Nature can feel like a stranger, far away, when we are tucked in, safe in our houses.
But the more time you spent exploring our planet and emerging in nature the more you will realise, we are one planet and every choice we make, matters in some context.
This module is about reconnecting to nature, which comfort and technology has disconnected a big percentage of “The Western world” from. We simply cannot grasp the hardships people live with in rural areas, nor the impact of our actions have when it comes to nature, cause for lots of people they have never had to be at the mercy of nature, nor do they necessarily know that they lack this knowledge or understanding, not to mention the importance of our connection to nature.
In the very start of this module, we looked at the issue of our disconnect with three different problem-solving approaches, as interior designers, product designers and interaction designers. Our solutions were visualized by creating 4 A2 posters, one visualizing the issue, and one for each discipline.
That work, including descriptions of it, can be viewed in my blog post “Nature Disconnect Mood boards” https://learningspaces.dundee.ac.uk/soc-dig18-avchristiansen/2019/03/04/532/
RESEARCH
When it comes to research during the module, we did some field work as far back as the first weeks, we went to Trentsmuir Forest to both experience the forest, but also to collect quite a few objects from the beach and forest. Which left us with both “natural” materials, like wood, leaves, sand etc. and ocean and forest trash like plastic and glass bottles, metal cans, fishing and metal wires, spray cans, fireworks, single-use grills etc. This gave a better understanding of the disrespect there is to nature, the trash from the ocean was no surprise, however, the trash left in the forest and on the sidewalks everywhere in Dundee city startled me. And so that was the core issue for the mood board project.
However, for our second and last project in the module, I wanted to look at the issue of disconnection to nature from a new angle, and to do that I needed more research.
I started out with mind mapping the issues of plastic pollution in our oceans
I then went on to make another mind map for designers who inspire me with their approach to sustainability or reconnection to nature.
However, after doing these I still didn’t feel that I had enough knowledge of the meaning of “Nature Disconnect” so I did searches on the definition of nature and more importantly, what being disconnected to nature means and what consequences it has. I did that by watching TED talks and looking up articles, and that is where I was lucky enough to find a research paper about “The relationship between Connectedness to Nature, Environmental Values, and Pro-environmental Behaviours” made by two psychology students from Charles Darwin University, Australia. Here they had tested exactly what I wanted to know, how connectedness to nature impacts our behaviour and who it impacts the most, and why.
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/reinvention/issues/volume8issue2/pereira/
This is the link to the website, however, the paper with my notes and highlights is in the SKETCHBOOK section of this post. But for convenience, I will give a short summary of the relevant points for this project.
SUMMARY
Connectedness to nature does indeed lead to pro-environmental behaviours, however, connectedness to nature only explains 10% of the pro-environmental behaviours in this study whereas, in some other studies it showed to be 17% or even 19,36% caused by connectedness. However, multiple studies, including this one, suggest that we are all subconsciously emotionally connected to nature, and the strength of the emotional connection correlates to our pro-environmental behaviour.
However, in 2015, when this paper was released, the feeling of individual responsibility showed to be declining, interestingly enough with rising concern for the environment. Which brings us to the groups of people described in this paper:
The egoistic type; focused on impacts for that one individual
The altruistic type; concerned about the impact of other people
The biospheric type; concerned for the impacts of climate change for all living creatures.
The general ideas for this development is the lack of knowledge on the significance of the subject, and common mindsets like “one person cannot significantly reduce the impact of climate change nor is one person responsible for the consequences” decreases the pro-environmental behaviours, not only of the person who says it but for the people who listen to it.
It is also suggested that people who live in urban areas are more likely to be less connected to nature, or simply less aware, and therefore less acting, on their relationship to nature, and the environment around them. They are also less likely to know about the benefits of being in and connecting to nature.
1st BRAINSTORM
Before I created a specific persona, I wanted to stay with designs for children, where I had the initial idea for trying to let blind children experience nature by creating a “feel like” landscape. However, no matter how I looked at it and tried to reshape it, I kept getting into more of a onetime art piece, which at the time I wasn’t satisfied with.
PERSONA & FOUND OBJECTS
To try to get away from my initial ideas and mind space I made my persona based on the data from the research paper, to see who, according to the paper, might be typically disconnected, even though they don’t know they are. It also inspired me to get quite a few details in there to make her feel realistic and recognisable.
