Initial Brainstorm
Fiona x Shanelle

Analysis of Day by Day Data – George Perec

Some of the points we got from the essay

How we only noticed something that stands out or is unknown to us, disregarding things that are known. How can we start unknowing the knowns and start questioning each of them?

How do we bring attention to things that we overlooked in our daily lives?

Design opportunities are always presented everywhere. Yet, as humans, problems are only important when it is identified as a lingering issue to the majority while we swept the rest under a carpet.

Infrastructure and urban space around us were created with an intent behind them. They mold our behaviors in spaces and reflects a particular culture to visitors that are new to the city.

• How can we instill the culture of NTU into our infrastructure such that individuals new to our school can relate to them as well? – Inclusiveness
• What’s the intention behind our design? What’s the experience and behavior we would like to mold?

Inspiration

We asked ourselves “What is something that we may not see, but is crucial to our survival?”
From there one of the things we thought of is the process of pollination, a task that is vital to the survival of agriculture. ¾ of our staple crops and ⅓ of all food in the world requires pollination, yet it is a process that people often overlooked. Using the idea of pollination as a foundation, we started to think about the intention behind our sculpture.

How it works

Like the ecosystem of pollination, our idea aims to promote exchange and reuse of plastics such as plastic bottles/plastic bags between every being in school as we noticed several disposed wastes around the school compound (Plastic bags floating in the lake, empty bottles by the drain).

The overarching intention behind our idea, is simply to better utilise our daily resources and maximize each of its lifetime. One could recycle their plastic bags, or even get a plastic bag off the sculpture when in need. This form of engagement contributes to the entire artwork of the sculpture as well, giving each individual a part to play.

Making of Mock-up

Feedback

1. There’s a certain difficulty when it comes to balancing aesthetics and recycling. Because there’s this danger presented in such idea, it may backfire, ending up being trashed with waste, looking like a trash bin even though it wasn’t meant to be.
2. What’s the motivation for people to want to leave their bottles/plastic bags?
3. Suggest looking at how waste is treated in NTU currently. They do have existing regulations that forbid plastic bottles in school.
4. The idea doesn’t necessarily have to be a solution, it could be something that brings attention to the public to start a conversation.
5. Perhaps looking up on how much waste NTU have accumulated and treat the waste and make it into something?
6. Risk on factors such as of health & environment.