contaminated life

Comments (0)

Transformable Art to Promote Awareness - Part 2

After leaving class on Thursday, I found that I came away with a new found idea, (thanks to Sarah and the rest of the class) that allows my initial idea to be further explored and transformable. I knew I was stuck and that my idea needed to be evolved further, and I was really hoping we would get the chance to go through it. As we did, thank god, I was able to come away with a more viable and suitable concept. It proves that seminars (discussing ideas) really do work.

So. Now I am heading down the path of incorporating my DIY Contaminated Life manual into my sculpture collection, which will be womenswear, where the garments will be the manual/guide to not only how to wear and care for the garments and also what the garments environmental impact has been so far, but also how to transform them into something new and functional/serviceable. This could further be incorporated into the other two collections, like Sarah suggested, through having one of the garments the actual guide that would come complementary in the ‘kit’. However, it is the guide/manual within the sculpture collection that I will explore as it’s much more suitable to the topic of transformation.

I also like the idea that these garments can be transformed into things that are consequent of the fashion industry. By making the clothes transformable into ‘shopping bags’, highlights a subtle reference to the highly shopping focussed nature of society today. I want to look at transforming the clothes into usable things that are found within the fashion industry – shopping bags are perfect as they reference the over-consuming nature of the industry, as well as society in general. 

As the collection is a 10 piece collection, 4 of the garments will be already designed, completely transformable, and will incorporate the manual (either on them or separate). The other 6 will see 3 of the garments being unfinished. These will come with the DIY manual, perhaps printed onto the fabric, and will give instructions on how to make it transformable. The final 3 are what are called basic/core garments, and will just have the sculptor’s ‘tag’ incorporated into them by styling in a pull/slide tab – the ones you find in those interactive children’s books.

I’m still in the process of deciding whether or not the guide will be a ‘print’, printed all over the garments, or whether it will separate or attached somehow, or even attachable?

Transformable ideas: Shopping bag/handbag, coat/suit bag, bum bag, pocket, clutch/purse, sack, pillowcase, sleeping bag, scarf…

Any other suggestions??

Comments (2)

seed sprouters/humunculous/spunkunkulous

After last weeks class I left feeling like I was going down the right path for my final project but also with an apprehensive niggling in the back of mind as to whether my boyfriend would be up for it, so to speak.

Well it turns out that he is.

Anyway, there is no doubt that used condoms fall squarely under the ‘taboo’ category. I’d imagine it would be a total affront to the system discovering a used condom which doesn’t belong to you. It contains intimate evidence of the other, well, others usually. We recoil in disgust to its ‘nastiness’.

So there’s a risk that my ideas of transformation/extension/boundaries will be totally lost within the medium through which I have chosen to exhibit them. As Pia has pointed out, a lot will ride upon the representation. My idea, by virtue, is already sticky but the task lies making it sticky in the right way.

I have been researching these botanical illustrations done in the 70s by these crazy Japanese dudes. The illustrations are so incredibly realistic, beyond realistic (hyper-realistic?) so that an interesting separation from the illustration and reality is created. I thought appropriating this sort of illustrative technique for my diy condom sprouters would be useful, as it would allow for the meticulous representation of the development of these plants in their unique environment by slightly removing them from reality, so as not to be overwhelming in their intimacy or ‘gross factor’.

Am finding it difficult to find any information about the ‘humunculous’ theory but will keep trying as it sounds like their could be potential.

Also making plaster and latex casts of some stuff which I’ll bring to the next class.      

  

Comments (0)

DIY MANUAL – Disposable packaging transformable - EX 10

MISSION: “To illustrate how Packaging material can be transformed into other use”

METHOD (of transformability for the manual):1) Identify the disposable packaging material
2) Identify the place where it was found or can be found
3) Identify the ‘active’ Life span of the packaging material
4) List the attribute of the packaging material
5) Find similar object(s) what has the same attribute
6) Substitute the packaging material for part of the object that has the attribute
Record method physical transformation. What operation it undergo?
7) Test if the substituting material is compatible and/or operable.
Record the similarity and contrast of the transformed to the original object

Comments (0)

dirty electricity

http://www.dirtyelectricity.org/electrical-pollution.html 

http://www.electricalpollution.com/ 

Comments (0)

Disposable packaging TRANSFORMABLE – EX 9

DIY
Mission: “To illustrate how Packaging material can be transformed into other use”

This was again inspired by the earlier exercise the Mac tie, where I have notice that the FASTEST-CONSUMED MATERIALS are those DISPOSABLE PACKAGINGS. Once the inside goods are consumed, the disposable packagings immediately become INSTANT WASTE and are quickly trash away.

