Inquiry into an Object, Form, or Image

Introduction:

My theme is “Environment,” and my topic is “Pollution.”  After collecting the taxonomy images, I choose one signifier that I think most important, and I am interested in from the taxonomies research, and I am going to analyze the significance and relevance of it by doing a mind map. Furthermore, I am going to make responses to the three questions which are relevant and what I should know about my topic. Finally, I am going to create an artwork from it based on the ideas on the mind map and the responses to the three questions.

Signifier Image:

Signifier Image: Sea Turtle

This is the signifier image which is powerful for me. It looks horrible and bloody. I used the word “bloody” even though there is no blood in the picture, but we can feel the struggle, suffocating, and suffering from the image. We can see this is a sea turtle looks exhausted and desperate by the plastic. The plastic bag stuck in his mouth, and we are not sure that he can still be alive. Does plastic form by nature? Apparently not. It’s human-made pollution, and they flood into nature and murdering millions creature every day.

Mind Map:

Three Questions:

What should we do to increase awareness about environmental pollution?

Environmental awareness is understanding how vulnerable and fragile of the environment and improve the protection of it. Firstly, if we want to change the public and the people around you, what you should do it is starting working on it by yourself. You can influence people to follow your steps to start this “earth-saving” plan. And you can share your knowledge base on your researching and how do you do to protect the environment. Secondly, Education is the most important element in increasing environmental awareness. Children should be taught about the environment, what’s going on in the earth, how to live more ethically, etc. Once they get the education which is the information about the environment and what we should do is to keep practicing it. Education is not the role of helping us to protect the earth but taking actions. Furthermore, Reduce, reuse, and recycle. We can’t do anything about the produced things and the things we bought already. What can we do is to recycle it and reuse them by donating and selling. Reducing can be used in producing, buying, and using. We can keep everything simple; Using too much specific product for everything doesn’t help your life better but messier. Most of the specified products are commercial but redundant. If the demand in the market decrease, the production would be decreased as well. Finally, nowadays, the social media industry is mature; we can use the reputation of the liberties to promote “green living” which can affect a large number of audiences.

Bibliography 1

Bibliography 2

How can we protect the environment and improve our standard of living at the same time?

This is the question I always ask myself, how can we do that? How can I reduce the waste but make sure I live at the same as before. The human being is selfish; most of the people wouldn’t sacrifice their benefit to protect the environment. They care about what is going on today, instead of the next ten, twenty, and one hundred years. One side of people emphasizes that when we are protecting the environment, the standard of living is improving at the same time. For example, if we are living in a polluted city, which has terrible air quality, sewage, etc. When the government put efforts and the citizen put their strength to reduce or get rid of the pollution can create a better living environment. But another side of scholar said it’s almost impossible to reach the aim. For example, they are developing country they need to work and develop their country by increasing income. What do most developing countries do is build factories and produce tons of export goods, also overgrazing, over farming, deforestation, etc. They choose to sacrifice the environment for their human wants. Anyhow, I wish everyone can try their best to reduce pollution to the earth without decreasing their standard of living.

Bibliography 3

How many creatures extinct/endanger every year causing the climate change?

As we all know, many species of plants and animals are being threatened by the climate change phenomenon. Oceans are becoming warmer; sea levels are rising, and animals are having trouble adapting to these changes. From the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), finds that many life-forms are moving north or into deeper waters to survive. Species such as the Orange-spotted filefish which are extremely sensitive to warm water have already gone extinct in Japan due to an episode of warmer ocean water in 1988. Fourteen species are known to be endangered by climate change; it is harder for Krill in the ocean to find food and shelter, this causes the Krill population to decline and in turn affecting the primary source of food for the blue whale. This chain effect is seen throughout all the species affected by climate change. According to the WWF, up to 90 percent of amphibians, 86 percent of birds, and 80 percent of mammals could potentially become locally extinct in the Miombo Woodlands in Southern Africa.

Bibliography 4

Bibliography 5

Bibliography 6

Diptych 1:

Materials: Plastic bag, plastic bottles, and lighting.

