Endangered Animal
This summer I moved into an apartment in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. It’s a lovely neighborhood with a lot of brownstones and townhouses as well as trendy bars and chic beauty shops, a great mix of old and young vibes. Before moving in, I had never thought that I would have a “trash problem”.
My apartment building has eight units and only one trash room. All tenants dispose of their waste in this room and it will get picked up by the sanitation service once a week. During summer, the rotten food in the trash bags attracts flies and mice, making the area smell bad and hard to walk through. Consequently, I feel uncomfortable every time I throw out trash. Disposing of garbage in that room feels like adding to the problems.
While it feels satisfying to dispose of wastes, when they are not being taken care of well, there are many negative consequences that can occur.
This week’s Ideation & Prototyping project is called Endangered Animal.
Choosing an endangered species and crafting a model of it using recyclable materials and waste.
Understanding constraints:
- Considering endangered animals only.
- Must create a 3D model to show its basic features.
- Using only trash and recyclable materials collected at home.
- Do not buy any materials other than crafting tools.
Step 1: Gather Materials
Two weeks ago, I began collecting garbage for this project. Due to sanitary concerns, I had to throw out some food containers and only keep a few items.
These are the items I have, the materials are mostly cardboard and plastic.
Step 2: Choose An Animal
I searched for endangered animal lists and selected some of them that had the least strange figures. Although it’s great to bring attention to species that most people aren’t familiar with, it is more important for me to reflect on practical considerations as a designer. I used Crazy 8 technique to choose only 8 animals, then sketched them quickly on paper. This helped me narrow down my options.
However, 8 animals still feel a lot. To further investigate the practicality, I tried to pair materials with animal figures.
- Plastic bottles have similar shapes to animal bodies, and I found the materials easy to cut off. The sparkling water bottle is particularly similar to a penguin as it’s thinner on the top and wider on the bottom.
- Blue whales, turtles, polar bears, and tigers are big figure animals. I may need to use a lot of cardboard to create the body shapes of the models. As a result, I decided to leave them on the side, since they might cost too much material that I do not have.
- Since I’m trying to spend as little time crafting as possible, I think it’d be best to avoid animals with multiple parts. It seems that mammals are the least practical for crafting as there are a lot of body parts to make, so I grouped all the mammals and marked them with yellow flags.
- After that, I only have four options, and I highlighted the parts I think would be the most difficult to craft.
- In comparing the highlighted parts, I think a penguin would be most feasible, its feet and bill are small and therefore more flexible for me to work with.
The Making of a Penguin
Penguins are the most endangered seabirds due to climate change. Yellow-eyed penguins are the most rare penguin species in the world and they are only found in New Zealand.
My goal is to make the model within a time frame of 90 min, and only using tools I already have.
I need to prioritize the tasks and try to bring a recognizable penguin model. If I do not like the final result, I need to accept the imperfection.
- Body composition in five parts
- Main body
- Head
- Bill
- Wings
- Feet
Main Body: That sparkling water bottle would be perfect for its body. The natural shape does not need much adaptation. But I need to give them more texture so they feel fluffy.
Head: Although the bottle shape matches its body pretty well, it is difficult to create a penguin’s head with this foundation.
Bill: I wanted to demonstrate the bill with yellow color, and I decided to cut off a piece from the sunscreen container.
Wings: I cut cardboard into wings, and I placed the pieces on the bottle. Although I tried to stabilize the wings, the moisture inside of the water bottle made them weaker.
Feet: I tried to use two caps of hand sanitizer bottles as their feet, but unfortunately they can not demonstrate the yellow color.
Duration: 50 min
2. Incorporating different materials to create the 5 parts.
- Polystyrene foams are very adaptable and I used some to create wings and the bill.
- For the skin, cushion forms make ideal choices. Their texture provides some fluffiness.
- There’s still no material I can think of to make the feet and the eyes, so I left them aside.
Duration: 25 min
3. Testing the final result
Last but not least, I tested out the stability by handling it in different ways and moving it around, and added more adhesive to the jointed connections.
Duration: 10 min
My Reflection
I do not think I have challenged myself enough in the prototyping process.
- I tend to stress feasibility too much, which does not allow me to think creatively and experiment with ideas.
- I also made a big mistake by rushing into the prototyping process before I completed research on endangered animals. I should have learned more information as part of the research process, such as animal sizes, body compositions, behaviors, breeds, surviving skills…learning this information might have helped me come up with more ideas.
- In terms of pairing animal body parts with recyclable trash, this step is a bit rigid, since not all forms and shapes have been determined yet. Making such a decision based on the 2D results would not be fair in my opinion.
- I could have used more colors with the existing materials, color plays an important role in crafting and makes the animal stand out. Unfortunately, I rushed to complete my project and the final outcome is not very impressive.
- Last but not least, I am not satisfied with all the materials wasted, which indicates that I did not maximize their use.
Despite making it as quick as possible in order to challenge my prototyping skills, this is a project that has changed the way I view waste.
In the process of pairing garbage materials with animal features, I could not help but feel the guilt of throwing out these waste. Even though I was able to find some items that were useful for the project, the majority of them ended up in my trash can, making up less than 20% of the materials used. The waste will not disappear if you simply throw it away. Having faith in the recycling label and system, I thought that if I throw out the trash in the right place, there shouldn’t be any concerns. But the truth is that I still could not walk into the trash room because of the accumulated trash situation, and I believe it happens at many other households as well.
I think waste is a consequence of selection. We always pick out the best and most useful parts then discard the rest. We can utilize waste for a variety of purposes, including crafting animal models, but rarely bother to create things from them. When I walked on my street today, I intentionally paid attention to the garbage people left on the curbside awaiting pick-up.
Within ten minutes’ walking distance, there are many cardboard boxes and plastic containers, and sadly, they remind me of those endangered animals.
