Having had generally poor experiences on class-wide field trips, I wasn’t super excited about the UN field trip. That, coupled with the fact that I’d been to the UN on a field trip in highschool and attended a heinously boring presentation, left me with low expectations. However, from the beginning of our time in the UN, I knew something special and important was happening. While I knew that the sign-holding was probably just a safety measure, it was still pretty cool. When we sat in the auditorium a Danish women noted that the desks and blue chairs were Danish design and the green chairs were not, which I found funny as the green chairs were clearly inferior design. The first speaker I found highly engaging, I enjoyed the discussion of the incineration plant as a destination rather than an eyesore and – although I doubt it’s application in the US, a far more politically volatile climate – it made me optimistic for the future. Also interesting to me were the plans for the barrier around Manhattan. It was an inspiring combination of disaster preparedness and beautiful urban design. Ambitious as it seems I think it’s important work to even conceptualize at this point. The saying “necessity is the mother of invention” went through my head several times during the presentations. It seems that now – after most everything has been invented – necessity is the mother of design. The Danish did an excellent job of demonstrating a marriage of purpose and beauty. The representative from Parsons, with her presentation on illustration as a tool of communication, provided a great example of the ways in which issues are deeply complex (eg. the relationship between native land rights and copper needed to make renewable energy systems). I learned a great deal at the UN.
