The Price of Everything

February 21, 2024

For this assignment, we had to choose a product, process, or system that has contributed to climate change, and identify the price as well as the various dimensions of value (or cost). All of these variables were to be expressed artistically.

There were many moving parts to this project. First, everything had to be established in a 10″x10″ shadowbox. Made out of wood and nails, I sanded the edges and then used wall paint to coat the entirety of the box white. One of the main ideas of the project was to also use recycled material as much as possible, so reusing old wood and paint was a part of that mindset.

The product I chose to express was electric vehicles (EVs), specifically regarding the process of creating their batteries. I was interested in this not only because of the close connection my family has to EVs but also because of the decrease in interest in EVs within the past year or so. Back in 2020, the vehicle industry was jumping on the “trend” of green cars, with Tesla’s popularity, the emergence of hybrids, and the increase in gas prices. Since then, EV ownership has been slowing down, and one of the main reasons is due to the price it takes to mine and source the minerals necessary to create EV batteries, such as lithium and nickel. Not to mention the effects EV production has on climate change regardless of being clean during use. There was a study done in 2021 that proved that over 40% of EV production contributes to carbon emissions, while less than 30% of ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicle (gas) production contributes to carbon emissions. Of course, this comparison can easily be overlooked when the long-term effects of EV vs ICE vehicles are compared, but much of this knowledge isn’t even known.

I wanted to represent this in a manner that spoke to the monetary price, the environmental cost, and the overall value of EVs. Below is my initial sketch.

To do this, I chose to stick to a white, clean look, replicating the look and feel of buying an expensive electronic item, such as an Apple MacBook or iPhone. I used an old MacBook box, took it apart, and reconfigured it to fit over my 10×10 box, acting as a luxurious lid over the diorama.

On the inside, I created three bands of narrative, all using white bristol paper. The top band depicts an EV factory, in which plumes of pollution are coming out. Cars are driving out of the factory as well, and down into the second band where a tree blocks the view of the factory, and on the other side is an EV getting charged. I made this car using origami. The bottom band represents the mining that goes on to make the batteries. All of the elements that speak to the environmental cost are physically hidden from the luxurious origami car which represents the future, a sun hanging over it. This represents how even though the pros of EVs outweigh the cons, in that once EVs are created, they truly are a much better product for the world than ICEs, there are still things to consider, or perhaps change, in the production system of their batteries. Below is my final project.