Matt Siber - http://siberart.com/ - from his series The Untitled Project. Interesting work dealing with public advertising. Basically photographs a public space, removes all the signage, and displays them side-by-side.
Alexandra Gardner Consuming Responsibly pg 35. We all know that huge corporations and media have jumped on the "go green" band wagon, using it as a marketing strength and outlet for great expansion in consumerism. Ironically the whole purpose behind the go green movement, is to deviate away from this sort of mentality: over production, mass produce, increased consumerism and materialism leading to greater pollution and waste. The purpose of go green is to try and be as resourceful as possible, this implies spending less, recycling and reusing more, and overall creating less "stuff". The root of the problem starts with consumerism; the desire to buy and consume more things on the illusion that we need them, rather than want them. The first step in becoming a better consumer is prioritizing, separating the entities which we really need from those which we only want. Eliminating excess products not only minimizes waste but decrease overall spending. Shopping at second hand stores or vintage shops is a great way to buy clothes they are not necessarily new but they are new to you as well as affordable. Try and look for clothes that are organic and sweatshop free labor. When buying products other than clothes look for such qualities as biodegradable, recyclable, environmentally safe, toxin free, and compostable. However, though it is good to "go green" be wary of products on the market that promote green living when actually are just as negative impacting as other products. It is important to shop wise, read labels and really understand exactly what you are buying and how it impacts your surroundings.
One way to blend nature with modern urban settings is to incorporate green infrastructure into the architecture of cities and other highly populated areas. Some examples of Green infrastructure include green roofs, indoor moss and vine walls and the free Los Angles Tree planting seminars. Green roofs utilize the roofs of buildings for organic gardens, rainwater collection and recreational uses. Green Roofs insulate homes in the winter and keep them cool in the summer. By collecting rainwater for reuse, wastewater is reduced as well as water prices (as homeowners are able to use water collected rather than paying for unnecessary tap water.) Green roofs also offer families “yard space’ for their kids to play on seeing as most urban environments lack private yards for play. Ontario’s University of Guelph- Humber just installed a moss wall in one of their school buildings to help with oxygen ventilation in the classrooms. Having a green wall eliminates stuffiness and creates an environment that is inspiring and will hopefully encourage more students to come to class and enjoy the fresh air indoors. Urban areas are generally hotter than rural areas due to maximum amounts of asphalt and concrete, which absorb sunlight. This proves to be problematic in the United States’ southwest in states such as California New Mexico and Arizona. Los Angeles has implemented a non-profit that offers free trees to homeowners if they enroll in an hour-long class. The trees create a greener neighborhood, shade homes from the brutal sunlight and keep them cool in the hot summer months.
While reading, “Charting the Deep Oceans,” I started wondering how much the world really knows about the Oceans. Most of our knowledge of Oceans just hardly scratches the surface. It’s easy to research and document the upper parts of the Ocean but when it comes to the deep darkness of the Oceans, its hard to see what is really going on down there. It was interesting to read that man knows so much of the world and has made numerous maps of it, however, the Oceans are still unknown. Not knowing the Oceans though has made it possible to come up with wonderful stories about sea monsters and other mystic creatures. Though we humans don’t know much about the Oceans, we might not even have time to discover more of it because with the recent Global Warming, the Ocean temperatures are rising and killing off various creatures. It’s sad to read that eventually all the reefs will be gone soon and how phytoplanktons are not breeding as much as they should. Great majorities of sea life thrive off of phytoplankton and with the population decreasing; it will cause a lot of trouble with the Ocean ecosystem. With that, phytoplankton is also important to every creature here on earth. This is so because phytoplankton make about half of the oxygen in the worlds atmosphere. There isn’t quite a way to fix the issue about the phytoplankton yet. However, scientists have been able to come up with a simple solution to fix the decreasing living coral population. At first, scientists would sink old boats and oil platforms. This method continued for a while till a more environmentally friendly way came up. The new method “uses small electric charges to accelerate mineral accretion in a small fledgling reef structure.” I just hope that this method works cause the passage also said that even if the world were to reduce in Global Warming, that the seas would still take a while to cool off and that it might not be able to reproduce all the coral we have lost.
