This response is in regards to the World Changing, Producer Responsibility article. The article discussed concepts of which manufacturers would become responsible for their extinguished products. The article suggests several ways in which this concept could and has been carried out, but I find some of them quite far fetched. One concept, designing for disassembly, confused me by how this affects the environment? If a product is easier to take apart but still consists of the same materials the whole concept is just to benefit the manufacturers by quickening the process and saving them money. One example used was the pop-apart cell phone, which dissembles itself when heated with a laser. The cell phone reacts at temperatures ranging from 140-300 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, if I were somehow saving the environment I would not be as upset when my cell phone popped apart in a hot car in August, but if it were simply saving the company time and money, I would switch providers. Anther concept of producer responsibility was designing for repair. Say, instead of buying a cassette player (which eventually went obsolete) we paid for a portable music player. This, again, does noting for the environment and could actually affect the evolution of technology. If companies knew that they had a certain amount of customers using their products and that their numbers probably wouldn’t change with new technology because everyone would up-grade with their current companies, what would be there incentive to further technology? Especially if these manufacturers were required to replace out dated devices with current models. This would actually cost the manufacturers or at least significantly reduce their profit. If we have to configure ways to allow them to make money off being environmentally conscious, I doubt paying for a device and its evolution would ever work in practice. Companies may be more willing to recycle or improve their methods if they make money off of the concept, but instead of bribing them with ideas on how to increase profit margins, why don’t we instead make it a requirement for manufacturers to recycle their own products?
After reading the article, Open Source from Worldchanging, I found this to be a great concept for several reasons. Open software is software that has its code, program, and operating system hidden from no one. By providing open source software, it allows the public free access to the code and encourages improvement. This idea works well from several standpoints. We now have a significantly higher number of people working to improve software and ultimately have a higher probably of making breakthroughs in technology. Also, we are now allowing those without formal training the opportunity to contribute to the development of these computer operating systems. In some cases individuals may not have had the chance to complete a degree and therefore cannot be employed under certain company’s standards, but have valuable skills and knowledge to contribute to the software industry. At the same time the software companies are extending this knowledge to the general public, making it learnable and, perhaps, allowing us to raise our understanding of computer technology as a whole.
This response is regarding the article Knowing What’s Green from Worldchanging. This article explains the concept of standardizing the sustainability of our everyday products. This was actually very informative while closely relating to my group project. My group and I are curating an A&D student show called “Green” which will exhibit environmentally based art and design. On Wednesday, we were just discussing judging criteria. Technically, many things that aren’t actually sustainable can be claimed so by focusing on one aspect and neglecting to reveal another. And like this article, the cradle-to-cradle concept of using a sliding scale to rate sustainability, came up. Obviously, we cannot use this scale because we only have half a semester, but using this system with manufacturers can become standardized our products. This will improve the manufacturing processes in relation to the environment while ultimately protecting the consumer from products with false claims of sustainability. As far as using embedded identification systems in products to ensure proper disposal, it could work but would definitely need to become more of a business or service rather than the consumer’s responsibility. The ideas is that products, such as a shirt, are marked with a chip that records their materials and hold information about their proper disposal. This article suggests that in, in theory, people could have a scanner to wave in front of a chip to find out where to dispose of the product. Now, the vast majority of people would not want to spend money on one of these machines and more importantly would not clean out their closet and spend an entire day returning all these products to their proper destinations. This process could perhaps be more beneficial if provided by a donation center or recycling location. Then the scanning would be done by an employed staff instead of relying on the consumer to purchase a scanner and actually follow through.
In the article, Protest, from Worldchanging Abrams discusses ways in we as artists and designers can protest nations and corporations that engage in unethical practices. Some of these ways don’t even require our presence yet still allow us to make a statement. So yes, protesting from the comfort of our homes seems convenient, but is it effective? One of the ways to passively protest is culture jamming. Culture jamming is the act of using existing advertisements and other public media as a vehicle for protesting the corporations that created them. As with many of these methods I find I have mixed feelings about them. Although, many of these advertisements display great design and creativity I always feel that the creator could have spent their time more effectively. Sure, culture jamming spreads the word but if all we do is sit around and talk about it we are essentially just publicly complaining and, like everyone else, are doing nothing to make an actual change. Sometimes it seems that those designing posters and taping videos for Youtube as forms of protest are just hoping to spread the word to someone who is willing to take initiative and make an actual difference. Perhaps, if the people that are passively protesting found a more aggressive and essentially more effective form of protest, we would experience change more quickly and be happier as a society.
