Yueran Li Graphic and Media Design For the SIP project, i was given a brief about environmental design. The first thing came in my mind was trash and plastic pollution. Talking about the issues that plastic trash has made isn't new. But as i dig deeper, there is an interesting issue came up, which was 'Microplastics'. Today, single-use plastics account for 40 percent of the plastic produced every year. Many of these products, such as plastic bags and food wrappers, have a lifespan of mere minutes to hours, yet they may persist in the environment for hundreds of years. Once at sea, sunlight, wind, and wave action break down plastic waste into small particles, often less than one-fifth of an inch across. These so-called microplastics are spread throughout the water column and have been found in every corner of the globe, from Mount Everest, the highest peak, to the Mariana Trench, the deepest trough. What’s more, microplastics are breaking down further into smaller and smaller pieces. Plastic microfibers, meanwhile, have been found in drinking water systems, food and drifting through the air. As what I have researched, microplastics plastic is now present in wildlife and farm animals. Someone may think i am a vegetarian so i won't have microplastics in my body. That is wrong. The tiny pollutants are also found in fruit and vegetables such as carrots, lettuce, pears, and apples. The elements of microplastics are capable to penetrate the seed, root, culm, leaves and fruits plant cell based on their size and type. So, we know we have microplastics in our food now. How much do you think we eat a week? A recent study from the University of Newcastle in Australia produced a really shocking answer – 5 grams a week, equivalent to a credit card’s worth. After all of these research, I think microplastics is a good concept i can play with. Then I start to ask myself that how to make people pay attention to this issues and how to arise people’s awareness. ‘Plastic Air’ is an interactive experience created by data visualiser Giorgia Lupi and Google Arts & Culture. This project allows visitors to interact with the daily items on the digital screen. When visitors click on them, items will be exploded into many tiny coloured pieces floating around the screen with chemical composition. All the experiences are driven by real scientific data. Lupi talked about one of the challenge was to visualise microplastics. Microplastics are so tiny and invisible. People literally can’t see them. Lupi came up the idea of “reconnecting” which linking otherwise random bits of plastic in the air with everyday items such as water bottles, coffee cups, pacifiers, car bumpers and etc to make it more real and relatable for people. “When you actually stop to think that these common items are contributing to this type of pollution, it becomes much more urgent,” Lupi says. Giorgia Lupi / Pentagram: Plastic Air (Copyright © Google Arts & Culture, 2021) I like the idea of “reconnecting”, which makes me start to think of how can I visualise microplastics. I think of an idea of releasing microplastics food menu and recipe. All the food on the menu are made by microplastics. Cause instead of telling its ‘bad’, I prefer to enhance its positive branding image. Beyond meat and Vegeterian diet, there is a new “healthy” super food called ‘Microplastics Food’. With exaggeration, I want to rise people’s curiosity by creating a “Microplastics Food Menu”. What I focus on is creating a sense of absurdity.
Inspired by the restaurant menu style I saw at Chinatown, I decided to created a menu for Chinese restruant to sell some microplastics food with the cheap, chaotic and noisy tone, so as to mock the current criteria for “Healthy diet”. Then I would like to come up with some funny names for these food, such as transparent fried fish to get people’s attention. The final work be hung in a Chinese restaurant with a curtain format to form a part of sarcasm. It's also can be with some exaggerated promotion headlines, such as ‘Eating plastics is a new trend!’ ‘A new arising super food: Microplastics Food’. This can be an imagination of the future of food in an ironic tone. This project offers me the opportunity of speculating what the world needs in the future and being intellectually ahead as a “new agency”. While the extent to which microplastics harm humans hasn’t yet been adequately studied, existing research does show that plastic may contain additives to be toxic or harmful to humans. Styrene, in particular, has been linked to health issues such as cancer, hearing loss, and nervous system problems. I really enjoyed this project and i find out that I am always passionate to bring the culture in every project. I was always keen on exploring graphic design but I have been an intern in W+K for almost five months as a creative. The job of the creative is keeping coming up creative ideas, is not much related to graphic design. Self initiated project offers me this chance to experience my previous field again. This allowed me to self reflect and evaluate on what my interest are and what I would like to pursue in the future as a graduate. References Giorgia Lupi visualises the tiny, invisible bits of plastic floating in the air around us https://www.itsnicethat.com/news/plastic-air-giorgia-lupi-pentagram-google-arts-and-culture-digital-220421 New Study Reveals We Eat A Credit Card's Worth Of Microplastics A Week. How To Minimize www.peacefuldumpling.com/we-eat-microplastics Microplastics or Veganism? https://ecoclub.com/blogs/from-microplastics-to-veganism
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