11/30/10 Jackie San Fillipo ADP III- Rotz World Changing
I think Siber’s work is important in our modern culture. Everyday we are bombarded by hundreds of words and images. His work asks the question about how we are influenced not only by words but by images, what speaks to us, how our society communicates. Advertising is huge in our culture, and dissecting it can help us to understand it. It can also make us more aware of what we are actually being shown and told to think about. Advertising and media has made our world smaller, everything is shown, everything is accessible. We are confronted everyday with ads that offer something new and cool to buy, and we listen. “Questioning Consumption” on page 32 of World Changing, asks “how much stuff do we really need?” Not only are all of those ads selling us things that are using up natural resources, but the signage itself takes forests upon forests to create. We are taking more than the earth can give, and “the gap between sustainability and everyday practice is widening.” If you have every seen the television program Hoarders, you know there are plenty of people in this country who have and want too many things than they can handle. Though the relationship between material possessions and happiness does correlate, we know well by now that after a certain point, no amount of possessions can make a person happier. This chapter suggests we should remove the clutter from our lives, be more conscientious about what we do buy, save our beautiful planet, and learn to appreciate the space and objects we already have; that is what will make us happier- and I agree.
Lindsay Avino ADP III World Changing 11/23/10 "Better Food Everywhere" p.57
I thought that "Better Food Everywhere" was very interesting and relevant to me and my life. It talks about how we need to have choices to begin with if we are going to choose healthy food. Today, we don't have that much of a decision on what we eat because at schools, hospitals or at a restaurant, the options aren't the best possible. If we are hungry enough, we will choose what is available to us over something that isn't. As a college student, there are many options that exist at mealtime. On Michigan's campus, there are fast-foot restaurants all over campus. For many people it is much easier to eat at these places because it is convenient. I think that it would be beneficial to the if our campus had farmers markets and other options for students. This section also related to lecture because it talks about creating community gardens. This idea is very similar to the idea of growing victory gardens that we spoke about in class. I think that if kids were able to learn how to plant and create gardens in school at a young age, this would be stay with them and become a part of their life as they grow older. If we were able to take some of the initiatives in this chapter, we would be much a much healthier country.
The exploration of ocean life has changed from being merely a bold scientific adventure to becoming essential research for our survival. The more we discover about the oceans the more we understand our dependence on them. Apparently not long ago oceanography meant dipping a net over the side of a boat and now technologies are being used that rival those of space explorers. Although satellites can only see into upper ocean levels, they help map plankton levels, pollution, and ocean temperatures. These rising temperatures are the most damaging to the oceans ecosystems and they’re just going to keep on increasing even after we stop dumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere due to an effect called thermal inertia. As most people know, coral reefs are extremely important ecosystems that are being depleted severely. But there are also microscopic creatures called phytoplankton that could be the closest thing on the planet to a foundation for life. They feed the ocean’s animals along with providing around half of the atmosphere’s oxygen. The only thing is when the temperature increases, they don’t feed or breed as well, which is why they are used as indicators that something isn’t quite right. They also swim around the bottom of the ocean along with a huge diversity of strange life forms that we need to keep safe. So while deep sea exploration is still in its early stages of development, there needs to be an institution of legality for the deep sea ecosystems that protects its biological treasures.
Caleb Moss November 29, 2010 ADP III World Changing Statement
Brand-new Justice: Is Branding the Key to Wealth in the Developing World? Pg. 95
Big companies like Nike, Adidas, Louis Vutton, etc. all have been well known for their ways of advertising their major corporations on a single individual. Nike for its huge “swoosh” on its shirts and other paraphernalia, and Louis Vutton and Gucci for having their logos literally all over whichever item is. After looking at Matt Siber’s photographs it showed me some things that have been done over in America as well as some things that haven’t (and were completely of the wall). “Untitled #46, 2009” is an example of “over-advertising”, I wouldn’t know what to buy or which store to go in with all of those advertisements thrown in my face. Untitled #49, 2009/10 has the logo or some decal of some sort built right into it. “In 2004, the marketing consultancy Interbrand estimated the total value of the top one hundred global brand at $988 billion. Treating brands like Diet Coke and Pentium as tangible assets, Interbrand approximated that the top hundred global brands are worth almost $1 trillion- more than the combined gross domestic product of the world’s sixty-three poorest nations combined”.