Water – Page 186 This article has made me think a lot about how I could do small tasks that would save a lot of water in the long run, such as: shorter showers, not leaving water running when washing hands, and using recycled water or rain water. However, similar to other chapters in this book, I’ve found a continuous obstacle: for every action, there is a reaction. Suppose people decide to save water and not wash their hands as thoroughly: while saving water, this could result in spreading illness and germs. Neither of these results are ones that we would aim for, but it makes it a lot harder to come up with a solution with more pros than cons, than the last issue. Today in lecture, Trumpey was talking about inner pollution, the idea that what we put into our system is actually toxic. This ties directly into water pollution because water is becoming increasingly hard to filter through, and it is leaving toxic chemicals in our drinking water. No matter how hard we try to push away these chemicals, they are unavoidable. We produced the chemicals in the water, we drink the water, and in return we ingest the very product of our actions. Many of the issues in this article and in other texts produce this conflict of action and reaction.
Before I even started reading the article, I found the Freitag bags to be quite interesting. The black and blue bags look like something I would be happy with as a final product if I were to design a bag. Whats more though is that the bags are made from entirely recycled material--the printed tarps of cargo trucks. I think this is great not only in that it’s eco-friendly, but how it can be used as a counterargument for mass-marketing.
I think the embedding RFID tags into consumer items could ultimately become a very effective tool in maintaing a sustainable consumer culture. RFID is a technology that, while insecure, would be cheap and effective to implement. It would offer a documentation standard for the means by which a product was produce. However, a potential dilemma may be the legitimacy of of the information that the tags hold. Consequently, a third party panel would need to be set up to verify the legitimacy of the tag’s content.
In response to the article, Seeing the Big Picture on page 402, I would have to totally agree with the author of this article in that people need to be given a simple indicator of the status of a situation; otherwise they may not understand what is really happening. I believe that there is a small part of society that would actually analyze charts and graphs to determine where we stand on an issue.
Communicating information to society as a shole has to be done in terms they understand. Although this article reduces this to something as simple as a smiley face or an up or down arrow; I personally would prefer something a little bit more detailed than that.
Our country does try to communicate our status on numerous issues, from weather to finance and air and water quality. For some they want the details of where we stand financially, not just a stock market number; but then there are those that don't look at the society they are merely looking in their own backyard. They know if they are in a personal fincancial crisis or if things are going well, and that is all they worry about. But it is important to know how we are doing as a society because depending on societies status, there will most probably come a time when societies impact will have personal impact.
The whole point of the article was that we need to keep the reporting simple enough so that everyone can understand -- so I suppose if we use an up or down arrow; or the colors of a traffic light to depict our status, so be it; at least everyone will have an idea of where that situation lies.
This article talks about a hypothetical situation of a business success - specificaly, environment-friendly products. It is interesting to see how any product on the market takes so many steps to become a legitimate and successful product.
In this case, it is a golf ball-cleaning machines. In order to introduce a more responsibly made, greener product into the market of golf ball-cleaning machines, the CEO of a hypothetical company has to envision and empower the development of new machine. The designer has to make a significantly improved machine that it can replace the old machines and make people wonder why they have used the old machine in the first place. It is difficult for a green product to become the smash hit over the existing products. The research must be done on the green trend and deliver the message to the consumers. The product may fail and be forgotten or it may become a big success and lead the green product that can save energy and more efficient. It will be more expensive compare to the exisitng golf ball-cleaning machine due to the amount of research and development that have went into. However, if people start to support this machine the comapany will mass produce and the price will drop.
The whole story of a product becoming a sucess is interesting although it is not the actual success story. It tells us that if we all have effort to support and seek to consume on products that protects our environment the change can be made.
This article talks about a hypothetical situation of a business success - specificaly, environment-friendly products. It is interesting to see how any product on the market takes so many steps to become a legitimate and successful product.
