project two - brainstorm

my group for project 2 is the 'tool focus' group. i really wanted to use the laser and vinyl cutters for my last project but never really found a way to incorporate them. my three ideas focus around the use of the vinyl cutter, laser cutter and photoshop/illustrator programs.

in our group, we discussed finding a cause to create awareness for, and something that we could promote in and around the city. a few ideas are to use these three tools to create stencils for 'graffiti' type art (with some sort of harmless material i.e. chalk, masking tape, etc.), creating large 2-d forms to place on and around buildings, and simple promotional flyers. the main idea is to get awareness out to a large number of people in the larger eugene area. hopefully with dramatic and stunning imagery. if pertinent, the works would be placed around buildings in the city that have a strong connection to the cause we will define in this next week (i.e. the eweb building for electricity problems).

the second component to this project would be a book, compiling all of the designs done by the different group members, but aimed at creating awareness for the same problem. this would be a nice chronicle of the design process as well as a functional display of several ways to approach the topic of awareness through design.

Project One

Outline....

I was in the 'targeting excess' group and wanted to focus my project on waste in one way or another. I ended up originally thinking about excess of consumerism in general, then further narrowed the topic to the excessive use and waste of plastic bottles.

I realized I could either try and create a unique solution to this worldwide problem, or work on creating awareness. I decided to go with the latter, because what good is a solution if people don't know what the problem is in the first place.

I knew I wanted to make some sort of visual work that could be on display somewhere on campus, where students could walk by and interact with the work, and be reminded of it every day. I ended up deciding to make a sculpture out of plastic bottles.

I thought the project would have more meaning for me and the viewer if the bottles were collected from campus bins. So I went around one day and collected two 30-gallon trash bags full of plastic bottles, mostly from in and around Lawrence hall. My initial thought was to make a large sculpture out of these bottles, possibly in the form of a water bottle, and place it somewhere on campus. But with this idea came a multitude of installation approval problems. So I with some help from my group members, I decided to bring the project indoors. More precisely, to the water fountains in Lawrence. I was going to build a large arch of bottles over and around the drinking fountain.

From there my project evolved into its final form, "The Refill Project". I wanted the focus to not only be on getting people to realize how many of these bottles are wasted every day, but to offer a small solution as well. I wanted to let people know how smart and easy it is to refill your used bottles at drinking fountains instead of tossing and re-buying bottles. At this point I decided I needed to incorporate some sort of written out explanation to accompany the sculpture. This is where I decided to make room for a little computer-based design. I drafted three 'campaign' style posters for "The Refill Project" to go on the wall with the sculpture. The layout of these was simple, and talked about the project, as well as gave a few facts about plastic bottle waste.

But then I encountered even more install issues. To put a sculpture anywhere in Lawrence takes 2 weeks to have the paperwork approved by the dean. At this point I had all my bottles and the posters done, but with only 1 week until the critique I needed a backup plan. I then decided to make the sculpture more portable than original. Instead of an arch, which would have to be assembled on site (and would probably be noticed after a while) I changed to making letters out of bottles that would spell the word "REFILL". Since I had so many bottles, I expanded my project to include 2 water fountains in Lawrence: one behind the pillar past LA 177 and the other down the hall just before the facilities service desk. This way I could assemble most of the work at home and bring it in the day of, document it, and hope that it would be left alone by the deans office long enough to last through the critique.

So everything went as planned from then on out. I had only one minor change in my assembly. I had to use duct tape instead of super glue, as the glue was not cooperating. I was worried at first about the aesthetics of tape on the outside, but I think it works with the feel of the project.

So the day of the critique I brought my constructed letters to Lawrence and laid them out in front of the two fountains, placing a poster above each one. They did last through the critique but, as expected, the install near the facility service desk was pushed off against the wall by the time class was out, and the poster was nowhere to be seen. I will have to see if the other install remains at all tomorrow.