I thought the Art Meets Technology chapter was truly and interesting one. I felt connected to this chapter as an artist and it really relates to what I’m interested in and doing currently with my life. I think it’s interesting how artist employ technology to put forth their work. It’s also interesting how technology affects the work of artists. One thing that I can relate to this chapter is how the invention of the camera affected artists. I know from previous background knowledge that portraits and paintings got less realistic upon the invention of the camera because it wasn’t a necessity to portray things exactly how they are because now we had the ability to take a photograph. I also think that with the rapid change in technology, art is rapidly changing. Video art and computer art is definitely something that is ever changing because of new innovation. When examining earlier video art (from the 1970’s) for example. Video was much more crude and grainy. However, now, we have the ability to get images in high definition. It’s amazing how changing technology affects art. One of the art pieces that was interesting to me was the robot that drew green lines on the walls based on how much carbon dioxide was in the room. I think this is a very interesting way for the artist to use technology to his advantage. This technology not only pushes an agenda that the artist had in mind, but it also creates something beautiful. I thought that this chapter was especially interesting and poignant.
Human rights are a very important and pressing issue in today’s society. Currently there are a lot of efforts going on to demand human rights, and combat violations of those rights. However, it is a tough issue to go up against, because in countries with limited human rights, speaking up can very well get someone imprisoned, tortured, or even killed. The global community plays an important part in fighting human rights violators with universal jurisdiction. Universal Jurisdiction is the idea that all people have basic human rights that should be protected by the international community. The United Nations has held corrupt dictators accountable for the crimes they have committed against humanity. Another pressing issue regarding human rights is torture. Torture is a means of extracting information, but the problem is, torture doesn’t work. People will make up false information to get out of the excruciating physical and mental pain surrounding torture. Gaining false information is often much worse than no information at all. Another important part of combating crimes against human rights is being a witness to these events. Camera phones are the most widely sold phones, and that type of technology is helping to expose some of the worst crimes against humanity. Once these events are recorded and sent out on the web crimes against humanity become much more widely known to the public. Forensics is another powerful tool in demanding human rights. Forensics help give a voice to those that have been murdered. It helps to uncover how people died and if they had any torture inflicted upon them beforehand. Demanding human rights is an important issue regarding the global society.
Alexandra Gardner
ReplyDeleteConsuming Responsibly pg 35.
We all know that huge corporations and media have jumped on the "go green" band wagon, using it as a marketing strength and outlet for great expansion in consumerism. Ironically the whole purpose behind the go green movement, is to deviate away from this sort of mentality: over production, mass produce, increased consumerism and materialism leading to greater pollution and waste. The purpose of go green is to try and be as resourceful as possible, this implies spending less, recycling and reusing more, and overall creating less "stuff". The root of the problem starts with consumerism; the desire to buy and consume more things on the illusion that we need them, rather than want them. The first step in becoming a better consumer is prioritizing, separating the entities which we really need from those which we only want. Eliminating excess products not only minimizes waste but decrease overall spending. Shopping at second hand stores or vintage shops is a great way to buy clothes they are not necessarily new but they are new to you as well as affordable. Try and look for clothes that are organic and sweatshop free labor. When buying products other than clothes look for such qualities as biodegradable, recyclable, environmentally safe, toxin free, and compostable. However, though it is good to "go green" be wary of products on the market that promote green living when actually are just as negative impacting as other products. It is important to shop wise, read labels and really understand exactly what you are buying and how it impacts your surroundings.
Caitlin Murphy
ReplyDelete30 November 2010
World Changing
Green Infrastructure
One way to blend nature with modern urban settings is to incorporate green infrastructure into the architecture of cities and other highly populated areas. Some examples of Green infrastructure include green roofs, indoor moss and vine walls and the free Los Angles Tree planting seminars.
Green roofs utilize the roofs of buildings for organic gardens, rainwater collection and recreational uses. Green Roofs insulate homes in the winter and keep them cool in the summer. By collecting rainwater for reuse, wastewater is reduced as well as water prices (as homeowners are able to use water collected rather than paying for unnecessary tap water.) Green roofs also offer families “yard space’ for their kids to play on seeing as most urban environments lack private yards for play.
Ontario’s University of Guelph- Humber just installed a moss wall in one of their school buildings to help with oxygen ventilation in the classrooms. Having a green wall eliminates stuffiness and creates an environment that is inspiring and will hopefully encourage more students to come to class and enjoy the fresh air indoors.