Life cycle of the disposable packaging

In case of that particular experiment, The Mac tie, it was the wrapping of the cheese burger. It takes 2 minutes for the Kitchen staff to produce the burger. The cheeseburger is then wrapped in the acid free paper. The wrapped item is then transfer to the pickup tray waiting to the Shop front Staff. It docks the tray for 30 seconds before it was picked up and place into the recycled brown paper bag. The customer (myself), received the bag and pay for the items, spending 20 seconds to complete the transaction. Since I was very hungry I instantly got out my first cheese burger and spend only 90 seconds eating it. I spend another 10 seconds, walking to the nearest trash bin inside the Mac store and litter the wrapping of my first cheese burger.

The cheese burger wrapping ‘active’ life span is only 150 seconds.

After 150 seconds (2.5 Minutes), it is immediately become a waste.

As for the rest of the Mac meal and my second cheese burger, I eat the meal along the way back home and trash the disposable packaging one by one along the way back. It took me approximately 15 minute to reach home from the Mac store. By the time I got home there is not a single evidence of MacDonald items left. What this means is that the life span of every single Mac wrapping in the particular consumption is less that 15 minutes.

It is extremely fast for materials produced for wrapping or packaging to be trashed away. This particular observation has led me to the mission for DIY Manual.

Comments (0)

stbustitue

still in the early prototyping of this one but i thought it may give a slight idea of what the garments are about - a realisation that plastic will never ‘fit’.

disposable-tablecloth-toile-technicals.pdf

still to come: sophies carpet transformation- involving ‘human’ contamination, and maybe a garment with follows the channelling of the ’sweat garment’ created by the body under the influence of the plastic…

Comments (1)

the substitute

audio

sufficationnmp3.mp3

the following is the start of sarah’s and my philosophy of our concept as part of our manual.

In the midst of the plastic era, humanity is slowly asphyxiating from the looming presence of plastic in our environment. The omnipresence of this contaminated substance, especially in the domestic realm, means contaminants are absorbed into the human body without recognition.Certain disposability comes imprinted in these plastic domestic objects. However, through transforming and injecting value into this object-come-substitute, one is saving or creating a new ‘memory’ and validity for that object to exist past its initial use by date. This would mean the object undergoes de-habitualisation, a process where disposability is lost and longevity is found.The immediate effects of this contaminant occur when in an intimate relationship with the human body.The human touch gives value to an artificial object. This manual is a device to aid in the transformation of the perception. The perception concerns the heightened effects of contamination within these objects as they move from static to mobile. 

visuals

Comments (0)

consumer modding-part 2

Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed…”
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier 1743-1794

This modification of domestic objects, aims to follow the idea of Lavoisier “nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed”, however it aims to create a new discourse in human habitual behaviour. The manual focuses on wasteful habits that occur in the household, and how to alter them, by creating suggestions on how to use/re-use/alter common household appliances, besides those specified in manuals/habits. The manual aims to be a simple repurposing of objects with a different function once they have become redundant and useless or aesthetically faulty. This will create an entirely new identity for common appliances and inturn perhaps change habit and inspire new transformations to occur within the household.

Anyway, here is part 2 of the series- i was simply thinking of what a desk lamp could become and came up with the following ideas-i don’t exactly know how the fan may be built, but it was worth a shot. Now to work on the kettle and blow dryer!!!!

Comments (0)

10. I.P. Daley

Continuing along the urine stream (pardon the pun), I have begun to look into urine uses and urine therapy a little more. Here is a bit of what I have found out, and what I will be developing into pages for my manual.

Some interesting info about urine…

 It is a purified derivative of the blood made by the kidneys.
 It contains on average about 95% water.
 The other 5% consists of nutrients, hormones, enzymes, natural antibodies and immune defense agents.
 It is in fact, not waste!
 Urine is simply the excess constituents of blood that are filtered at a particular time, and expelled from the body.

Urine contains an average of….

Alanine ….. 38 mg/day
Arginine ….. 32 mg/day
Ascorbic acid ….. 30 mg/day
Allantoin ….. 12 mg/day
Amino acids, total ….. 2.1 g/day
Bicarbonate ….. 140 mg/day
Biotin ….. 35 mg/day
Calcium ….. 23 mg/day
Creatinine ….. 1.4 mg/day
Cystine ….. 120 mg/day
Dopamine ….. 0.40 mg/day
Epinephrine ….. 0.01 mg/day
Folic acid ….. 4 mg/day
Glucose ….. 100 mg/day
Glutamic acid ….. 308 mg/day
Glycine ….. 455 mg/day
Inositol ….. 14 mg/day
Iodine ….. 0.25 mg/day
Iron ….. 0.5 mg/day
Lysine, total ….. 56 mg/day
Magnesium ….. 100 mg/day
Manganese ….. 0.5 mg/day
Methionine, total ….. 10 mg/day
Nitrogen, total ….. 15 g/day
Ornithine ….. 10 mg/day
Pantothenic acid ….. 3 mg/day
Phenylalanine ….. 21 mg/day
Phosphorus, organic ….. 9 mg/day
Potassium ….. 2.5 mg/day
Proteins, total ….. 5 mg/day
Riboflavin ….. 0.9 mg/day
Tryptophan, total ….. 28 mg/day
Tyrosine, total ….. 50 mg/day
Urea ….. 24.5 mg/day
Vitamin B6 ….. 100 mg/day
Vitamin B12 ….. 0.03 mg/day
Zinc ….. 1.4 mg/day

