Sze Tsung Leong - www.szetsungleong.com - From the series Cities. Cities is a series depicting urban fabrics throughout the world. Differences, parallels, and variations between built environments are revealed through consistent composition and viewpoint. Disparate locations are juxtaposed and a new geography is outlined.
Lindsay Avino
ReplyDeleteADP III
World Changing Response
Art Meets Technology
While looking in the index in the front of the book to find a case study to read about, I was immediately drawn to the chapter titled Art Meets Technology. This interested me the most because I felt that I would be able to relate, and get something out of reading this chapter, more than any other one. This chapter discusses the role and influence that artists have on other people. Many artists today make work that responds to things that are going on in the world today, including the issue of technology. The line that stuck out to me the most in this whole case study was the first sentence of the second paragraph. “The way artists use and misuse emerging technologies in their work can prompt a deeper reflection about our society and its relationship to technology than a two hundred-page report written by eminent sociologists can.” (p.96) This sentence shows the obligation that artists have to make work that not addresses both problems that we face in the world today, and ways in which we can fix these issues because people are more likely to respond to the visual things they see on a daily basis, rather than the issues that they read about in the newspaper or books. This chapter made me realize that I need to make artwork that stands up for what I believe in and not only allows others to see my point of view, but to also open their eyes to something they may not have realized or been aware of before.
9/21/10
ReplyDeleteJackie San Fillipo
ADP III
World Changing; This Steer’s Life, World Changing, A Sand county Almanac
Every time I learn more about our environment, the more I worry. This week after reading about our country’s meat industry, I felt guilty that such an industry existed in a place where I live. “The Meatrix”- an online video that spoofs The Matrix and explains the problems with meat factories truly disturbed me. It makes me sick how everything in this country has to be monetized without regard to consequences. The meat industry, just as any other, is designed to make the most money possible, and that means a number of things: animal cruelty, antibiotic resistant germs, massive pollution, destroyed communities. This Steer’s life follows the life cycle of one calf from early childhood to slaughter. I think this perspective to tell this story from was more effective because it personalized this animal. Its owner (the writer) who bought him so he could write the article, talks about how he has distinguishing marks on his face, and is called number 536. It made me sad, the steer seemed more of a pet in this sense than a meal. It makes me angry how animals all over are treated solely as “product” and do not deserve better lives because it is simply not worth the money to treat them well. I am afraid our youth will feel that money is the most important thing in the world, because that’s how our country is acting these days. To go along with this notion I decided to read the case study “Buying Better Food” in World Changing. It addresses the concept that nowadays, we can buy food almost anywhere. If it’s everywhere we forget it’s from somewhere. We need to continue to buy local foods, to spare our environment from mass factories and support our hard working farmers who are making healthy foods for us. Like Cattle and other meat, we cannot treat all food as a moneymaking business. Processed food and processed meats may be more economical but they are not good for our surroundings or bodies.
Sam Goldman
ReplyDeleteADP III
Response
Art Meets Technology
For my response assignment I read Art Meets Technology. In this reading it explored the idea that technology is moving fast and that there are things that are pushing the edge maybe too much? One example that stuck out to me was a t-shirt that had sensors in it that produced the feeling of someone being hugged. This means so that when someone would wear the shirt, they would feel as if someone else was hugging them. This I saw as a really cool invention. The fact that someone could think of a design for a t-shirt called a hug t-shirt then actually make it hug you is mind blowing. One that was less of a good invention and a bit creepy was a device that monitored where you were with your cell phone and sent text messages to others letting them know your whereabouts and keeping everyone connected. I think that this type of technology pushed the boundaries too far. Another part of the reading that goes for the title of art meets technology, was this one robot that moves around the room with a green crayon and measures the co2 in the air and writes a vertical line down on the wall that symbolizes the amount of co2. Then the robot keeps doing this but while moving around the room creating an image that looks like grass. This then became the showroom and the art piece. This was a really cool idea that I could never even fathom, because I wouldn’t know how to work robots or anything of the sort. Reading this piece made me think of really interesting and cool art pieces that could only be done using unique technology so I do not think it could ever actually be done. Although, it is a cool concept to think up.
