Addressing the brief for this project was somewhat of an intimidating task. We were asked to propose a digital project that would take into consideration the theme of sustainability and the pressing need for its adoption in a larger global scale. Given the theme’s nature it was quite easy to feel powerless in terms of creating or stirring a real change in people. Yet the more I thought about it, I realised that the change had to come from me. In other words the awareness the project would cause would have to first take place on a personal level and then hopefully influence somebody else. And the personal awareness did come! After reading the literature and consulting many of the links provided, which also helped me realise that any action as minor as it might seem is substantial in the broader picture.
On regards to jettison I believe that the physical processes and outcomes are the project’s strength. The methodology established in the proposal for finding the objects to re-purpose was concrete enough and it reflected in practice. Being able to foresee what the objects could be re-purpose into, represented a fairly more complicated task. Particularly because I wanted to maintain a minimal and uncluttered feel about the new objects, traits that in my view are not so often associated with art made from recycled materials.
I feel that it is needless to say there was a vast amount of objects to work with. Yet going to the Resource Management Centre and other recycling second hand stores to find objects to work with was enlightening on this matter because it confronted me with the reality (specially the resource centre) of the amount of discarded and unwanted things we are capable of generating.
In the digital realisation of this project is where its weaknesses can be found. This is mainly because at times the two parts (digital and physical) were too far apart and the manner in which the two could fully integrate to form one project was never fully reached. Even though there were steps taken in this direction such as becoming a member of like minded groups on flickr and posting photos on the blog and learning how to add a reel on it to be able to display the process of the objects.
An idea that came about (if only a bit late in the process) was to have an automated form generating program. It would run a set of specific rules such as number of elements needed or amount of space available for the final object and it would randomly create a new piece every time the program is run. This process of form finding would have been facilitated by the fact that at the time I discussed the idea with Patrick Stein , I had decided to mainly work with modules. E.g the nodus piece
As a concluding thought I would like to add that in my view digital design is by its own nature more sustainable than other practices. Seeing that it involves a given amount of algorithms that can be re-used as many times over without degradation. That is to say that in essence the work is non-polluting and everlasting. If only we could work towards having many more practices function in the same manner.
