This document is brief summary writing from discussions with various people. It was written for applying for competition in Helen Hamlyn Research Centre, and I thought it will give you more insight on Extreme Green Guerrillas project:
1. The issue:
We are forced to face the reality on a daily basis that environmental damage is more advanced than experts predicted. As global warming becomes the top of almost every government’s agenda, recent trends have put pressure on world leaders to act immediately: for instance, forced recycling, carbon offsetting and a 10-year campaign to make environmentally friendly living fashionable.
Are these efforts really improving the environment? Are these activities saving the Earth? What is eco-friendly living? When we live in a period where the worst climate disaster is about to happen, how can we live the ultimate green lifestyle?
2. The people:
As most green issues arise in developed countries such as the U.K., U.S.A or Japan, I have focused on people of all ages and ethics, living in metropolitan cities and concerned about green issues. I have divided these people into 3 groups to compare their attitude and understandings on green issues and activities. Those groups are:
A. Green Professionals:
People who use green activities/solutions as part of their job role. These people are scientists, designers and green activists.
B. Extremely Green concerned people:
Collective of people who claim to live ultimate green lives. I also contacted people in different countries to compare the difference on what is extreme green activity. These countries are U.K., German and Japan.
C. Ordinary people:
Collective of people that don’t have any emotions towards green issues. I contacted people in varies countries to compare the difference on what is the minimum understanding. These countries are U.K., German and Japan.
3. The relationship:
I started my research by having informal conversations with neighbors, friends and strangers in London and Japan. Then, I concentrated on people who are extremely concerned about green activities and engaged in discussions about their opinion on green issues in depth. These people include Greenpeace activists, eco-biologist and product designers. To get insight into other people’s opinions, I also attended some eco-friendly presentations.
4. The methods:
The initial research was informal conversation, email interviews and observation on target social groups, as well from researching the internet, books, papers and magazines. With this I generated the opinions and general views on green issues and current solutions.
Next phase of engagement method was by giving a presentation of my project followed by debate session. These sessions lasted about 30 minutes to one hour, and it probed audiences on their attitudes towards green activities and their imaginations / suggestions of issues relating to green future. With every presentation I gave, I gained more feedback to further evaluate the project concepts. The audience at my presentations ranged from one to one session, to a conference with four hundred people. The occupations of the audience included biologists, professional interaction designers, housewives, eco-worriers and students.
Attending green presentations allowed me to investigate on presenter and audience’s opinion.
5. The result:
A characteristic of current green trends is, that many people possess a strong desire to expressing their eco friendliness. A neighbor of mine once pointed out that if she is not eco friendly, she feels guilty.
One of the most interesting stories I was told by a 32years old Japanese designer, claiming that she is one of the “eco victims”. Since she was six years old, the Japanese government has been enforcing the recycling of plastic packaging. Her schoolteachers and parents told her, that the collection of plastic bottles from streets, her house or school was an important and good thing. She believed that recycling is saving the Planet. She felt as if she was a super hero.
Few years ago, she was commissioned to design an eco friendly beer bottle, so she started to research through recycling matters. She was very shocked as she found that there is no company buying collected bottles to recycle them, as it was costing more than producing new bottles.
Japanese government ended up with creating more wasteland for these collected bottles.
It was not only this person, but I was also very shocked with the fact she told me, as I was doing same thing when I was kid: I was the serious green person.
The main finding from my research is that many current green solutions became hypocritical because they are used as a medium of consumerism. From this finding, the purpose of my project became making a critical point of view on the current general green vision. To provoke a debate to stimulate audience’s imagination and opinions on their own green future, I have now created a group of people who is extremely concerned about green environment, called “Extreme Green Guerillas”(E.G.G.s). They are collectives of amateur self-sustaining people, who know that we must be extreme to save the Earth, but still try to enjoy a good quality of life in disaster situations. By going through research and experiments in various green solutions, their ultimate green solution became enhancement of the Bio-system by using high technology, such as RFID and Genetic Modification. Within this context, the project has spread into four design proposals in E.G.G.’s life.
