Madeleine Balado Illustration and Visual Media Although I wouldn’t consider most of my own work directly political, I would say that political awareness enters my design process. Throughout my time at university, during DPS, through lectures, seminars and working in the industry it has taught me to consider, evaluate and criticise my work more effectively. I would consider that my work often focuses around sustainability and a consideration of the environmental impact in a physical sense, as opposed to actively designing for an environmental cause. The environmental impact of actions and activities is something which I try to stay aware of in my day-to-day life and so it is natural that I would subconsciously relay this in my work. During DPS I collaborated on a professional project which was environmentally focused, specifically to grow more trees on our planet; I was not part of the logistics or conception of the project but was supplying posters and graphics for the promotion of the project and events surrounding it. One of the first considerations I had was that it would be quite ironic and counterintuitive to print off loads of posters to promote an event all about planting more trees… so that was ruled out. I also thought about creating stickers to be handed out as it was a family friendly event and could be a good way to promote the event. However how environmentally friendly would that be, taking into consideration the printing process, shipping and then realistically the inevitable disposal of them after a day or two of handing them out (in addition to them falling off and ending up as litter). So, the ‘posters’ and promotional material stayed in digital form to be put on social media, but is this any better? It’s very easy to be seen as being considerate and conscientious by not printing out lots of paper because that seems fairly obvious. Could I be considered ‘green washing’ because I know (but never really acknowledged or researched properly) that emails, cloud storage, social media etc anything that uses any sort of energy will and does contribute negatively to the environment. I had to question if this use of energy was counteracted and therefore acceptable in this instance because the result of the project would potentially lead to better awareness of the need for planting more trees and in effect would have a larger positive outcome on the environment. Does the end justify the means…? And how avoidable is it in 2023? From ‘Global Citizen Life’- Defend The Planet article How Does Your Social Media Use Impact the Planet? “...145 minutes on TikTok every day for a year causes nearly 140kg of carbon emissions, which would be like driving a standard car for more than 350 miles. When you multiply that by billions of people around the world, the impact becomes clear.” https://www.comparethemarket.com.au/energy/features/social-carbon-footprint-calculator/ this is a link to a website where you can calculate your carbon emissions based on your social media use (I don’t know how accurate this can be, but it will give an approximate idea). I then investigated how many carbon emissions are released when manufacturing a single piece of paper in order to compare the emission figures but, unfortunately, couldn’t work out a concise figure to compare as also noted in this article I read Paper versus Digital Media – Environmental Impact by Linda Poppenheimer “Making an apples-to-apples comparison of the environmental impact of paper versus digital media is difficult, if not impossible.”. An additional factor to consider would be the cloud storage of all the files that I created during this project. In the article ‘The Cloud Is Material: On the Environmental Impacts of Computation and Data Storage’ by Steven Gonzalez Monserrate it states “In this way, the Cloud is not only material, but is also an ecological force….As it continues to expand, its environmental impact increases, even as the engineers, technicians, and executives behind its infrastructures strive to balance profitability with sustainability.” “the Cloud now has a greater carbon footprint than the airline industry undefined. A single data center can consume the equivalent electricity of fifty thousand homes.” Figure 1- Inside Google’s data centre So how far do I take it when considering environmental effects in a project, especially one that has a focus on improving our ecosystem? It is definitely important to learn and consider the many different environmental factors impacting in any project, as I often try to, but finding a balance between sustainability/environmental aspects and what the overall benefit will be as a result is also something to consider.
References Monserrate, S.G. (2022) The cloud is material: On the environmental impacts of computation and data storage, MIT Case Studies in Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing. MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. Available at: https://mit-serc.pubpub.org/pub/the-cloud-is-material/release/1 (Accessed: April 21, 2023). Social Carbon Footprint Calculator (no date) Social Carbon Footprint Calculator | Compare the Market. Available at: https://www.comparethemarket.com.au/energy/features/social-carbon-footprint-calculator/ (Accessed: April 21, 2023). How does your social media use impact the planet? use this calculator to find out. (no date) Global Citizen. Available at: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/social-media-emissions-carbon-footprint/#:~:text=According%20to%20a%20new%20analysis,emissions%20heat%20up%20the%20atmosphere. (Accessed: April 21, 2023). Poppenheimer, A.L. (2020) Paper versus Digital Media – Environmental Impact: Green Groundswell, Green Groundswell | Home of the Unlikely Environmentalist. Available at: https://greengroundswell.com/paper-versus-digital-media-environmental-impact/2017/04/10/ (Accessed: April 21, 2023).
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