KraalD is a social design practice that aims to minimize London's future landfill through workshops exploring how to visualize the growing problem of plastic pollution in oceans. The workshops use reflective narratives and bricolage art to bring attention to issues such as the five rotating ocean currents called gyres that are accumulating high densities of plastic waste. One workshop concept sketches visualized the North Atlantic Gyre inspired by W.B. Yeats' book "A Vision". The document discusses how plastic production has quadrupled in the last decade and is now present in all marine habitats. It explores the difficulty of acknowledging slow, toxic disasters and considers whether acknowledging problems will change collective actions and denial around plastic waste and littering.
1. Designtransposal workshops: Reflective narrative
in visualising toxic chronic disaster
Katarina Dimitrijevic / KraalD MPhil / PhD Candidate / Design Star CDT
Department of Design, Goldsmiths University of London/ GoldFest16
Photo: KraalD, 2015, Plastic catch, Hvar, Croatia.
2. KraalD is a social design praxis that revolves around Designedisposal
manifesto & promotes minimisation of London's future landfill.
Images. KraalD,2013, THIRST, Re-use prosumer installation, The Underwater Sculpture Trail , The EcoTales
Film & Arts Festival, London. www.ecotales.co.uk photo Karl Grupe
3. KraalD, 2012, Boki-penetrating gaze, Cityself Anima, London, UK.
Lindsey Hoshaw, 2009, Under the surface, Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
How can we gaze in to the radical environmental changes facing us in the 21st century
and visualise toxic chronic disaster ?
4. We live in a plastic debris era. In the first decade of the twenty-first century plastic
production has quadrupled in comparison to the last century. Currently, global oceans
are the largest unprotected ecosystem on the Earth. Anthropogenic litter is present in all
marine habitats, from the coast to the most remote points in the oceans. Plastic and
metal are the most prevalent litter item found on the deep sea bed. Plastic waste is
concentrated in five rotating currents, known as gyres (Maximenko et al., 2012).
5. Model results for global weight density in four size classes
Eriksen M, Lebreton LCM, Carson HS, Thiel M, et al. (2014) Plastic Pollution in the World's Oceans:
More than 5 Trillion Plastic Pieces Weighing over 250,000 Tons Afloat at Sea.
PLoS ONE 9(12): e111913. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0111913
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0111913
6. However, if an original transposedness on mans part in relation to the animal is possible,
this surely implies that the animal also has its world. Or is this going too far? Is it precisely
this going too far that we constantly misunderstand? And why do we do so?
Transposedness into the animal can belong to the essence of man without this necessarily
meaning that we transpose ourselves into an animals world or that the animal in general has
a world. And now our question becomes more incisive: In this transposedness into the
animal, where is it that we are transposed to?
(M. Heidegger, 1929-1930)
Lantern fish, 2015, Solvin Zankl Photography
7. Plasticized: Nature as a thing in the Anthropocene
KraalD, 2015, Plastic embedded rock, Jerolim beach, Croatia.
KraalD, 2015, I am sea PET bottle, Jerolim beach, Croatia, Designtransposal.
8. A Vision: Visualising the North Atlantic Gyre
KraalD, 2014-15, Bricolage: Concept sketches inspired by W.B.Yeats, A Vision: Visualizing the North Atlantic Gyre,
Rochester, UK.
9. KraalD-Designtransposal HE workshops held in 2015
From right to left, KraalD, 2015, Designetransposal Workshop Invites: Visualizing through the North
Atlantic Gyre.
- Creative Challenge, London, UK.
- Falmouth University, Penryn Campus, Cornwall, UK.
- PhD by Design, Goldsmith University of London, UK.
10. Creative Challenge UCA http://www.ucreative.ac.uk/news/2015/april/creative-challenge-final-2015
11. KraalD, 2015, Photo Bricolage: Designetransposal Workshop: Visualizing through the
North Atlantic: Sustainable Product Design, Falmouth University, Penryn Campus, UK.
https://www.pinterest.com/kraald/designtransposal-workshop/
Photo: Su Vernon, Senior Lecturer
12. http://www.phdbydesign.com/2015-goldsmiths/
References
Crutzen, P., J., and Schw辰gerl, C., (2011). Available at:
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/living_in_the_anthropocene_toward_a_new_global_ethos/2363/
Davison, P., Asch, R.G., (2011). Plastic ingestion by mesopelagic fishes in the North Pacific
Subtropical Gyre. Mar Ecol, Available at: http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v432/p173-180/
Eriksen, M., Lebreton, C.M., Carson, H.S., Moore, J.C., Borerro, J.C., Galgani, F., Ryan, J., (2014).
Plastic Pollution in the World's Oceans: More than 5 Trillion Plastic Pieces Weighing over 250,000
Tons Afloat at Sea. PloS one, 9(12), e111913.Available at:
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0111913
Le Guern Lytle, C., (2012). When the Mermaids Cry: The Great Plastic Tide. Available at:
http://www.bluecommunity.info/view/article/51cbf84e7896bb431f6b8934
Liboiron. M., (2015).Visually Representing Slow Disasters, Discard Studies. Available
at:http://discardstudies.com/2015/03/27/visually-representing-slow-disasters/
14. Fear for lifeBag for lifeBag
fear
guilt
helplessness
crisis of identity
socially organized
Denial of
risks - importance
& need for
collective
action
Core reactionsDouble life
& apathy
Implicatory denial
silent
endurance,
cultivated
distraction,
disassociation
via humor or
hyper-facticity
past present future
Ref: Living in Denial: Climate Change, Emotions, and Everyday Life by Kari Marie Norgaard.
States of Denial: Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering by Stanley Cohen.
Hegemony of every day litter
15. As I/me/we become more aware of the subtle ways in which we collectively avoid the
unsettling reality of toxic chronic disaster, will we change our actions to align with the
knowledge? Or will we continue living, littering and practicing in denial?
KraalD, 2015, I am sea urchin, Croatia, Designtransposal
KraalD,2016, Bricolage workshop transcript & mapping
16. Lets shop till we drop
I trash therefore we are.
https://twitter.com/KRAALD
https://www.facebook.com/KraalD
https://goldsmiths.academia.edu/KatarinaDimitrijevic