Here's a haiku of what I know about the BP (Deepwater Horizon) oil spill.
This last video is an example of how design and social media can help our society see the iridescence of life. How we can start to see our world through a critical lens, and then, most importantly, take that information for the better. Measuring whether an issue is mostly bad or mostly good can be irrelevant and sometimes naiive-- it's how we move forward with conversation and action that matters.
People were angry.Twenty year old me knew nothing about this huge event in my own country, the largest oil spill in US history-- and I had every opportunity to get knowledge. I was a student at a university that prided sustainability and research. I lived with hundreds of students, so chances of an activist/environmentalist lurking among them was considerate. I was an engineering student. I even visited and toured the BP Cherry Point Refinery a mere FOUR MONTHS after the event (April 20, 2010). There are millions of photos showing the spill, its far reaches, and animals slicked in the brown stuff. Yet, the only image I can think of?
Dawn can be used to clean ducks.
How to cap this shit?
And this ad campaign started before the BP oil spill! Tut-tut Past Ignorant Donelyn all you want, but can you really blame me? Here's a great video I happened upon via Wimp.com. I truly applaud the candidness of Fareed Zakaria, but more importantly standing up to those in his field. The media is a daunting beast for anyone to tackle, but especially so for someone with stake in it.
Like many things in my life thus far, I feed on the memory of emotion and not details. As a conscious adult, am I to blame? I cuddashuddawould've bought TIME or at least ventured CNN.com, but even if I did, would I have been met with the same emotion-driven feels as was bubbling in the Dawn commercial? My culture/society values the intellect-- or at least someone who can carry conversation...
*Tangent* Whilst I was a resident adviser in the dorms, one of my residents (who I adore), bluntly told me, "You should research a bit on music, so you could contribute to the conversation." CALLED OUT.
We all want to be smart, scalers of the ivory tower, but just as this ideal is a huge part of culture, so is the grasp of media on that culture. News is where my battle between being a well-informed citizen and looking the part comes to fruition; I bookmark CNN. I like Facebook statuses that scream political controversy. I'm even on the Amnesty International mailing list. When the mask comes off, my opinion whittles down to "This topic is ... [insert "Good" or "Bad"]."
Don't get me wrong. We all have to start somewhere and creating a foundation of good and evil is a pretty solid place to start. Yet it was in the same classroom that I learned about an "ivory tower" when I realized life isn't just black and ivory. An idea that issues don't just have sides, but ins, outs, transparency, weight.Sometimes many times, issues can even be iridescent. Shining a spectrum of colors based on what light you hold it in.
*Tangent* Whilst I was a resident adviser in the dorms, one of my residents (who I adore), bluntly told me, "You should research a bit on music, so you could contribute to the conversation." CALLED OUT.
We all want to be smart, scalers of the ivory tower, but just as this ideal is a huge part of culture, so is the grasp of media on that culture. News is where my battle between being a well-informed citizen and looking the part comes to fruition; I bookmark CNN. I like Facebook statuses that scream political controversy. I'm even on the Amnesty International mailing list. When the mask comes off, my opinion whittles down to "This topic is ... [insert "Good" or "Bad"]."
Don't get me wrong. We all have to start somewhere and creating a foundation of good and evil is a pretty solid place to start. Yet it was in the same classroom that I learned about an "ivory tower" when I realized life isn't just black and ivory. An idea that issues don't just have sides, but ins, outs, transparency, weight.
Oil'd from Chris Harmon on Vimeo.
This last video is an example of how design and social media can help our society see the iridescence of life. How we can start to see our world through a critical lens, and then, most importantly, take that information for the better. Measuring whether an issue is mostly bad or mostly good can be irrelevant and sometimes naiive-- it's how we move forward with conversation and action that matters.