The 11th Hour

What a powerful and interesting video. The 11th hour really shows us how wasteful our lifestyle is, and how the corporate world has gotten a grip on our lives, how we spend, use things etc. It's amazing to see the science and statistics behind the state of our planet, and how in many cases people try to reject this reality.

Tom Linzey makes a very good point, “Today, ecosystems, forests, streams, lakes, they have no rights. Which means they could be bought, sold, destroyed, traded or carved up.” The way people are thinking is really affecting our planet, and naturally people want to own something. There can’t just be a plot of empty land lying around. Someone wants to and will eventually buy or trade this land, or any other natural, undeveloped areas. I think this is about how people are greedy, and they want to own everything and everything is tied to money. By being greedy, people are also selfish, in a way that they would really only do things for their own good. But in reality, it is the corporate world that controls everything, the corporate giants will only do things for their own good and helping the environment isn’t something that would help. Another example of the power of the corporate world, is the episode of 60 minutes (the excerpt is in the 11th hour) where James Hansen talks about how the Bush administration is muzzling him and other scientists who warn about global warming.

“The problem is that our sub-system, the economy is geared for growth.. where the parent system doesn’t grow, it remains the same size, as the economy grows it displaces and encroaches upon the biosphere, this is the fundamental cost of growth” – Herman Daly.

Drawing from the charette a week ago, we found out how wasteful our lifestyle is, by discarding items even when they are still functional. An interest statistic – an average American produces 730kg of waste a year and this really ties in with what Ray Anderson said, “We have a system that is a waste making system”. The way we produce and manufacture things produces more waste than the end product, and this is a huge amount of waste. We simply just don’t have the resources to waste like that.

In all, our planet cannot sustain our current lifestyle, and in order to make things right, there are a lot of things we have to do other than to sign some treaties saying a certain country will reduce its carbon emissions. In order to rectify the damage, we need new intentions for the future, and a new way of thinking. We also need to treasure the resources we have, as they are highly valuable and cannot be replaced in a hurry.

Charette 1

The charette was an interesting activity, where we had to rapidly produce ideas for a specific product, in my case, it was the Ikea stefan chair. The task involved us targeting the different pleasures which relate to increased user experience which then relates to extended product life. The activity, along with the lecture gave a pretty interesting scope where a majority of the products we buy and maybe not even use end up in landfills. Alot of the time, products aren't used to their full extent, for example the trend in mobile phones gives it only a 12month life, whereas the technology may be outdated but still usable for a couple more years. I think that promoting long-term satisfaction in products is a really good idea, where that in terms of environmental issues, it addresses problem we have today where we discard products before the end of its usage life.By addressing and promoting long-term satisfaction, people can probably gain product attachment, like if you really like a product alot, and it stays functional for a long time, you tend to grow fond of it, and that is pretty interesting, because most of the products we buy, are probably due to impulse, and we don't really think about whether we really need it or not.

Looking at aftermarket products in terms of extending product life and increasing satisfaction gives designers a greater scope in which we can work in, because it is pretty hard to target everyone and simply because everyone is an individual, we all have different needs and tendancies. It also allows for greater creativity in ideation, because you aren't really restricted to say, making a chair. I guess, this is what allowed us to generate ideas quickly in the activity. If we were to change the chair itself, it would be a much harder task, and wouldn't finish it in 15minutes. Collaborative problem-solving also helped because there are a number of brains at work at the same time, and that's good, compared to one. I think it makes it alot easier to just throw out ideas in groups, and see what others think about your idea. Sometimes there are drawbacks, like one person could be a loud mouth and own the group, and that could result in drowning out other interesting ideas that were mentioned.

Our Product

In our group for the final collaborative activity, we came up with the concept where we could enhance the chair in terms of involving it with other activities. We looked at a demographic which may purchase the chair in the first place, and decided to look at parents with young children. This gave us the initial idea of bonding and play between the child and the parent by incorporating the chair as a medium to play on. Our final idea was a set of toys which would attack to the legs and supports of the chair, examples such as letter blocks, and cars were the initial thought, and we went with that. Perhaps there were other design opportunities by incorporating other toys that could also attach to the chair, so there would be more variety for the parent, and the child to choose from when purchasing. Personally, I think that letter blocks are one of the most effective, as it allows for the child to learn by creating words.
The blocks are made from EVA foam, similar to the type used in the spongy floor mats that piece together. This creates a safe product for the child as it has no sharp corners, and is soft. The properties of EVA foam also allow the product to grip onto the chair legs preventing them from falling off.