Overall, I would say this project was a success. I accomplished what I set out to do: raise awareness with students about the excessive waste of plastic bottles in an interesting way. I only wish that I had gotten the installation forms to go through ahead of time so that I could actually see The Refill Project in action, and see if it made people change their habits at all, even once. At least I have the pictures to prove it was there once.

-Joe.

Finishing Up.

Did the bulk of my assembly today. I had way too many bottles to do just one water fountain so as of now I made enough to do at least 2.

My process was pretty basic, with only one major alteration along the way. I had originally wanted to connect the bottles to make letters with super glue, but that was taking way too long to dry and was not as strong a bond as I would have liked, so I switched to duct tape. It may not look as clean, but it works much better, and I suppose the wonky look sort of fits....

My installation plan (since the art install forms haven't gone through the dean yet) is to place the bottles under two fountains on first floor Lawrence just before class on Tuesday, so that hopefully they will stay up long enough to be seen during the critique. After that, I will just wait and see how long they last.

Progression.

so its been an eventful week.

my original idea was to create a super-glued arch of empty plastic bottles around the drinking fountain in first floor lawrence. the idea is to promote awareness for how many plastic bottles we go through every day. i currently have two 30 gallon trash bags full of bottles, all collected in one day around campus.

so i have all my bottles for the sculpture, but was told i have to wait two weeks to get a building art installation approved. so in the meantime i came up with a backup proposal that can be easily moved.

i am calling this 'the refill project', and this idea would be something like the word 'refill' spelled out of all my bottles, laid out on the ground in front of the water fountain. there would also be a space so that people can still get through.

i have also made up a few posters to inform at and around the sculpture location.

feedback is appreciated. i ams till going through with the art install process, but assuming that takes the full two weeks, i will have this plan to fall back on.

project status

i walked by lawrence today to try and get into the classroom where all my bottles were, only to discover the classroom is locked for the weekend. so i tried to busy myself with other things.

sculpture project is currently pending a meeting with the aaa dean's office to get the sculpture placement approved. but they said approval takes around two weeks to go through....

may have to start without them? well see. here is the proposed site though.

in the meantime, came up with a little campaign poster to place around the building. rough design so far....

working....

took today as a work day. decided on a definite format for my project.

my whole focus is going to be on raising awareness about how many plastic bottles are wasted on this very campus every day. i have spent the last few classes running around campus collecting plastic beverage bottles from the recycling bins. these will eventually compose a sculpture i intend to create in lawrence. i really want people to think about how easy it is to reuse plastic bottles, so i am going to make sort of an arching cluster of bottles over the water fountain just past la 177. this will be accompanied by 'campaign' style posters with some startling plastic usage facts on them, posted around the building. it is my hope that this will get people to think about how quickly we go through plastic and how easy it really is to cut down on this immensely.

at least that is the plan so far. john tells me i may have to reason with the dean's office before getting the official okay. but that is my thinking so far.

Excess of Consumerism - 3 Solutions

1. I will make a series of campaign posters to promote people's awareness of their excessive consumption habits. Posters will have a simple design, consisting of one image accompanied by a short tag line or slogan. They will probably be 11x17" prints and I will post them around campus.

2. I want to do either one of the following:

a. Build a massive sculpture out of plastic beverage bottles (water, soda, juice etc.), highlighting our excessive use and consumption of these material goods. The sculpture will likely have the form of a large bottle and will be constructed with super glue. I want to place the sculpture in one of the following locations: the lawrence gallery, the lawrence foyer, or along 13th in front of a high-traffic building on campus. Along with the sculpture/tower would be a description of the meaning of the project and some numbers that correlate to plastic bottle use statistics. There will also be a correlation to how many bottles I use in the sculpture.

b. As an alternative to (a) I would take the plastic bottles I have collected (again, the number I display will have a significant correlation to some statistic about plastic bottle use) and place them on the ground somewhere on campus, preferably the lawn outside the library and the museum. Again, I will have an information sheet so people can see concrete data and have some numbers to relate to the spectacle.