Urine is beneficial for…

 Hepatitis
 Whooping cough
 Asthma
 Hay fever
 Hives
 Migraines
 Intestinal dysfunctions
 Allergies
 Wounds
 Burns
 Tuberculosis, just to name a few

Urine has been an ingredient in drug companies’ cupboards for a long time too….

 Pergonal - a fertility drug made from human urine, earned a reported $855 million in sales in 1992, and sales ($1400 a month per patient) have increased yearly.
 Urokinase - a urine ingredient is used in drug form and sold as a “miracle blood clot dissolver” for unblocking coronary arteries.

So although I have not got any wonderful pages of my DIY manual put together for you all to peruse, here are a few spoilers as to what you might be able to learn from my DIY with urine manual….

 Urine Bleach
 Urine Juice – would like a vitamin booster in that?
 Crème de la Pisse – the cheapest face cream on the market
 Urine Batteries – forget rechargeable, just pee for electricity
 Organic Urine Fertilizer
 Murine Clear Eyes – it’s true, it already has it in there!
 Wee Waxol – blocked ears anyone?
 Urine Gargle
 Pimple Cream
 Urine Exhaust Purification – Actually being used in London buses
 Urine Enema

Just a few for the moment, but the list of things seems to be getting longer. I have to say that I have been ceaselessly amazed at what you can do with the so called ‘waste’. It is also interesting to learn that there is a cult following of people who partake in urine therapy (regular drinking or ingesting of one’s own urine).

It seems to me that it is a matter of removing the stigma attached to urine which is not a bodily waste. We come back to the concept of a paradigm shift about our understanding and acceptance of our own bodily functions, and what is really such a normal thing, but one that is so taboo.

So I hope that my DIY manual will inject a bit of the bizarre and a bit of fun into your daily toilette!

Comments (0)

Wearable Art to Promote Awareness

For my ‘how to’ guide, I wanted it to work in collaboration with my studio work. This work is a collaboration with street artists (stencil, graffiti and sculpture). The graphics are designed to poke fun at or make tounge-in-cheek comments towards the superficial and greedy nature of the fashion industry. Mocking comments such as the one we heard the other week from George Bush: “we won’t let the terrorists stop us from shopping!”

The guide will be a quirky book that tells the customer how to wear their garments, and how to graffiti, stencil or sculpture onto them. Although the customer is more than likely to already know how to graffiti/stencil/sculpt, the book will giveexamples of what they could say, and go further in informing the customer of the perils of the industry.

Therefore, the guide will not only include relevant information regarding the concept - for the customer to elaborate on in their own style - it will also give guides on how to use the kits (stencil/graf/sculpt) that come with the garments, how to care for the kits and the garments and give ideas of what to put on the garments… All of this results in the importance of promoting awareness through the most viable avenue available at ones fingertips, fahsion.

Here are some of the images (stencils by artist Banksy) that inspired part of the project:

I don’t think this one is Bansky, but its in Melbourne.

Comments (0)

patal and kuladh

Patal: is the term used for indian disposable plates made out of leaves.

Kuladh: is the term used for indian disposable cups made out of mud, used in train stations to drink tea. (In certain states, disposable plastic cups are banned at train stations) People are served tea and other liquids in these cups that are fashioned out of brittle clay at weddings, large functions and train stations, and once you’ve finished drinking from the cup/glass, you head to a corner and smash it on the floor. As its entirely biodegradable, the cup just disintegrates into small deitrus.

Whilst thinking about objects, transformability, waste generation, no waste, deterioration, disintergration and our irkness with cleanliness, these objects from my childhood came to mind and jingled a special resonance in my heart.

Here are some links that i really recommend people to look up and read if you are interested….Sarah, I think you might find the culiblog of interest as it is related to food…. Its very interesting and may crystallise what we’ve been talking in tutorials about. It certainly did for me.

http://www.culiblog.org/2005/06/leafenware-is-everything-but-the-squeal/

http://www.indiatogether.org/2004/aug/chi-diapers.htm

I remember as a kid, i felt challenged to eat on a plate made out of dried leaves, or drink out of a cup that was made out of mud, or look at my cousins’ kids wearing cloth diapers rather than plastic ones. I just did not understand it, and it jolted me as I had issues with how clean i thought each of these objects were. But the more i think about it, the more it makes sense to use these objects created out of real labour, ‘REAL’ hands crafting these things. The human touch comes into play and the fact that some skill is required suggests that it falls into realm of craft creation. But what i find amazing is that these crafts are making something with the knowledge that they are disposable as opposed to crafts for creation of things that are meant to be kept and treasured.