Urban areas are generally hotter than rural areas due to maximum amounts of asphalt and concrete, which absorb sunlight. This proves to be problematic in the United States’ southwest in states such as California New Mexico and Arizona. Los Angeles has implemented a non-profit that offers free trees to homeowners if they enroll in an hour-long class. The trees create a greener neighborhood, shade homes from the brutal sunlight and keep them cool in the hot summer months.
Rebecca Aguilar
ReplyDeleteWC Oceans
While reading, “Charting the Deep Oceans,” I started wondering how much the world really knows about the Oceans. Most of our knowledge of Oceans just hardly scratches the surface. It’s easy to research and document the upper parts of the Ocean but when it comes to the deep darkness of the Oceans, its hard to see what is really going on down there. It was interesting to read that man knows so much of the world and has made numerous maps of it, however, the Oceans are still unknown. Not knowing the Oceans though has made it possible to come up with wonderful stories about sea monsters and other mystic creatures. Though we humans don’t know much about the Oceans, we might not even have time to discover more of it because with the recent Global Warming, the Ocean temperatures are rising and killing off various creatures. It’s sad to read that eventually all the reefs will be gone soon and how phytoplanktons are not breeding as much as they should. Great majorities of sea life thrive off of phytoplankton and with the population decreasing; it will cause a lot of trouble with the Ocean ecosystem. With that, phytoplankton is also important to every creature here on earth. This is so because phytoplankton make about half of the oxygen in the worlds atmosphere. There isn’t quite a way to fix the issue about the phytoplankton yet. However, scientists have been able to come up with a simple solution to fix the decreasing living coral population. At first, scientists would sink old boats and oil platforms. This method continued for a while till a more environmentally friendly way came up. The new method “uses small electric charges to accelerate mineral accretion in a small fledgling reef structure.” I just hope that this method works cause the passage also said that even if the world were to reduce in Global Warming, that the seas would still take a while to cool off and that it might not be able to reproduce all the coral we have lost.
11/30/10
ReplyDeleteJackie San Fillipo
ADP III- Rotz
World Changing
I think Siber’s work is important in our modern culture. Everyday we are bombarded by hundreds of words and images. His work asks the question about how we are influenced not only by words but by images, what speaks to us, how our society communicates. Advertising is huge in our culture, and dissecting it can help us to understand it. It can also make us more aware of what we are actually being shown and told to think about. Advertising and media has made our world smaller, everything is shown, everything is accessible. We are confronted everyday with ads that offer something new and cool to buy, and we listen.
“Questioning Consumption” on page 32 of World Changing, asks “how much stuff do we really need?” Not only are all of those ads selling us things that are using up natural resources, but the signage itself takes forests upon forests to create. We are taking more than the earth can give, and “the gap between sustainability and everyday practice is widening.” If you have every seen the television program Hoarders, you know there are plenty of people in this country who have and want too many things than they can handle. Though the relationship between material possessions and happiness does correlate, we know well by now that after a certain point, no amount of possessions can make a person happier. This chapter suggests we should remove the clutter from our lives, be more conscientious about what we do buy, save our beautiful planet, and learn to appreciate the space and objects we already have; that is what will make us happier- and I agree.
Lindsay Avino
ReplyDeleteADP III
World Changing
11/23/10
"Better Food Everywhere" p.57
I thought that "Better Food Everywhere" was very interesting and relevant to me and my life. It talks about how we need to have choices to begin with if we are going to choose healthy food. Today, we don't have that much of a decision on what we eat because at schools, hospitals or at a restaurant, the options aren't the best possible. If we are hungry enough, we will choose what is available to us over something that isn't. As a college student, there are many options that exist at mealtime. On Michigan's campus, there are fast-foot restaurants all over campus. For many people it is much easier to eat at these places because it is convenient. I think that it would be beneficial to the if our campus had farmers markets and other options for students. This section also related to lecture because it talks about creating community gardens. This idea is very similar to the idea of growing victory gardens that we spoke about in class. I think that if kids were able to learn how to plant and create gardens in school at a young age, this would be stay with them and become a part of their life as they grow older. If we were able to take some of the initiatives in this chapter, we would be much a much healthier country.
