Proposal - Group Installation

1.0  Abstract

The introduction briefly describes the issue, concept and subject matter of the project. The problem statement further outlines the issue that is the core of the project, and details why the issue is chosen whereas the objectives are a list of what is intended to achieve in this project. The hypothesis describes the initial expectations of the outcome of this project before the project is finished.

A brief outline of the research and development of ideas for the project is detailed in the methodology, and the literature review talks about what research material has been used in this project. The process details a step-by-step walkthrough on how the project is carried out, and the conclusion reflects on whether or not the outcome reflects the hypothesis, and what problems have risen during the working on the project.

1.1 Introduction

Why do people litter despite being given numerous solutions and endless campaigns to cease doing so? According to Thomas A. Heberlein, people have been geared to not litter; they are told through public campaigns, parents, or schools that littering can uglify and harm the environment, so much that it becomes a 'norm' for them. Littering is not part of this 'norm', so when a person observes someone who litters, his tendency to litter will decrease. However, Heberlein also states that this 'norm' can be deactivated; when people start to think that it is not their responsibility, or the area has already been pre-littered, they are more likely to litter themselves (Heberlein, 2012).

According to the above statement, littering is more of an attitude problem, and this is what can be focused in this project in order to raise awareness in littering and its consequences through installation art as a wall art.

Installation art is a process of work rather than a style, utilizing traditional and non-traditional media and space. It requires active interaction between the viewer and the work, and can be viewed from all angles instead of from a single perspective (Irish Museum of Modern Art, 2013).

1.2 Problem statement

Littering is an attitude problem; people litter mostly due to their own attitudes; the Falkirk Council website lists down, among other things, that people litter due to ‘being lazy’, people are not bothered to throw their waste properly if the area is already dirty, or if they could not find any bins in the area (Falkirk Council, 2013). This is a mindset that needs to be changed and this is what this project aims to do via installation art.

1.3 Objectives

There are three objectives in this project.

The first objective is to research and understand why people litter and what makes them litter even when they have been told through various media and campaigns not to. This is done by reading various sources such as books or websites. 

The second objective is to analyse the research that has been collected and use it to develop ideas and concepts through the understanding of the research material. This is done through sketches.

Lastly, to apply the development of the ideas into an installation art. It is to be conveyed through a combination of three-dimensional wall art, and floor art.

1.4 Hypothesis

It is expected that the final result would be a 3-dimensional wall art and floor art depicting the negative attitudes of people concerning littering, in order to raise awareness on the dangers of littering.

1.5 Methodology

1.5.1 Books

First, research is done on littering and what causes people to litter. This is done by reading books on the subject, and understanding what causes people to litter. As mentioned in the introduction, Heberlein’s research had found that if a place is pre-littered, people are more likely to leave their garbage around. When a place is clean, people are less likely to do so as they have been ‘geared’ not to litter; it is only when they see a place already pre-littered or that many people are doing it that they begin to think that littering is alright, and that other people will clean up the place later (Heberlein, 2012).

1.5.2 Observation

This also includes doing observation in various places. As Heberlein suggests, in places where there is little to no litter, people are less likely to litter there, as opposed to places that are already littered.

Figure 1: An example of a clean area.

In Figure 1, the area is clean, and because of this, according to Heberlein, people are less likely to litter as this will make them think twice before littering. This is then compared to other areas:

Figure 2: An example of a littered area.

Figure 2 is an example of a heavily-littered drain that is located outside of the main campus area. As observed, there is a mix of rubbish that has been in the drain for a long time, and rubbish that has been recently dumped. This further proves previous research that people are more likely to litter when the area has already been littered before (Heberlein, 2012).

Figure 3: Another example of a littered area.

Figure 3 is an example of an area that has recently been littered, outside of a shop premise located close to the campus area. The particular area photographed in Figure 3 is usually clean, but sometimes it is littered with empty cartons and plastic packages of newly-delivered groceries. Usually this is cleaned up soon after.

The above observation help in a way that it aids in understanding the research done from books, as well as helping with the development of ideas for the installation.

1.5.3 Sketches

The pictures below are the initial sketches for the installation layout.

