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Group 1 Presentation: The True Cost – Hope Myers

I think this movie was a great intro to this class. I’ve been interested in environmental science and sustainability but I didn’t really know how much of a role the fashion industry played. One of the points we discussed after the presentation today really struck me, weather or not people can afford to be ethical and sustainable. After learning about the negative impact buying fast fashion has I feel really guilty and I wish I could support more sustainable and transparent brands, however as a college student it’s not economically feasible. I definitely have more than enough clothes though, and my closet is full of many things I don’t wear, so my goal for the rest of this semester is to not buy any new clothes. One more issue that wasn’t mentioned in the movie or readings but that I noticed recently while I was traveling in Vietnam is that traditional ethnic clothing is also being lost. I went to a museum that had displays of tradition clothing for each of Vietnam’s 54 ethnic minorities but for many of them the outfit on display was one of the last existing pieces. Most of the younger generations wear all the big fashion brands and nobody remembers how to make the traditional clothing anymore.

My main role for our presentation was to talk about the consequences of the current fashion system. It’s one thing to just hear the facts but I think what the movie captures really well is showing the emotions of the people in countries like Bangladesh who are affected first hand. Justifying sweatshops becomes a lot harder once you can actually see the people who work there and get to know them a bit. If more people could see this film and be educated about the issues there might be a strong enough push to actually force the fast fashion brands to change, but we have to hold them accountable. Clothes shouldn’t be worth less than a sandwich but more than a life.

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Week 1: Response to “The Machine Stops” E.M. Forster – Harry Paragas

Written in 1909, E.M. Foster’s The Machine Stops is a dystopic projection of humanity in the distant future. In was an idea borne out of the collective fear of the rapid and visible industrialization that marked by that era—smoke guzzling, bulky, machines. With time those machines became more and more complex, with more levers, a vaster range of applicability and function, no longer limited to the industry, but also to the household. It’s inner workings hidden, and only buttons to send directives for the machine to carry out almost invisibly. Foster’s far projection of this development sees human civilization, living, breathing, existing, and eventually worshiping by way of the machine. In the story of 2 named characters, Vashti and her son, Kuno, demonstrated are two clashing philosophies. Vashti, comforted by her hexagonal room, and all of its functions was completely and utterly comfortable limited to its confines. In the room she felt solace and control, she determined when the lights would turn on, what lectures to listen to, what music she heard, when she would sleep etc. In pressing the buttons her life became regimented. Her son, on the other hand, would see it to not only be mundane, but lifeless and limiting. This manifested itself in his curiosity to leave the room, something only attributed to his character, and forced on Vashti. Kuno felt being confined to the room robbed him of creativity and individuality. Kuno felt that their dependence on the machine stripped them of their control, the central committee even, was not above the machine, for they existed, in his eyes, to ensure the perpetual existence of the machine. As the philosophies clashed throughout the story, the machine while thought to be omnipotent and infinite, came to an unexpected, outside of Kuno’s warning, halt. And in its halt, the galleries of humans collapsed in on each other, killing the “civilization.” However, in Kuno’s estimations, the homeless that lived beyond the machine survived. 

Today this begs the question of survival and reliance. Given how much of our lives are built on technology, and the developing reliance on it for many different ways, at what point do we lose our control over such technology? The story suggests it need not be when artificial intelligence exists. Instead, Foster suggests that our surrendering of control will occur when we completely rely on it. That then begs the question of when do we stop developing technology? Advancements in many ways have increased our standards of living by a great deal. Should we ever stop?

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W1:Topic Presentation Reflection- True Cost – Eva (+Sasha, Hope)

This week I gained a new deeper curiosity for the sphere of Fashion. The brief overview of the industry through class discussions was helpful in explaining my perspective, but I have to account the documentary True Cost for providing a foundational level of understanding of the logistics. As I was viewing it for the first time, I had to keep pausing and replaying the statistics. I pondered how the clothing I order on taobao did not come from some Magic Box, and how I never once before took the time to be a continuous consumer while online shopping, or any type of clothing shopping for the matter. It was a wakeup call. 

