Toward a Brighter Future
Reconnect - Sparking Environmental, Economic, Social, and Cultural Change through Graphic Design
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Brit William Britton Rowe
The night sky is a resource that’s vanishing. Across the country, almost half of the U.S. population experiences light-polluted nights. In the developed world, about ⅓ of the world’s population can’t see the Milky Way, according to a new study (Falchi, 2016). Why should we care? Are there dangers to our environment and health as a consequence of light pollution? Can graphic designers use their skills and knowledge to draw attention to the problems of light pollution? This paper discusses “Reconnect,” a senior capstone project created as a strategic initiative to increase awareness and appreciation for the dark sky. There’s plenty of light pollution to combat in our own county. A look at a local town on the website lightpollutionmap.info shows it glowing a dull orange, second only to red in the map’s radiance scale. Lights from heavy industry, parking lots, street lamps, and dawn-to-dusk security lights block our ability to see the night sky a generation ago saw. In addition, experts say it’s affecting our ecosystem, our electricity bills, and our health. ‘Reconnect’ provides people with a platform to learn and to share their deeper connection with the night sky. This comprehensive project works with organizations to bring awareness to individual light pollution problems in communities. As a result, a greater sense of involvement occurred and impactful solutions to light pollution emerged. The overall design evaluation considered the environmental, economic, social, and cultural impacts.
Best Available Techniques as Environmental Design in Industrial Licensing and Inspection for Pollution Abatement in Italy View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lorenzo Maiorino, Gaetano Battistella
This paper describes new issues and opportunities in terms of pollution prevention, abatement and reduction from IED/IPPC activities by the adoption and the implementation of IED/IPPC Permits released in Italy at national level, following the Italian Decree n. 46 issued 4th of March 2014, ‘Industrial Emissions Directive’ (IED) issued in 2010 by the European Union Commission aiming at the adoption of new regulations for IPPC Permits.The Industrial Emissions Directive 2010/75/EU (IED) is the main EU instrument regulating pollutant emissions from industrial installations, in order to achieve a high level of protection of human health and the environment by reducing harmful industrial emissions in particular through better application of Best Available Techniques (BAT). In Italy, around 170 installations, under taking the industrial activities listed in Annex I of the IED, are required to operate in accordance with a permit that contains conditions set in accordance with the principles and provisions of the IED. Particularly, new applications of BAT are available in order to achieve a high level of protection of the environmental matrices, such as reducing industrial pollutant emissions, in terms of abatement of the pollutant concentrations at the sources of emission and by means of advanced monitoring and control activities, both in designing new industrial plants and renewing old ones.
Embodied Water : Building a Future Where Products Teach and Conserve
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ari Elefterin
“Embodied Water” envisions a future of eradicated apathy achieved through regular deep physical and emotional experiences with our natural resources. Taking cues from conservation psychology and sense theory, it philosophically and practically explores new design methodologies that challenge historical definitions and standards of user interaction. In the Anthropocene, a time characterized by the ways in which humans have changed nature’s systems, progress must occur not only scientifically, but culturally through new human mythologies and understandings. This shift calls for both material and ideological updates in how designers define “success” and “failure” in their products. Can the products we make look to the future by not only stimulating “care” but translating it to an embodied knowledge strong enough to spark sustained action? Through a mapped design process for embodied knowledge creation and heuristic analysis, “Embodied Water” lays out a path and then tests it in three case studies. The experimental didactic products created and analyzed examine water conservation from a variety of different communities ranging from the Mojave Desert to Greenland and New York City. All are meant to expose and engage while leaving an open-ended moment for decision making and opinion generation. The process looks at stand-alone products, curated experiences, and systems design. “Embodied Water” advocates for the future holistic health of our planet by helping to educate both users and designers socially and emotionally for the future. The goal is to not only spark conversation but also create a starting point for other designers to build from.