I was trying to create a space with plastic, and there are more plastic going on under the plastic “atmosphere.” I was trying to make an abstract scene of what does earth look like in my opinion. Plastic is always the issue of pollution. It’s hard to decompose, it takes 1000 years to decompose in landfills, and plastic bottles take 450 or more years to decompose. But human still keeps producing them every day, tons and tons for their selfish needs. Plastic is cheap, easy to produce, and it provides a large amount of benefit for the human being. It is polluting the air, water, land, and many animals are suffering because of tons of plastic flood into nature.

Diptych 2:

Materials: gouache and watercolor paper.

This is the first time I paint in gouache, and I used it to paint a whale stuck in a plastic bottle. Reflecting on the first artwork I have done. I used a plastic bottle as the media of my first artwork. And I used it as the object to address my theme in this one. And I want to inquiry people that

  • Who is the victim of pollution?
  • Who should take the responsibility of the environment?
  • What can a human do to reduce/stop the harm to the environment?

Diptych 3:

Materials: gouache and watercolor paper.

I made this artwork with diptych two that’s why you can find the similarity. I used gouache again to paint a human figure inside the plastic bottle. I want to make people exchange the point of view when they see my painting. I was imaging how does it feel if the plastic is harming ourselves and there are another creature keep producing it by their selfish benefit. And in my opinion, I would feel angry, helpless, and hopeless. And I wish I can do anything to the creature which is threatened by plastic pollution.

Materials choices of two artworks:

I used gouache as the medium to paint, and this is the first time I painted in gouache. The result was not excellent, and there is so much more need to be improved. This project is about to explore a new art medium, and I like to challenge myself by using new and different materials.

Questions about my diptychs that I want to be addressed in critique:

Can you tell me what my theme is?

What can I do to improve my painting?

Is it successful in trying different things?

Critique conclusion:

Apparently, they can tell what is my theme after they see the water bottles in my paintings. And what I heard from my professor and classmates are as long as I keep practicing, I’ll do better and better. And trying new things is challenging, but it is an excellent spirit to learn and get. After the critique, I felt much confident about my artworks. I was so worried that it wouldn’t be successful since this is the first attempt. But they encourage me a lot on my works. The comments and critiques are helpful, and I appreciate them.

Conclusion & what is going on (next three diptychs):

I was happy that I tried in a new medium and I didn’t mess it up. In the following three diptychs. I’ll like to try more different mediums which showed on the mind map. I am going to eliminate the mediums which I am going to use and what am I going to present in my diptychs.

Diptych 4:

Materials: Acrylic paint and canvas paper

This is an abstract painting with acrylic with the Plastic subject bottle. This painting doesn’t have many details to say. I tried to express my feeling in color choices, and I used a plastic bottle as the symbol of plastic. I used red, an aggressive color to showing my personal emotion about people keep misusing the plastic and doesn’t realize the problem.

Diptych 5:

Materials: Plastic bags, lighting, photoshop, video editor, a human figure, and a camera.

I was trying to create an artistic video reflecting on reality. I am playing a switching character role with Marine biology. And for this video, I wish when people have seemed it to reflect on themselves and think about what did we have done, and what can we do for the future. Human is selfish. We can only see our benefit but forgetting there are other creatures are bear suffering for us.

 

Diptych 6:

Materials: Plastic bottles, plastic containers, plaster, and water.

I created a plaster form of plastic bottles and containers. I used plaster powder mix with water in ration 2:1. And I pour the liquid in my containers (plastic bottles, plastic containers). It was not that easy to get rid of the plastic after it becomes dry. That’s why in the first plastic bottle, I am not able to remover the cab of the plastic bottle. But in the other containers, like the pudding cups and the McDonald’s cup are much easier to pull the dry plaster out. I am using plaster as the material to create objects created by plastic. It’s like as a human being we are able to change the materials to create these containers which are less harmful to the environment and the creatures on the plane, even human ourselves.

A brief statement of feedback:

My classmates found out that I used different materials and media to present my theme is pretty successful, and I personally think even the artworks themselves are not that best, but I am so glad that I’ve been stepped on my first step. But what I’ve been learning from them is to do more plan before I am ahead to do something, which can avoid redundant mistakes and failures. Finally, I am thinking about to use plastic as the materials for the final project. I am going to explore using a vacuum form machine and the usage of different plastic boards.

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