Name: Eva Solo
Date: 16/12/19
Professor: Marcela Godoy
Swap Event
A few of us that were unable to join the squad for the Beach Clean up we hosting the Clothing Swap event. We were not able to fully realise this idea this time, but I took away a few notes for future. We concluded this attempt by placing all of the items into the IMA lounge tables with a free for all sign. Although, as I was leaving I did not feel like we were able to fulfil what we originally planed, a few weeks later I saw some of these items being used in Interaction Lab final projects and so saw some benefit of our gathering.
I was considering how an event as such could be developed to create a community gathering. First of all, I think we (although unintentionally) chose a good time to create a clothing/item swap, as the end of the semester is usually the time everyone is cleaning out their possessions before traveling – at the end of the Spring semester could be an even more affective time period. Second of all I was thinking why I had no items to bring – well, though taking Sustainable Fashion, and now Remade In China, I have become a much more conscious consumer, only buying what I really really want, and in turn being a lot more satisfied with my purchases. An even as such, could give a great platform to communicate some of these ideas I have retained through taking sustainability courses, although I’m not sure how it would be received by people wanting stuff, but if the information could be packaged carefully without sounding preachy I think this would be a wonderful opportunity. Third of all, I think we never got to gather to discuss what we expected from this event thus not being able to realise it well. Some design thinking would have benefited the final out come for sure.
Neighbourhood Observations
This semester was my first time living outside of school dormitories in the city of Shanghai, as well as my first time in Puxi. I quickly realised how the scenery had changed in terms of people circulation, and with that waste production. The streets of my neighbourhood were lively and active at almost all times of the day, and the unattended waste multiplied by the hour till it was all swept away in the early hours of the morning before the people filled the streets. The more we learned in class, the more curious I was to observe my immediate environment and the perspective of the residents around me.
One observation that particularly intrigued me was this idea of ‘mod mentality’ when applied to chucking unwanted trash on the streets. For example, once the initial piece of trash was left on the side of a gate, more people were inclined to do the same creating a cluster of trash. The most surprising was the fact that a trash can wasn’t even 5 feet away, and clearly visible from the cluster. Questions: Are people not even looking around? Why does ‘they did it first’ count as a viable excuse when it comes to littering? Is there any though process in terms of knowing the streets are getting cleaned daily, so someone else will pick it up?
I shared some of these thoughts with my peers and alongside some great discussions I also repeatedly got the response ‘that’s someone’s job’ which at first aggravated me. I was boarder-line disgusted with the idea of privilege in terms of distancing self from basic responsibility, counting environmental protection as a core human requirement while living on this Earth. With that I further targeted the observation of the people in change of cleaning up after others. I walked the streets at different times of the day, seeing the most activity at the hours ranging from 6pm to 8 pm / 3 am to 4 am for the AI work in my neighbourhood. They never seemed bothered by the misplaced trash, and seemed to have accepted that with clearing the bins they also take care of miscellaneous left items at street corners. I think the best way to show our gratitude of waking up to a clean city environment is to AT LEAST place all of our trash into their intended place.
I also observed how waste circulated in my building, as well as my complex. It was interesting to see how the majority of the residents obeyed the trash take-out hour rules and if there were still trash left by the station before it opened at the beginning of the semester, by the end of it – almost everyone walked down during the 6pm to 8 pm window. I took a stroll through the different flours and as 余 asked, a lot of the residence left their raw materials (mostly plastic in form of bottles, glass in forms of bottles, and cardboard in form of boxes) outside their doors before 6 am during some time of the week. I used this as my morning exercise for two weeks, by-daily.
On a side note, I often found banana peals, apple stems, and gum pieces just randomly chucked on the streets. I remember from the time I was little, adults indicated that when in nature some of these may be left as they would later biodegrade into the soil. I don’t support any time of littering now, my the mere audacity of chucking a banana peal onto concrete where it clearly doesn’t even follow the soil fertilising idea is so obscure to me.
I was also really interested in seeing how a large amount of cardboard is transported, as they first pour water onto the mass to create weight and compact the material before packing it onto the three whealed motorcycles.
Here are some (raw/unedited) photos I took during this process:
This one lady said she was ‘太大了’ (too old) to carry the weight of trash, so she diligently pushed her chair on wheels down with her trash overtime I saw her heading to the trash station. This also privilege-checked me, this time for my able-body and how much of these daily activities I take for granted, I told her where our apartment was and offered help if she ever needed it. It was great to reflect on this semester not only for what I have learned in class, but how I was able to involve myself in the broader community through these activities.
Art
Using the potato starch recipe I also created some visuals in the physical as well as the digital realm:
Using the material I produced in Week 12 Journal Entry ,I visualised how I see plastic polluting the Earth till it slowly dims all of life.
I used this material on paper to lay coats of watercolour, and later altered the imaged in Photoshop. The material is also spread in pieces throughout the canvas in a ‘battle’ with pieces of plastic. Recycled plastic bags, wraps, and packaging material were also used in the process, as well as cigarette buds. As we discussed and read a lot about sustainability and what steps we can take, I needed another outlet to understand what I was absorbing. Visual creation, for me, describes the world and its mysteries with the best degree of accuracy when language can’t quite connect all of the points in my mind.
Leave a Reply