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ReplyDeleteTeresa Dennis
ReplyDeleteADP III
World Changing Response 9/20
The concept of leapfrogging infrastructure is really a fascinating idea. The concept of bringing advanced, self-sufficient technologies to places where there are none is something so simple, yet so difficult to attempt to do. After reading this case study, I do think I finally realize what this art school wants of us, wy we are trained in the technical instead of the visual. They want our works and careers to have meaning, to change the course of our societies. Projects like those mentioned in the book can really make an impact, but changing the quality of lives for the developing areas it is given to, but also the enviroment by finding alternative sources of energy to operate. The industrial age was a beautiful thing, but it is a shame it lasted do long powered by heavy diesel fuels and leaving large amounts of waste. The technologies like StarSight, solar panel powered light posts, lead me to wonder what the world would be, what it would smell taste, and look like, if we used these efficient sources of energy from the start.
How long would it take to hard wire up large cities, like New York City, up to these leapfrogged systems? The impact it would have on the community’s smog wouul dbe visible, quite like a smoker giving up his habit of smoking in his house. The smoke lingers for a while, and eventually goes away. The only lingering smell resides in the walls, smell and stain.
Nya Jordan
ReplyDeleteResponse for World Changing
Article choice: PLANET
Within this article entitled “Planet”, it explains the very shameful nature of human beings. We’ve been creating stuff for many years now, knowing what the overall consequences will lead to, the way technological advances could have an effect on the earth. It is indeed a lot more advanced in terms of what we use to communicate, to travel, as well as what we use to mass produce substances be it substances or objects. The Planet is what is sustaining us as far as providing mankind with a place to live and develop. The fact that we have so much freedom to explore our ideas with the resources that are provided, we have to realize that we are both effecting and polluting the earth. Although the article states that we know what causes our climate change (474), that’s does not give us the authority to take advantage of knowledge because often circumstances backfire. Its ok to know the effect of an action, but if you are certain that the outcome will suppress something that people need, in this case the Earth, why produce a chemical or an object that could derive health from a person’s lifespan. Nature is really a great part of life, yet it is sad to say that most people would know an answer to a question that relates more to technology than it does to nature. In this particular era, it is almost weird to say that you love nature because technology has owned our lives for so long now. We’ve indeed lost our connections with nature and relied on our own understanding of how the world works around us. If I could dissect the very cause of technology destroying our climate, I’d say that people were too anxious and excited to invent something new, that the completely forgot about what the “gods” provided us with. And that if the “gods” placed us on this Earth without technology, they probably knew to some extent that technology would harm the way we survive.
Ben Paskus
ReplyDeleteAdp3 world changing
The Barefoot College pg. 359
The case study that attracted my eye first was about a university in Tilonia, a village in Rajasthan, which is one of India’s largest, driest, and poorest states. The founders of the college picked Tilonia because of an abandoned tuberculosis sanatorium that stands on 45 acres of government land. This university called the Barefoot College began in 1972 and has served as a tremendous teacher and provider to nearby communities. Its premise lies majorly on understanding sustainability in today’s society. Students are taught traditional knowledge that has been passed down through generations and often find that age old techniques are efficient, inventive, and get the job done without compromising their land and developing factories. The ‘Barefoot’ way, is very open and welcoming to a huge variety of students. Since the college has a grassroots approach, people who have none to little education, which makes up most of the population of surrounding villages, have a chance to become solar engineers, hand-pump mechanics, groundwater experts, and much more. Villages all around are taking advantage of this by usually electing one or a few people to go and bring back valuable knowledge on how to sustain and gain from their resources. In most cases they come back from the college and install solar energy and piped water systems that run water from rainwater collecting systems. More importantly, the college has taken a huge initiative with children and given them major opportunities to start thinking about and changing the way their communities are run so when they grow up they’re more than ready. For example, some kids are in charge of monitoring water quality in their villages and on one case, a youngster figured out a way to fund a piped water system. What really takes the cake is all the teaching is very hands on. They basically skip the big textbooks that we’re stuck with, but have just as much rewarding turnout in their students. This has to be one of the most valuable resources around and places like the Barefoot College should exist in abundance all over the world.