Figure 5: Initial layout sketches

Figure 6: Initial layout sketches

Figure 7: Initial layout sketches

Figure 8: Initial layout sketches

Figures 5 to 8 are the initial sketches of the layout for the installation. At first it concentrates more on the solutions to recycling, rather than actually focusing on the core problem itself. Then it gradually moves into the direction of showing how negative attitudes affect littering. These layouts do not work as they are too simple and literal to understand, and therefore more ideas are then developed.

Figure 9: Layout concept sketch

Figure 9 seems to lean a bit closer to what the entire project intends to convey, but even then this is much too literal in sending the core message to people. In other words, the problem with the sketch in figures 5 to 9 are that people may find it easy to understand what the installation intends to show, that they may not be prompted to think things through at all.

Figure 10: Initial layout sketch

Figure 10 leans just a little closer to the final layout, in which it is suggested that the outline of a brain, drawn to connect with the hand, is drawn. This seems to work well at first, and is the sketch in which the project is based on at first before the shape of the brain outline resembled more of a speech bubble. This then prompted one final sketch:

Figure 11: Final layout sketch

Figure 11 depicts a sketch of a speech bubble connected to a hand drawn on the floor, where the inside of the speech bubble is to be filled with a few words. At first the idea is to place a large question mark in the speech bubble, but the idea is rejected as it may evoke a sense of uncertainty. The sketch in Figure 11 is the sketch that the project is based on.

1.6 Literature review

Thomas A. Heberlein’s book, Navigating Environmental Issues, offers good insight on why people litter and what can be done about it. This book provides great insight to the issue that is the core of this project, as it is about how attitude is actually the core problem in littering.

Another book that has been referred to is Environmental Management by Bala Khrisnamoorthy. One chapter is relevant to the project, and it details on what waste management is and how best to manage it. The chapter in this book helps in understanding more about the problems in garbage management, which has to do with littering, and also details about how positive and negative attitudes affect how people manage their waste.

1.7 Experiments

One of the experiments done for this project is to identify the types of litter that will be used to create the installation. It has been suggested that perishable rubbish such as banana peels are used in this project, but using rubbish that degrades easily may pose problems to the installation in the long run.

One of the experiments done in this installation is to attempt to stick bottles and glass shards onto the wall with double-sided tape.

Figure 12: Attempting to stick bottle onto wall with double-sided tape

Figure 13: The bottle falls onto the floor after a few seconds.

In figure 13, the bottle falls down after a few seconds of being mounted on the wall with double-sided tape. A similar experiment is done using glass shards from broken bottles which also lead to the same outcome.

Figure 14: Filling bottles with water

In the end, it is decided that the bottles and the shards will be used to form the shape of the hand on the floor. To ensure the bottles will stay in place, they are filled with water as in figure 14, and placed and arranged around the outline of the hand as in Figure 15, together with the glass shards:

Figure 15: Bottles and glass shards placed on the floor.

1.8 Process

No.	Step	Description
1		The outline of the shape of the speech bubble is traced on the wall.
2.		The outline of the hand is traced on the floor with white chalk.
3.		Using normal double-sided tape and double-sided foam tape, bits of plastic, newspaper and other rubbish are placed around the outline of the speech bubble.
4.		Bottles and glass shards, together with some leftover newspapers are lined on the floor inside the outline of the hand.
5.		Using double-sided tape, the outline of the words inside the speech bubble are placed and newspaper bits are used to outline the words.

1.9 Conclusion

The hypothesis of the project is achieved in the end, as the final outcome turned out as a wall art and floor art. The problems that arose while working on the project is poor time management, as well as the absence of members of the group at any single time, leaving the group member that is present at the moment to work on the idea developments and the installation individually.

Bibliography

Heberlein, T., 2012.Navigating environmental attitudes. New York: Oxford University Press.

Khrisnamoorthy, B., 2005. Environmental management. Delhi: Prentice Hall of India p. 153

Irish Museum of Modern Art. 2013. What is installation art? Available at: http://www.imma.ie/en/downloads/what_is_installationbooklet.pdf [Accessed 6 June 2013]