The world around us is vast. The population is growing and so is the industrial transformation of nature. I am a curious person, and I like to explore topics of relevance to today’s society. I cannot believe how quickly the world is developing around me and to slow down my thought flow I use the method of mind mapping. I use a large A3 paper and some colourful markers and I jot down words and phrases in relation to what is on my mind. I like to see the collage and draw parallels and other relations. Fun fact: the majority of the conclusions I derive to in fact state that “everything is in unity because all is related in one way or another”. As I was exploring some key concepts from the documentary I thought I would be great to try something like that for our Topic Presentation. The activity itself is very encouraging because there is no “right answer” and it can draw different students to different interest focuses, rather than guiding their understanding with specific questions. Even looking at the board (*picture attached*) and seeing how the phrases relate suggest the circulation of this industry to be very profit orientated. I have never before had such a strong feeling of a relationship between the Fashion industry and the concept of oppression. I want to explore this by gaining further understanding in the course of how the industry operates. 

Dipping a toe into the sea of Fashion has provoked me to question my own moral values and opinions. I think that is the most important thing I hope to gain from higher education; to be able to learn the ability to question everything, and most importantly yourself.

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Topic 1 Presentation — Alessandra Hallman

My task for the presentation was to cover both the environmental and ethical issues within the fashion sector, and to emphasize that we should be informed consumers.

I really love this film, and I appreciated getting to watch it again as an assignment. Here I have my notes on my biggest takeaways from the film:
Putting burden of all bad things in the fashion industry on those most vulnerable
Environmental:
-Ignoring basic agricultural facts, cancer, birth defects, mental retardation and physical handicaps, 11 million tons of textile waste from US alone
Ethical:
-Most labor dependent industry in the world, Blatant disregard for human life at every stage of production, and disposal (sold back to poor people)
Social:
-Material goods do not make us happier, pursuit of possessions leads to depression, ads are based in propaganda, gaslighting leads to buying more and more, making us poorer and sadder

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Week 1: Response to “The Machine Stops” – Samanta Shi

I am impressed by Forster’s imagination of future technology, as he lived during a time when machine learning and AI, let alone the internet, had not been born.  As I was reading “The Machine Stops”, I could not help but think about the various TV shows that address similar dystopian concerns but through different means, such as The 100 or Altered Carbon.  When it comes to dystopian futures, authors and creatives across the board seem to enjoy the exploration of the following themes:

  • human dependence on machinery,
  • lack of autonomy and independence,
  • the displacement of humans and their homes (underground vs. in space),
  • lack of physical contact, emotional dissonance and even incapability,
  • lack of empathy, imagination, originality, and
  • the significance of a higher power / being / source of guidance to human harmony and function

All of which were present in Forster’s piece.  I was particularly struck by this dialogue:

“You are beginning to worship the Machine,” he said coldly. “You think it irreligious of me to have found out a way of my own. It was just what the Committee thought, when they threatened me with Homelessness.” At this she grew angry. “I worship nothing!” she cried. “I am most advanced. I don’t think you irreligious, for there is no such thing as religion left. All the fear and the superstition that existed once have been destroyed by the Machine. (Pg. 11)

Forster questions the meaning of religion and shows a different way in which it can manifest itself. What will humans turn to when “there is no such thing as religion left”? Will they find another form of religion?  Where or who will they seek guidance and meaning from?   Later on in the text, Forster reminds the reader that [hu]man is responsible for the machine:

‘The Machine is the friend of ideas and the enemy of superstition: the Machine is omnipotent, eternal; blessed is the Machine.’ And before long this allocution was printed on the first page of the Book, and in subsequent editions the ritual swelled into a complicated system of praise and prayer. The word ‘religion’ was sedulously avoided, and in theory the Machine was still the creation and the implement of man. (Pg. 19)

I believe that Forster was commenting on this idea that when humans “play God” by creating something that is perhaps beyond them (“The Machine”), then they must not forget to consider the potential consequences.  The dystopian nature of the story almost suggests that humans should perhaps avoid facilitating the progression of technology to its fullest potential because it will indeed get out of hand.   Unsurprisingly, when the machine stops, chaos ensues and the fate of the characters is sealed.  At the very end, when Kuno says that “Humanity has learned its lesson”, we experience a slight moment of hope only to be followed by the conclusion that humans do not but taint:

For a moment they saw the nations of the dead, and, before they joined them, scraps of the untainted sky.

As we develop ever more sophisticated technology, we need not forget the importance of not only understanding the consequences of the invention or innovation we put forward, but also proposing a plan for how we might deal with that new reality. Regardless of how prepared we might be, I am convinced that we have an unavoidable blindspot. How might we mitigate the implications of that blindspot? Now, that is the question.