Water: Luxury or Necessity?

Art 118 Final Thought/Paper

In choosing to pursue a career that has so much to do with aesthetics, and the idea that things that are pleasing to the eye are expensive, it is hard to feel like you, as a deisgner, are doing something for the greater good. Making things in this world look beautiful and sell well, and executing brilliant advetising campaigns aren't always enough at the end of the day. I personally struggle with feeling a lack of purpose and connection to the greater population of the world. In lecture, Luke Bertus spoke of how we design for only a small percentage of the world's population. What about everyone else?

When I was still mulling this subject over and contemplating this paper in my head, I happened to watch a man (on tv) from a small rural village of China get a partial face transplant. As I watched his long journey from the mountains in China all the way to Beijing, I realized just how big of a world it is out there, how fortunate I am that I don't have to herd cattle in a remote forest and worry about a bear slashing half of my face off. I realized how convenient my life is here, I have nothing to be worrying about.

My thoughts then turned to everyone else in the world and how I could help them. Being a poor (in American standards) student attempting to become a designer, how can I make a difference? Sometimes I want to drop everything, school, work, friends and family and go to some remote corner of the Earth and just help people. Every time I verbalize these thoughts to my friends or family, they recoil and say I should finish school first. Sure, school will give me a degree and supposedly a job... but is that what is needed in this life? I feel I should just worry about the things in life that matter, like the basic needs and lives of others. Then again, making money and having a home is nice I guess.

When I was looking at different projects, I started reading more about what a studio called Work Worth Doing, is in fact, doing. I found their idea of "Shipping Greenland's water to Africa" quite enlightening. The pictures showed a well designed approach to communicating their ideas. The large installation of a physical representation of greenland's receding ice and melting run-off was really interesting to look at and gave viewers a figure to identify with. It also just looked really cool.

The graphic representations were simple and clear, easy to understand. The project was presented in step-by-step form, steps 1 through 9. The problems of both Greenland and Africa were presented and then a solution was suggested that could perhaps help both. All of this was presented in 2004 in Toronto, Denmark, and Venice as part of the 'Too Perfect' project of the Danish Architecture Centre of Copenhagen, Denmark.

The project is presented with the thought in mind that the world's purest water is exported and sold all over to those with the money to buy it. Since when did water become a luxury? It is not fair that only those with money be able to purchase a resource that is necessary for human survival. So many die every day from lack of clean water and stupid consumers are buying all of this bottled water. The American people should just drink our tap water, it is a luxury. If Americans hate how their tap water tastes, they should consider purchasing a water filter instead of spending so much money on bottled water. I'm not even going to start talking about all of the waste that is created as a result of the bottling and shipping of this luxury; bottled water.

I want to become more involved in public awareness, because that is where graphic designers can contribute most towards global causes. We are taught how to reach people, how our brains react to images, colors, and shapes. We are sitting on a goldmine of sorts. Here we sit, atop a mound of knowledge, perfectly able to help so many causes around us, and yet we still sit. We worry about money, getting recognition, doing what we want, when we could be doing so much to help. My question is how do I get involved, being so busy as a student. I need to just take the time to find a cause and do what little I can in my free time to support it. Each of us were given a talent, and if we don't use it, I have a feeling we will eventually lose it. Whether you believe in God(s), or yourself, or in just nothing, this principal is true. Use it or lose it.

Youth Part Deux

In continuing on working with the Oscar Wilde book (which we seem to have no title for at this point...) I rediscovered my love of drawing. I came across a style that I really enjoy and it puts emphasis on the emotion I feel when I am working. I love hair, drawing it, that is...

The series of nine drawings I did were mainly illustraing contrasts in youth and old age in human form. Stay tuned, I will post photos as soon as I recover my files from my dead computer. :(

Where I Went

I have been absent in class recently. I've learned something important about my process, and that is I either have to make my deadlines, or I am so wracked with guilt that I can't even show my face. It is something I need to work on. I just feel awful if I come to class with nothing to show. I feel I have let my peers down, who work so hard to bring something to the table, and also myself. I know what I am capable of, and with the time constraits and all the commitments I have agreed to during this quarter, I have only brough my best to the table once or twice.

This is depressing to me, I have to overcome my feelings of failure and try try again. My computer crashed as well so I can't really post a lot of pictures of what I was working on at this moment. I will as soon as I can get near a scanner. This was a rather depressing post, but it needed to be said.