In this case, it is a golf ball-cleaning machines. In order to introduce a more responsibly made, greener product into the market of golf ball-cleaning machines, the CEO of a hypothetical company has to envision and empower the development of new machine. The designer has to make a significantly improved machine that it can replace the old machines and make people wonder why they have used the old machine in the first place. It is difficult for a green product to become the smash hit over the existing products. The research must be done on the green trend and deliver the message to the consumers. The product may fail and be forgotten or it may become a big success and lead the green product that can save energy and more efficient. It will be more expensive compare to the exisitng golf ball-cleaning machine due to the amount of research and development that have went into. However, if people start to support this machine the comapany will mass produce and the price will drop.
The whole story of a product becoming a sucess is interesting although it is not the actual success story. It tells us that if we all have effort to support and seek to consume on products that protects our environment the change can be made.
United States consume more than twice the required daily caloric intake for every man, woman, and child, yet many people in the United States go hungry as populate the entire country of Canada. Globally, 16000 children die everyday from needless hunger. Developed industrial farming revolution in last century has made agriculture one of the significant world pollution causes. Industrial Farming also has the dubious distinction of being of the world’s biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.
Twentieth century have seen the fastest revolution in our history. But around the world, citizens (consumers and producers) have also fostered a different sort of revolution in food and farming, one that holds real hope.
No matter what we go into a store for, we can almost always walk out the door with a snack in hands. And that is a problem because we are losing our connection to the source of our food; when we can buy anywhere, it seems to come from nowhere. If we understand a few basic things about how and where our food is grown and processed, how far it ravels to get us, and what happens to it on the way, wecan make better choices about what we eat.
Fast foods that are fast and comfortable to eat are so much popularized. Much of the time, we don’t get to pick what lands on our plates. Whether we dine is a school lunch hall, a conference room, a hospital cafeterias, and in a car, chances are we won’t choose hunger over an unhealthy meal- and we certainly shouldn’t.
This response is in regards to the World Changing, Producer Responsibility article. The article discussed concepts of which manufacturers would become responsible for their extinguished products. The article suggests several ways in which this concept could and has been carried out, but I find some of them quite far fetched.
ReplyDeleteOne concept, designing for disassembly, confused me by how this affects the environment? If a product is easier to take apart but still consists of the same materials the whole concept is just to benefit the manufacturers by quickening the process and saving them money. One example used was the pop-apart cell phone, which dissembles itself when heated with a laser. The cell phone reacts at temperatures ranging from 140-300 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, if I were somehow saving the environment I would not be as upset when my cell phone popped apart in a hot car in August, but if it were simply saving the company time and money, I would switch providers.
Anther concept of producer responsibility was designing for repair. Say, instead of buying a cassette player (which eventually went obsolete) we paid for a portable music player. This, again, does noting for the environment and could actually affect the evolution of technology. If companies knew that they had a certain amount of customers using their products and that their numbers probably wouldn’t change with new technology because everyone would up-grade with their current companies, what would be there incentive to further technology? Especially if these manufacturers were required to replace out dated devices with current models. This would actually cost the manufacturers or at least significantly reduce their profit. If we have to configure ways to allow them to make money off being environmentally conscious, I doubt paying for a device and its evolution would ever work in practice.
Companies may be more willing to recycle or improve their methods if they make money off of the concept, but instead of bribing them with ideas on how to increase profit margins, why don’t we instead make it a requirement for manufacturers to recycle their own products?
After reading the article, Open Source from Worldchanging, I found this to be a great concept for several reasons.
ReplyDeleteOpen software is software that has its code, program, and operating system hidden from no one. By providing open source software, it allows the public free access to the code and encourages improvement. This idea works well from several standpoints. We now have a significantly higher number of people working to improve software and ultimately have a higher probably of making breakthroughs in technology.
Also, we are now allowing those without formal training the opportunity to contribute to the development of these computer operating systems. In some cases individuals may not have had the chance to complete a degree and therefore cannot be employed under certain company’s standards, but have valuable skills and knowledge to contribute to the software industry. At the same time the software companies are extending this knowledge to the general public, making it learnable and, perhaps, allowing us to raise our understanding of computer technology as a whole.
