to a sustainable future

Chasing Ice was another, along with Cowspiracy, documentary that really hit home with me. James Balog, photographer, was on an assignment for National Geographic, out to document the realities of climate change. What he found changed even his skeptical views of climate change. Observing first hand the melting of massive mountains of ice and portraying these through his hauntingly beautiful photos is a breathtaking to see. Being alive in this crucial time for humanity is crazy for me to see unrolling right before my very eyes. The lengths that Balog has gone to in order to bring this information to the general public says something about how important he sees it as. On top of this is the impact that his years of work is having on the public. Seeing at one point in the movie that a man working in the oil industry went and quit his job after witnessing Balog’s work is a testament to the gravity of the situation being portrayed. 

Watching this movie made me really appreciate the thought and involvement that goes into the design process. The different phases and progression of intensity in the design is extremely relevant to me personally as I go through similar phases with the research and development of my thesis project. Watching Emily and Matthew, the two teachers that took on the ten students involved in their project/class in Bertie county North Carolina, was great to see a professionals approach to teaching design from a third person’s perspective. The progression of the students throughout the semester was amazing to see. Going from detachment and disengagement to feeling a sense of responsibility and pride all through involvement and support from the teachers involved. 

Another aspect of the entire design process that really stuck out to me was the investment from Emily and Matt as facilitators. Their commitment to the program was so strong that it even surpassed personal funding. When the school board announced to them that they would not be able to provide them with the salary previously determined, Emily and Matt stayed the course and proposed to see the project through on their own without support from the school. It was so amazing to see the genuine passion and care they had for building the community there. 

When this documentary was first recommended to me, I was a little skeptical of it just from the paranoid feeling I was getting from the name. However, watching this documentary has been one of the most eye opening experiences I’ve had through Netflix. The premise of the documentary is about looking into the sustainability of livestock production for food consumption. I won’t try to retell the whole story but wanted to touch on the impact it had on me, as well as influence on my career interest. Also I highly recommend giving it a watch if not just out of curiosity.

After watching three weeks ago, the amount of livestock products I consume has dropped drastically and I have not bought meat of any kind since. I just want to let you know that I love meat. Steak is probably one of my favorite foods and I am not doing this because I don’t like the taste of meat or think that it will be easy to give up (even though it has proven to be extremely easy resource and option wise) but rather because of philosophical reasons. Learning that it takes 600 gallons of water to produce the meat for one hamburger can be quite a shocker to someones lifestyle that may consume 1,800 gallons of water from eating 3 hamburgers a week. And that is only the water waste!

I noticed that after watching this documentary I looked at my design career differently. I wondered how different the design field would look if everyone knew these statistics. I think kitchens would be designed a lot differently. I think advertising and graphic design would take on a completely different approach. I think the design of the entire fast food conglomerate would be structured differently. 

During this class I received the opportunity to attend an education and social practice conference in Detroit. This conference was the first of it’s kind through AICAD (Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design). The attendees were from schools all across America as well as a few internationally.The topic of social practice and how that idea was being taught or promoted in the colleges was the main topic of discussion over the course of two full days. 

There were both positive and negatives that surrounded the conference. It was great to see the steps that different colleges were taking to address the social inequalities we are facing as a nation. Coming from a school that, during my four years and aside from this first class, I have not seen integrating the social aspect into the curriculum, it was very educational to hear the diverse approaches and viewpoints. Caring about these issues can be heavy to carry around from day to day, so learning of the others who are aligned in our concerns was a moral boost for me.

However the approach seemed to be lacking in its ability to measure effectiveness. Because its effectiveness cannot be measured designing a socially conscientious program has been difficult if not impossible. There was no lack of passion in the people or in the discussion, however it seemed to be kept at the surface level because a clear educational solution for our society has not been found yet. Another thing that made me feel uncomfortable was the fact that every single person participating in the conference was white. And while we were discussing the issues of racial injustice in society we were all sitting there representing a large diverse racial population of the art colleges but only with white people. 

The week of 9.28.15 we had the opportunity and privilege to help out the lovely people at the Free Store located in The United Methodist Church ( http://www.4allpeople.org/free-store/ ). An amazing organization, I definitely recommend taking your unused items over or taking a few days a month or year to go help out. I was so thankful to be able to participate in something that people are investing their lives in. 

To give some background on what the Free Store is, it is an area in the building of The United Methodist Church devoted to equipping people in the surrounding community with basic needs, such as clothing, shoes, household items, toiletries, and school supplies. This is entirely done through donations given to the store. Participating individuals are given a basic frame of rules, such as the amount of items to take per visit, but nothing has a price tag on it and the checkout just keeps a record of items being given a new home.

This week Ohio State University had Will Allen come in for a lecture to first year students. The public was invited at well but only if there were open seats once all the first year students who were attending the lecture had a seat. Our teacher in Design for Social Change had brought the event to our attention that same Monday that it was happening although I only understood that it was about healthy food. After waiting in a standby line for half an hour and walking into a near full auditorium I started to realize that this event was a pretty big deal.

I wasn’t disappointed with the quality or content of the lecture. Will Allen commanded a sense of respect with his towering frame, but at the same time you could tell he was a genuine down-to-earth person. Wearing a hoodie and a pair of jeans, you could tell this was where he was comfortable, educating people about a sustainable future whether it be in a auditorium or on a farm. Will Allen is a pioneer in the urban farming industry and author of The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People and Communities. He spoke about large and important issues, ranging from social inequality, to the lack of healthy food that people in low income areas are able to buy/don’t even have access to. 

A few of the many points that really resonated with me were as follows;

1.) We need everyone at the table in order to have good, healthy food for everyone. It needs to be a multi-corporation/multi-cultural movement, that includes the medical industry, corporations, universities, individuals, etc.

2.) Equalizing access to good food. Everyone needs to have the same access to the same foods. In order to do this we need to cut production costs.

This week the class focused on different local issues that we could try to tackle, even if in a theoretical sense, as a social design class. At first when the question was posed to us there was a few moments of silence. We seemed to have difficulty coming up with issues for our class to take on and I am interested in why this was a problem. 

I would think that as a designer, and the things that I am interested in on a fundamental level, I would be overflowing with different local issues that are happening in the community that we could try to tackle. Why did I seem to be so stumped?

Could it be that social design scenarios are new to us? Or maybe that it is an issue that is happening “outside” our fields of study?

This paper written by Elizabeth Sanders really struck some sensitive chords with me. It brought up many issues that I have been wading through in context to design, and speaks to why and how it is impacting people around the globe.

One point that I thought spoke directly to me was the perspective she gave about the architecture industry. She was speaking about the future of design and what changes are being made now in the process of different design fields. While many design industries are moving towards bringing user experience into the design process, she says that architectural design seems “to be suck in the expert-driven phase..”. In order to move forward their industry will need to learn and adopt from the other design disciplines and be able “to see the built environment as a stage for human experience rather than as a finished product.”

Design for social practice class