Art Scii

Chicxulub

Project Proposal

 Throughout most of my work as an artist i have felt that there has always been an underlying theme of the environment involved in my art. Usually this has been the consequence of a relationship I’ve found within a concept or idea throughout a body of work. Its during my growth as an artist I’ve discovered that the environment bears a great deal of meaning for me, and that is why for this project i want to resume this study and continue to shape my ideas on the environment focussing it with a more in-depth personal approach.

Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money.  ~Cree Indian Proverb

There are many ideas and notions surrounding the issue of the natural environment in todays modern world, global warming for instance, is it fact or fiction? Many believe its myth but It’s this split perception that people have which i want to be able to challenge throughout this project, as well as answering my own curiosity as to how imporatant the natural environment really is to us?

Intrigued by not only the idea of the affect this apparent deterioration has on us as a whole, but how we as humanity justify  this escalating consumerism and constant demand in the use of the natural resources we regularly regard as commodities.  Even when it affects the very fabric and existence of other life forms in the process, we continue to provide today’s society and culture with the very provisions they are so used to having in abundance. As an artist i am passionate about the concept of protecting the environment and will aim to demonstrate my theories and feelings towards these ideas throughout my work as well as respond to my own questions, in particular the most important, which is whether or not the natural environment we see, feel and experience today, is really in fear of becoming unstable and at what cost?

To begin my research i will be Looking at the ideas and theories compiled in the documentary film ‘The11^th hour’. In which over 50 politicians, scientists, physicist Stephen Hawking, Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai, and journalist Paul Hawken document the grave problems facing our planets life systems. Throughout my intial research i will also be looking to the work of  artists Andy Goldsworthy and  Robert Smithson  to gain an understanding as to how they implement their own ideas of the environment into their art.

Because i am studying the idea of what environment means and the impact mankind has on it  To document this project i plan to produce and make my own sketch book, in a way of conserving and recycling as many materials i use as possible. Using scrap paper and card that would normally be disposed of as well as limiting the use of glues and other potentially high impact products. 

 Key Terms

Environment, nature, preservation, earth, landscape, waste, recycle, elements, materials, resources, natural resources, commodities, manufacture, production, consumerism, pollution, damage, wildlife, anthropology, ecology, marine life, habitats, city, growth, expansion, encouragement, anthropogenic, degradation, science, carbon dioxide, climate, change, human, cause, affect, fossil, fuel, decay, planet, biosphere, existence, population, awareness, sustainability, environmentalism, conservation, renewable, energy, ecosystem, biology, surroundings, natural world,

Project detail
 

Weeks 1-2

At this stage in the project i will be researching into the ideas of the environment, looking at various sources and gathering information to compile a greater knowledge and understanding of the issues i will explore. I will also be looking into artists, and how they implement themes of the environment/ global warming into their practice and finding out  What works inspire me and relate to my own ideas.

weeks 3-5

I will at this point have gained a large amount of research from both information sources and the work of artists. I will begin developing ideas of the concept  on paper whilst continuing this research, allowing further influence into this area of development. Planning possible experiments for the following weeks (including  gathering any materials needed) and  Documentation will also start to develop, the documenting at this point will be continuously carried out for the remainder of the project.

Week 6-8

this will be the experimentation period, where ideas will begin to materialise and merge into the developing outcome. Various materials will be used and experimented with at this stage following my ideas and how they have developed over the previous weeks.  Whilst continuously documenting this process i want to be able to create at this stage an idea for an outcome if i haven’t already and begin to project ideas of how to make it by the end of this stage. The raw materials or any requirements for the outcome will be collected by the end of this stage in preparation for the final weeks of the project.

Weeks 9-12 

Crucial stage within the project, outcomes will have been determined and developing into a final piece(s). Depending on the development of this project and how my ideas have accumulated it want to take the remainder of this stage to prepare the outcome, whilst cooperatively working on and planning the exhibition space for the show. The Assessment presentation and final documentation will also take place at the very beginning of this stage and continue until the duration of the project is at an end so that editions can be made before the final review of the project if they are needed.

Resource Plan

For the purpose of staying ‘Green’, throughout this project i plan to use as many recyclable materials as possible to reduce the environmental impact my work may otherwise impose. For the various phases and elements involved i have predicted the type of resources that i could use.

Documentation:

Photography – use of my own camera and software. Print bureau will be used for printing of the images and Adobe Photoshop editing software. A tripod may also be used throughout this project.
Sketch book- producing my own sketchbook from various recycled sources and found materials.
Digital blog- use of free online software readily available when access to internet
Computer- personal laptop and use of the university computers throughout printing stages

Development and outcomes:

Drawings/ sketches – both university and my own materials will be used, such as pens , pencils, paint, charcoal and paper.
3dimentional objects – Any form of sculpture /installation will only use recycled materials. These could be in the form of tin, scrap metals, glass, wood, plastic, paper. These materials will only be sourced from used goods or be donated after use.
Bonding –solvent based glues and bonding agents will be kept to a minimum in the interest of the environmental impact. Only Where necessary they will be used.
Lighting- in the possibility of lighting being used either in images or sculptures the sourcing will only use ‘energy saving light bulbs’. Provided from my own light source



Final Position statement

“The Earth we abuse and the living things we kill will, in the end, take their revenge; for in exploiting their presence we are diminishing our future.”
-Marya Mannes, more in anger, 1958 

Global warming: myth or reality? It is in today’s society that many believe there is no justifiable proof that it exists, its even considered in some cases to be a form of control for the masses.  I began this series of work with the notion that i would prove, if not only to myself how important the natural environment really is to us, and at what cost we are sacrificing it?  The work i have created is my response to this, and more.

Conceptually the aim of this work is about how effected this planet we call ‘home’ really is. This study itself is based on the idea that we as a species consider ourselves entitled to the earth, where survival of the fittest or in our case dominant, means we can lay waste to anything and everything we can attach a price tag to. Touching on the boundaries of consumerism and what is considered necessity,  i want to pose the question in my work  of how we justify if at all the misuse of the resources , life and very nature of the planet so readily without thought for its consequence.

Showing how we as consumers affect this, by our increasing demands in everyday items of what we now see as a normal way of existing, became a crucial element within my work. The 280 bottles that are used were not an accidental or by chance, but the result of a figure that came to surface throughout my research into just how much our consumption costs us. Being the answer to a simple calculation of just how many glass bottles were thrown away each second of each day in the UK alone, That figure was 280.

Using this figure in the artwork itself i also resonated the idea of the‘impact’ we have in a literal sense, creating only half a sphere to show this collision effect. The focal point of my sculpture is representative of the Earth in the formation of glass bottles, where it is surrounded by a crater of glowing shards of broken glass. These shattered pieces are reminisce of what were once bottles themselves then formed again to imply the affect of destruction from within oneself. Much like the scenario of today, where people’s perceptions indicate humanity as being separated from the very nature we inadvertently destroy in our growth, when in fact the irony is we are the very  fabric of nature itself.