Because the brief gives the challenge of using found objects, I used the artefact analysis sheet we were given, and it gave a really cool insight to the effect I wanted the materials to have on my persona. However, my actual found object is wood I got from a barrel that had broken. But after going through the paper what stroke me the most was how big an impact having an emotional connection to nature did, and so I wanted the used materials to have an emotional connection for her as well as her obtaining an emotional connection and appreciation of living plants. So, I ended up making a “fake/tailored” wooden material, which was her family’s old dining table. And so, I made the artefact analysis on that to explore and explain the emotional value in the used object. and then I used my broken barrel and metal cans as found objects for the prototype. I also wanted the metal cans to be from her own use to make her feel individually responsible for her consumption of recyclable packaging.
2nd BRAINSTORM
After creating my persona, I decided to focus on furniture, where I relatively fast decided I wanted to design something useful, which would fit her personality, with a working and visible microcosm inside. Since that would be a benefit to her busy lifestyle and it would still give her the emotional connection expected with watching something live, grow and thrive.
After messing about with different furniture, I mainly stuck with sculptural takes on bookshelves because of her superficial interest in art and books.
Many of the initial Bookshelf ideas were round, or oval, where the plants were supposed to grow inside the sides of the circle. I experimented with shaping a metal grid I found. It worked well to hold the round shape and give some extra texture. I also played with different materials and inspiration sources to get a feeling for the aesthetic I wanted, however, I mainly stuck to plastic, because it is seethrough, and I wanted her to be able to watch the plants live.
PROTOTYPES
For my final product, I decided on my parallelogram shaped design. So, I started changing the angle of the body, and the orientation of the shelves. I did all my “refined” prototypes in cardboard to make it easier for myself, but it also made it possible to find the most material saving layout for the final cut-out.
FINAL PROTOTYPE
The finished prototype is made of Plexiglas, metal cans and wood from the broken barrel. I drew the pieces for the model in Illustrator were after I got the glass laser cut, unfortunately, the laser cutter was set at too slow a speed, so the plastic burned all the way around the edges. Which ended up with me spending half a day sanding down the edges to get the sides back in sizes that would fit together. To get a smoother surface on the glass, I was told to smear on toothpaste and let it sit… however, I can not recommend that it doesn’t actually change much. To get the barrel wood to look like it was from an old dining table I coloured it in strong coffee and gave it a few more scratches. I then cut the metal cans into strips to line both the inside and outside of the model. Before glueing the last piece to the model, I put in the stones, soil and plants to emulate the microcosm.
EXHIBITION
For the exhibition, I created a booklet and a brand around the product. I chose to call it Ullassa after the Hindi Sanskrit describing “the feelings of pleasantness associated with natural/natures beauty”. I found that in many ways finding an appreciation for Ullassa is exactly what this project is about. In this context, I also made a small 100-word statement to place next to the exhibition, which consisted of prototypes and a sketchbook showing the progression of the project, paired with the instruction booklet and the statement to give the audience an idea of what receiving the product would include.
I would like to first go through the sketchbook, and then close in on the subjects and pages within it;
Please do scroll down after this, since the blog continues with more information on the branding and project reflections.
PERSONA & ARTEFACT ANALYSIS
PROTOTYPES
BOOKLETS
RESEARCH
BRAND
For the instruction booklet and statement, I chose a minimalistic design for my city-dwelling and busy persona, Jessica. First I thought it funny to call the product Grow YourShelf, to include both the function of the product and the development it would stir in herself, in the product name. However, when I stumbled over the Ullassa Sanskrit I couldn’t help but find it cannily relevant, and so I wanted to include this appreciation and connection to nature through the branding, which lead me to a green and black colour scheme followed later by the idea of printing it on craft paper, to give it some texture and weight. To get a coherent aesthetic I went to Pinterest to collect some inspiration and get an idea of what it was I wanted.
I decided to use Gill Sans MT as my body font and Bodoni MT for headings throughout all my handed in text because they both give a bit of interest while staying readable and elegant. Using the same fonts just gives it an extra connection to the other pieces that have it. The same goes for the leaf frame I drew for the booklet and statement it shows some aesthetics from the product, a square with plants growing around it, and then the angled folds of the booklet, to give it that interest and connection to the product.
The 100 word statement was printed on regular printing paper and glued to cardboard.
REFLECTIVE ESSAY
To finish all of this off I have written a short essay talking about