Rebecca Aguilar
ReplyDeleteADP3 WorldChanging
Planet
Its crazy how people think they rule the world. The Plant article pretty much shows how messed up the world it cause of humans. Humans just create and create and we know the out come but we still keep creating without thinking about how we are affecting the world. As I have stated before, God is important to me and this article really opens my eyes to how people think they are above Him. Even if you or other people in this class don’t believe in Him, I do and I truly feel that how we humans are destroying what he gave us and I think that is very disrespectful to Him. It’s really funny and sad to see that so many people depend on technology. However, it’s a known fact that we need it. Moving on in technology is great but think of what God has given us. Think of all the resources he has given us; plants, water, and wind. We humans really need to start to think of how we can use earth’s natural resources/energy to survive. Some of the simplest ideas have all started by nature; fire, the wheel and so on and if we just start to think less, maybe we can come up with solutions to some difficult situations like using gasoline. I don’t mean to stop thinking less as in stop thinking. I mean to stop thinking so complex, we need to start thinking simplistically and then maybe out of thinking that way, we will be able to solve some big world issues.
Caleb Moss
ReplyDeleteADP III
Technology & Environment
Art Meets Technology seemed like something I’d be interested in. I think of “crazy” things like that all the time. I found the Hug Shirt very interesting (pg.97) in which you can feel “the sensation of being hugged”. With sensors and electronics in the shirt and a spark of an idea this has come to life. This article is a prime example of why your sketchbook can be your best friend. But at the same time it makes you wonder, if one day things will be so advanced that human interaction will no longer be necessary? It can be sort of a gift and a curse, ideas are always great but there is a such thing as going too far. Is wrong to think of things that can surpass technology where it stands now? If you could just throw on a shirt, and get a hug when you want one it takes away from the sentimental feeling(s) that you get when you receive a real hug. What will come after that? For instance, the Carbon Sniffing Robot on pg. 98 seems to be unnecessary to me. If we can just have a carbon detector what is the use of building a robot to “sniff” around for carbon in the area. That will only open the door for many things we don’t need for the robot to do: cook, clean, etc. Humans could come obsolete with the huge growth of technology.
Lyle A. Murphy
ReplyDeleteADP III -Section 3
World Changing Statement 9/21/10
Many people when they talk of the disintegration of our environment and the rampant consumerism seem to forget that much of what we our feeling now is not our fault but actually nature and the environment we live in. The reason that our resources are being depleted is because of factors we’ve been conditioned to enable from the start of our evolution. We are on the verge of reaching the max capacity our world can sustain because we are overpopulated with people; and this is because humans procreate relatively fast and live longer (natural selection and modern medicine). These are basic things we’ve adapted to from our ancestors to now: spread your seed and adapt to survive. It just so happens that we’ve done this so well that we are to the point of reaching the k bar on the world’s capacity to sustain us. It is only going to take more human adaptability and ingenuity to keep our population growing- not stagnating and falling in population.
From a personal viewpoint in terms of resources it surprises me that so much resources have been put to waste. When you see massive pile of trash you are either appalled or you see money. With so much material at your disposable you’d think someone would mine it for material to sell. Especially with such past events like the Great Depression where resources became scarce and rare you’d think people could see resources for what they are. Not to mention to take care of the pile of junk in your backyard.
It strikes me as common sense that much of the things we suffer today are just because of lack of foresight. If we follow are gut and think about our actions and what we do to the environment we can go a long way to improving and keeping it healthy.
Better Food Everywhere
ReplyDeleteThe problem of obesity is on the rise; not only in the United States but recent polls show an increase in obesity all over the world. The increase in obesity rates for both adults and children raises serious questions on the state of health of our countries. Specifically speaking to the United States 36.6% of Americans are overweight, and 26.5% are obese. A total of 63.1% percent of American are at an unhealthy weight, and it appears that this percentage increase every year. With the realization that the nations health is in serious disarray, we must first focus on the root of the problem. Food, food is the problem for the average American attempting to live a healthy day-to-day life. Before the days of fast, processed, and imitation food there was a time of natural, homegrown, organic food. Living in a fast paced society that thrives on instant gratification and indulgence, we have become lazy and unwise in our food choices leading to a culture of fat, overweight people.
In the case study “Better Food Everywhere”, the focus remains on where to find healthy food even if it seems unlikely. For example looking at the importance of food in both hospitals and schools, which target a large demographic. This stands as one of the most important factors in my opinion, because the case study addresses students in college not just elementary, middle, and high schools. People often overlook the fact that what we consume into our bodies is what is available in our surroundings. Many schools, including the University of Michigan implemented healthy dining and meal options for its students. Allowing access to foods that are vegetarian, vegan, and kosher as well as foods lower in calories, and fat. Accessibility to healthy food is a key solution to a very serious problem. The introduction of healthy, and better foods in areas where cafeterias and mass distribution of foods are prominent, will help offer a better alternative to the already present junk food.