The last time i went to india, i was drinking chai out of one of these kuladhs and i told my cousins, i’m going to take this back to australia. They laughed at me and said, “You’ll break it before you reach there.” But i was pretty determined so i wrapped it up in some cotton and tried to transport it Down Under.
As Scott mentioned, somethings just have disposability ingrained in them, and sure enough, as my cousin’s predicted, the cup broke into two while i was at delhi airport.

Comments (0)

article on packaging

Here is a New York Times article on ways in which big multinationals are attempting to reduce their packaging by redesigning or using more recycled material.

Comments (0)

glove water capture

On the garden show on the ABC tonight they showed a lovely little invention sent in by a viewer who had managed to channel her rainwater from the downpipe to the garden via a plastic glove. Tying the end of the glove to the bottom of the downpipe, she then cut the end off one of the glove fingers and attached it to a hose which then carried the water into the garden. It looks very funny but so clever.
What a great low budget, lateral and quirky move. I plan to try it out.

Comments (0)

some links

kitchen cultivation gear:
http://www.embryo.ie/miele/

kitchen culture kits:
http://www.kitchenculturekit.com/index.htm

biotech hobbyist:
http://www.nyu.edu/projects/xdesign/biotechhobbyist/

open source biotechnology:
http://rsss.anu.edu.au/%7Ejaneth/home.html

how toxic is your bathroom? (scary):
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article321838.ece

environmental health news (a god resource):
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/

green light:
http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/05/07/green-light-botanical-lamp-and-air-filter/#more-4089

Comments (0)

SupadoopaLoo

A re-inventing of the concept of a public toilet, from a waste creation system, to a nutrient recycling system.

To engage the public in understanding the absurdity of modern sewerage systems as costly environmental polluters and resource squanderers.

The average Australian wastes 34 litres per day flushing toilets.

The real dollar cost of this waste disposal is estimated to be: (Energy $, Infrastructure $x,environmental impacts, water replacement cost)

The real environmental impact could be estimated to be: (Habitat destruction, CO2 emissions)
The value of the nutrients lost could be priced at:

Cost of flushing 200 grams of shit down the toilets = $2

Value of shit = (estimated) $.30

Saving = (estimated) $2.30

Economics of the system:

Producer (user of toilet) is credited $1.00 for each use of the toilet which can be used to buy produce from the toilet.

$2.30 would be recouped by the city council in carbon credits and saved water costs. This money is used to pay onsite gardeners and for the upkeep of the facilities.

By using a composting toilet, one person:

Produces approx 40kg of organic compost per year (2.4% nitrogen, 3.6% Phosphorous, 3.9% Potassium (Value approximately $100)

Avoids the pollution of 25,000 litres of fresh water (Saving of approximately $100)
Each visit to a normal toilet:

• Costs the user (or local council money)
• Costs the state government money: The real cost of water is subsidised in most countries.
• Pollutes the environment: Green house gasses are produced in treating human waste.
• Wastes water: Each flush wastes 20litres of water.
• Removes valuable nutrients from the ecosystem: Nitrogen, sodium and phosphorous.

On top of these problems, a trip to a public toilet is usually an unpleasant experience. The internal environment is devoid of life and is sanitised with environmentally damaging chemicals.

Each visit to a SuperdoopaLoo

• Earns the user money/resources
• Saves the government money
• Reduces greenhouse gasses by planning vegetation which will absorb CO2. (carbon abetment is currently priced at $15 per tonne in NSW, but this is expected to rise to $150 within 10 years)
• Saves water: Each non-flush saves 20litres of water.
• Returns valuable nutrients to the ecosystem: Nitrogen, sodium and phosphorous.

A visit to a SuperdoopaLoo is a visit to a lush indoor garden abounding with life!

Toilet Features:

• 8 non gender specific toilet cubicles
• Seperate urinal area with 8 urinals
• Hand washing area (water is recycled and applied to plants via a Grey water system. Soaps used are biodegradable
• 8 worm composting units
• An electronic card system which allocates credit points for deposits. The volume of solids and liquids are weighed which assures correct credit allocation (solids are worth more credit points than liquids)
• A hot house provides growing area for plants.
• Plants are exchanged for credit points at far end of hothouse.
• Growing process are visible to passers by.

Produce:

• Nursery - Carbon abetment potential of trees can be calculated.

• Fruit shop - Fruit and vegetables which can be peeled, or which don’t touch the ground. Pumpkins work well!
• Florist – Once dead, flowers would have to be returned to the system for the cyclic nature of the concept to remain.