This response is regarding the article Knowing What’s Green from Worldchanging. This article explains the concept of standardizing the sustainability of our everyday products. This was actually very informative while closely relating to my group project.
ReplyDeleteMy group and I are curating an A&D student show called “Green” which will exhibit environmentally based art and design. On Wednesday, we were just discussing judging criteria. Technically, many things that aren’t actually sustainable can be claimed so by focusing on one aspect and neglecting to reveal another. And like this article, the cradle-to-cradle concept of using a sliding scale to rate sustainability, came up. Obviously, we cannot use this scale because we only have half a semester, but using this system with manufacturers can become standardized our products. This will improve the manufacturing processes in relation to the environment while ultimately protecting the consumer from products with false claims of sustainability.
As far as using embedded identification systems in products to ensure proper disposal, it could work but would definitely need to become more of a business or service rather than the consumer’s responsibility. The ideas is that products, such as a shirt, are marked with a chip that records their materials and hold information about their proper disposal. This article suggests that in, in theory, people could have a scanner to wave in front of a chip to find out where to dispose of the product. Now, the vast majority of people would not want to spend money on one of these machines and more importantly would not clean out their closet and spend an entire day returning all these products to their proper destinations. This process could perhaps be more beneficial if provided by a donation center or recycling location. Then the scanning would be done by an employed staff instead of relying on the consumer to purchase a scanner and actually follow through.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn the article, Protest, from Worldchanging Abrams discusses ways in we as artists and designers can protest nations and corporations that engage in unethical practices. Some of these ways don’t even require our presence yet still allow us to make a statement. So yes, protesting from the comfort of our homes seems convenient, but is it effective?
ReplyDeleteOne of the ways to passively protest is culture jamming. Culture jamming is the act of using existing advertisements and other public media as a vehicle for protesting the corporations that created them. As with many of these methods I find I have mixed feelings about them. Although, many of these advertisements display great design and creativity I always feel that the creator could have spent their time more effectively. Sure, culture jamming spreads the word but if all we do is sit around and talk about it we are essentially just publicly complaining and, like everyone else, are doing nothing to make an actual change. Sometimes it seems that those designing posters and taping videos for Youtube as forms of protest are just hoping to spread the word to someone who is willing to take initiative and make an actual difference. Perhaps, if the people that are passively protesting found a more aggressive and essentially more effective form of protest, we would experience change more quickly and be happier as a society.
Water – Page 186
ReplyDeleteThis article has made me think a lot about how I could do small tasks that would save a lot of water in the long run, such as: shorter showers, not leaving water running when washing hands, and using recycled water or rain water. However, similar to other chapters in this book, I’ve found a continuous obstacle: for every action, there is a reaction. Suppose people decide to save water and not wash their hands as thoroughly: while saving water, this could result in spreading illness and germs. Neither of these results are ones that we would aim for, but it makes it a lot harder to come up with a solution with more pros than cons, than the last issue. Today in lecture, Trumpey was talking about inner pollution, the idea that what we put into our system is actually toxic. This ties directly into water pollution because water is becoming increasingly hard to filter through, and it is leaving toxic chemicals in our drinking water. No matter how hard we try to push away these chemicals, they are unavoidable. We produced the chemicals in the water, we drink the water, and in return we ingest the very product of our actions. Many of the issues in this article and in other texts produce this conflict of action and reaction.
Knowing Whats Green pg. 114
ReplyDeleteBefore I even started reading the article, I found the Freitag bags to be quite interesting. The black and blue bags look like something I would be happy with as a final product if I were to design a bag. Whats more though is that the bags are made from entirely recycled material--the printed tarps of cargo trucks. I think this is great not only in that it’s eco-friendly, but how it can be used as a counterargument for mass-marketing.
I think the embedding RFID tags into consumer items could ultimately become a very effective tool in maintaing a sustainable consumer culture. RFID is a technology that, while insecure, would be cheap and effective to implement. It would offer a documentation standard for the means by which a product was produce. However, a potential dilemma may be the legitimacy of of the information that the tags hold. Consequently, a third party panel would need to be set up to verify the legitimacy of the tag’s content.