section 3
ReplyDelete11/29
charting the deep sea pg. 521
The exploration of ocean life has changed from being merely a bold scientific adventure to becoming essential research for our survival. The more we discover about the oceans the more we understand our dependence on them. Apparently not long ago oceanography meant dipping a net over the side of a boat and now technologies are being used that rival those of space explorers. Although satellites can only see into upper ocean levels, they help map plankton levels, pollution, and ocean temperatures. These rising temperatures are the most damaging to the oceans ecosystems and they’re just going to keep on increasing even after we stop dumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere due to an effect called thermal inertia. As most people know, coral reefs are extremely important ecosystems that are being depleted severely. But there are also microscopic creatures called phytoplankton that could be the closest thing on the planet to a foundation for life. They feed the ocean’s animals along with providing around half of the atmosphere’s oxygen. The only thing is when the temperature increases, they don’t feed or breed as well, which is why they are used as indicators that something isn’t quite right. They also swim around the bottom of the ocean along with a huge diversity of strange life forms that we need to keep safe. So while deep sea exploration is still in its early stages of development, there needs to be an institution of legality for the deep sea ecosystems that protects its biological treasures.
Caleb Moss
ReplyDeleteNovember 29, 2010
ADP III
World Changing Statement
Brand-new Justice: Is Branding the Key to Wealth in the Developing World? Pg. 95
Big companies like Nike, Adidas, Louis Vutton, etc. all have been well known for their ways of advertising their major corporations on a single individual. Nike for its huge “swoosh” on its shirts and other paraphernalia, and Louis Vutton and Gucci for having their logos literally all over whichever item is.
After looking at Matt Siber’s photographs it showed me some things that have been done over in America as well as some things that haven’t (and were completely of the wall). “Untitled #46, 2009” is an example of “over-advertising”, I wouldn’t know what to buy or which store to go in with all of those advertisements thrown in my face. Untitled #49, 2009/10 has the logo or some decal of some sort built right into it. “In 2004, the marketing consultancy Interbrand estimated the total value of the top one hundred global brand at $988 billion. Treating brands like Diet Coke and Pentium as tangible assets, Interbrand approximated that the top hundred global brands are worth almost $1 trillion- more than the combined gross domestic product of the world’s sixty-three poorest nations combined”.
Katie Klimkowski
ReplyDeleteADP III
11.30.10
I thought the Art Meets Technology chapter was truly and interesting one. I felt connected to this chapter as an artist and it really relates to what I’m interested in and doing currently with my life. I think it’s interesting how artist employ technology to put forth their work. It’s also interesting how technology affects the work of artists. One thing that I can relate to this chapter is how the invention of the camera affected artists. I know from previous background knowledge that portraits and paintings got less realistic upon the invention of the camera because it wasn’t a necessity to portray things exactly how they are because now we had the ability to take a photograph.
I also think that with the rapid change in technology, art is rapidly changing. Video art and computer art is definitely something that is ever changing because of new innovation. When examining earlier video art (from the 1970’s) for example. Video was much more crude and grainy. However, now, we have the ability to get images in high definition. It’s amazing how changing technology affects art.
One of the art pieces that was interesting to me was the robot that drew green lines on the walls based on how much carbon dioxide was in the room. I think this is a very interesting way for the artist to use technology to his advantage. This technology not only pushes an agenda that the artist had in mind, but it also creates something beautiful. I thought that this chapter was especially interesting and poignant.
Katie Klimkowski
ReplyDeleteWorld Changing response
12.3.10
Human rights are a very important and pressing issue in today’s society. Currently there are a lot of efforts going on to demand human rights, and combat violations of those rights. However, it is a tough issue to go up against, because in countries with limited human rights, speaking up can very well get someone imprisoned, tortured, or even killed. The global community plays an important part in fighting human rights violators with universal jurisdiction. Universal Jurisdiction is the idea that all people have basic human rights that should be protected by the international community. The United Nations has held corrupt dictators accountable for the crimes they have committed against humanity. Another pressing issue regarding human rights is torture. Torture is a means of extracting information, but the problem is, torture doesn’t work. People will make up false information to get out of the excruciating physical and mental pain surrounding torture. Gaining false information is often much worse than no information at all. Another important part of combating crimes against human rights is being a witness to these events. Camera phones are the most widely sold phones, and that type of technology is helping to expose some of the worst crimes against humanity. Once these events are recorded and sent out on the web crimes against humanity become much more widely known to the public. Forensics is another powerful tool in demanding human rights. Forensics help give a voice to those that have been murdered. It helps to uncover how people died and if they had any torture inflicted upon them beforehand. Demanding human rights is an important issue regarding the global society.