to be said for a holistic approach to sustainable design on a personal, designer-to-designer level.

The other part that stuck out to me was the portable light project. It stuck in my head not really for its novel use of technology, but that University of Michigan students helped Kennedy design prototypes. Dang it, what happened to projects like this at Michigan Art & Design! It’s sad really this total lack of real world application of art and design that is taught here. You know what concept before construction spells? Starving artist.

World Changing Response 2 Pete

Pete Hall

World Changing Response #2

Understanding Trade Pg. 39

An interesting article, and one which I actually learned! Several things! I did not know that other countries ‘peg’ their own currencies off of the U.S. Dollar, and it was interesting to see how the Chinese yuan being based off of the Dollar, the Yen and the Euro kept their export prices low in our countries. I always knew that China had extremely low labor costs and turned a blind eye to environmental problems caused by their factories, but always wondered why some other country who cared even less about their environment couldn’t try to undercut the Chinese. Well, now I know. No matter what, Chinese imports stay cheap in the States because of this pegging of currencies. It’s an interesting phenomenon.

Also, interesting was that the U.S. is the worlds leading exporter of cotton. Now why the heck would a world power be the leading exporter of cotton? Now, I still don’t quite see the logic, but the U.S. Government (thus the U.S. Taxpayers and the Chinese government loans) pays over 4 billion in subsidies a year to U.S. cotton farmers. Now what I really want to know is why do we do this?

World Changing Response 1 Pete

Pete Hall

World Changing Response #1

Consuming Responsibly Pg. 35

I picked this article from the index because of its title, “Consuming Responsibly”. “Ok,” I thought, “How do I consume responsibly?” After reading the short article (I should have known that consuming responsibly was impossible to cover in 3 pages), I have decided that the article should be titled differently. Perhaps “How to pick environmentally friendly clothing, and a tiny bit about home cleaners” would fit the bill. Or even, “American Apparel and Home Method will save us all” would have worked. As is clear, I had hoped this article would be meatier, really dive in to consuming responsibly, but this is really a fallacy for a 3 page article to holistically look at consuming responsibly. I would really like to read an article on how to design responsibly, maybe “Hot Design is Green Design”. But then if there was a 3 page article on how to design responsibly that actually fully covered responsible design, no one would go to design school!

World Changing #6

Lauren Korany

Continuing on the idea of Biomimicry, Abrams introduces Biomorphism (pg 102). Both subjects use nature as inspiration in different ways. The difference lies in the final creation. Biomimicry uses natures “codes” to create the best functional design whereas; Biomorphism is bases purely on looks and form. As we’ve seen, evolution finds the most functional form for specialized needs. Those forms can be beautiful as well. Biothing is a lab in Columbia University that researches the algorithms to generate form design (very similar to that of NASA’s Biomimicry). The program that generates the codes is called Genware. Genware is able to create pattern intelligence based on natural codes, much like DNA strands. Each product is randomly selected based on variables in the code. Unlike Biomimicry, the code is not constantly readjusted to find the perfect outcome (unless the form is not pleasant). Biothing creates interior design products that interact with the spaces they are put in, rather than being purely utilitarian. Front Design (a Swedish design firm) takes a different approach to Biomorphism. Rather than coding strands to create forms, they use live organisms to create their products. For example, rats gnaw paper to create naturally patterned holes for fabric or wallpaper. They also calculate the flight paths of insects, and transform that pattern into products. Architectural designs have been known to mimic the form of nature as well (pg 105). “The Core” is an educational center in England that is based on the mathematical pattern of sunflower seeds or pinecones. The Milwaukee Art Museum is designed as a bird in flight. The exterior can be “flapped” to control light and heat in the building.

It easily escapes artists that math is often the basis for art. Many times the structures we build are inspired consciously or subconsciously by objects in nature. Those objects are actually based on mathematics. I find this astonishing. Two things come to mind: the Fibonacci sequence and Joshua Davis. The Fibonacci sequence is the basis for items in nature, such as outer ear structures and conch shells. Joshua Davis is a contemporary artist who generates code to create his art pieces. His process almost parallels that of Genware. He sets the variables for symbols he wants to use in his piece and the code will generate multiple prints based on the same sets of codes (with altered positions of the variables). Both the mathematics sequence and the artist tie together in these subjects.

A link to Joshua Davis’ work is here

World Changing #5

Lauren Korany

Biomimicry is the act of transforming the successful principles of nature into successful functional design. It is referred to as Bionics in Europe (pg 99). Buckminster Fuller was the first to propose nature as an inspirational mentor to teach green design and Janine Benyus carried out the idea to the public in her book Biomimicry.

Nature has redesigned for thousands of years, even before humans have existed, and therefore has a wealth of knowledge on sustainability. The Earth has solutions that we can learn from. It is a “model, measure, and mentor”. If we look at specialized organisms, we can find specific traits that can be pulled into product design. Nature should be treated as a partner, rather than being exploited for its resources (pg 100). An example of this can be seen in NASA’s design for the spaceship antennae (pg 100-101). The idea of the final antennae as evolved, rather than designed in one process. NASA set up algorithms of code, re-coded and tested for different combinations, and tweaked each strand randomly to get the best antenna. This complicated process is much like a condensed natural selection process.

Other examples are “Gecko Tape” and “Lotusan” (pg 101). Gecko Tape was inspired by the adhesive microstructures in the feet of Geckos. They are able to walk on all surfaces and leave no residue behind. By studying their make-up, scientists were able to create a tape with the same features. For Lotusan, ISPO (a German design company) decided to study the make-up of a lotus flower petal to better design their products. The lotus flower lives in swamps but somehow remains clean. When studying the petals closely, they were able to see that they contain small ridges that make dirt slip off in the rain. ISPO designed their building exteriors, car exteriors, paints, and shingles with the same feature because the lotus flower inspired them.

Using these techniques are an instinct of human nature at a certain degree. However, it is a great idea to be mindful of what nature can teach through specialization. Evolution has “weeded-out” the specialized species that could not survive in modern environments. I want to incorporate the functional side of nature in my artwork in the future. If you think about it, all of the issues you may come up with have been solved by nature in some form.

World Changing #4

Lauren Korany

Abrams speaks of the effect of different protest groups (pg 450). Since the 1960s, protest has been a prominent part on changing the established systems of society. In modern times, the Internet has become a powerful tool to set up protest. A familiar group that uses this tool is the Culture Jammers, with Lasn being the prime representative. The Culture Jammers use the Internet and propaganda posters to mimic those of large commercial advertising. An issue with budgeting is present in the group. Do they have enough money to “saturate society” with images like commercial advertising benefits from? The answer is no, but they seem to be reaching a large number of people, and continues with the snowballing effect.

The Day after Tomorrow is a sci-fi action thriller that addresses extreme global warming. In 2004, this was a large attraction in the media. The movie was able to bring the issues of global warming to the Americans in their entertainment. Some were worried about the radical tone of the movie. However, it was effective with its message.

Artists have been able to use protest in their creations. Product designers are creating robodogs, soil testing shoes and mutant babies (pg 453). The “Feral Robotic Dogs” and “Soil Sampling Shoes” test the environment in public. Bansky, a popular graffiti artist from the UK, is known as an “art terrorist.” His work protests the issues with “Big Brother” in English society. His work plays on the roles of civilians and authority as well. Theatre of the Oppressed is a theatre group that specializes in diverse games and interactive theatre techniques. They teach the oppressed citizens how to understand their rights. By taking part in activities with the group, the citizens learn of the law-making processes, allowing them to better understand their unalienable rights. All of these groups are striving for environmental and social change that is critical for the future.