In response to the article, Seeing the Big Picture on page 402, I would have to totally agree with the author of this article in that people need to be given a simple indicator of the status of a situation; otherwise they may not understand what is really happening. I believe that there is a small part of society that would actually analyze charts and graphs to determine where we stand on an issue.
ReplyDeleteCommunicating information to society as a shole has to be done in terms they understand. Although this article reduces this to something as simple as a smiley face or an up or down arrow; I personally would prefer something a little bit more detailed than that.
Our country does try to communicate our status on numerous issues, from weather to finance and air and water quality. For some they want the details of where we stand financially, not just a stock market number; but then there are those that don't look at the society they are merely looking in their own backyard. They know if they are in a personal fincancial crisis or if things are going well, and that is all they worry about. But it is important to know how we are doing as a society because depending on societies status, there will most probably come a time when societies impact will have personal impact.
The whole point of the article was that we need to keep the reporting simple enough so that everyone can understand -- so I suppose if we use an up or down arrow; or the colors of a traffic light to depict our status, so be it; at least everyone will have an idea of where that situation lies.
Bright Green Consumerism p81
ReplyDeleteThis article talks about a hypothetical situation of a business success - specificaly, environment-friendly products. It is interesting to see how any product on the market takes so many steps to become a legitimate and successful product.
In this case, it is a golf ball-cleaning machines. In order to introduce a more responsibly made, greener product into the market of golf ball-cleaning machines, the CEO of a hypothetical company has to envision and empower the development of new machine. The designer has to make a significantly improved machine that it can replace the old machines and make people wonder why they have used the old machine in the first place. It is difficult for a green product to become the smash hit over the existing products. The research must be done on the green trend and deliver the message to the consumers. The product may fail and be forgotten or it may become a big success and lead the green product that can save energy and more efficient. It will be more expensive compare to the exisitng golf ball-cleaning machine due to the amount of research and development that have went into. However, if people start to support this machine the comapany will mass produce and the price will drop.
The whole story of a product becoming a sucess is interesting although it is not the actual success story. It tells us that if we all have effort to support and seek to consume on products that protects our environment the change can be made.
Bright Green Consumerism p81
ReplyDeleteThis article talks about a hypothetical situation of a business success - specificaly, environment-friendly products. It is interesting to see how any product on the market takes so many steps to become a legitimate and successful product.
In this case, it is a golf ball-cleaning machines. In order to introduce a more responsibly made, greener product into the market of golf ball-cleaning machines, the CEO of a hypothetical company has to envision and empower the development of new machine. The designer has to make a significantly improved machine that it can replace the old machines and make people wonder why they have used the old machine in the first place. It is difficult for a green product to become the smash hit over the existing products. The research must be done on the green trend and deliver the message to the consumers. The product may fail and be forgotten or it may become a big success and lead the green product that can save energy and more efficient. It will be more expensive compare to the exisitng golf ball-cleaning machine due to the amount of research and development that have went into. However, if people start to support this machine the comapany will mass produce and the price will drop.
The whole story of a product becoming a sucess is interesting although it is not the actual success story. It tells us that if we all have effort to support and seek to consume on products that protects our environment the change can be made.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBetter food everywhere P.97
ReplyDeleteUnited States consume more than twice the required daily caloric intake for every man, woman, and child, yet many people in the United States go hungry as populate the entire country of Canada. Globally, 16000 children die everyday from needless hunger. Developed industrial farming revolution in last century has made agriculture one of the significant world pollution causes. Industrial Farming also has the dubious distinction of being of the world’s biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.
Twentieth century have seen the fastest revolution in our history. But around the world, citizens (consumers and producers) have also fostered a different sort of revolution in food and farming, one that holds real hope.
No matter what we go into a store for, we can almost always walk out the door with a snack in hands. And that is a problem because we are losing our connection to the source of our food; when we can buy anywhere, it seems to come from nowhere. If we understand a few basic things about how and where our food is grown and processed, how far it ravels to get us, and what happens to it on the way, wecan make better choices about what we eat.
Fast foods that are fast and comfortable to eat are so much popularized. Much of the time, we don’t get to pick what lands on our plates. Whether we dine is a school lunch hall, a conference room, a hospital cafeterias, and in a car, chances are we won’t choose hunger over an unhealthy meal- and we certainly shouldn’t.