Endangered Whale
This week, my assignment for Ideation & Prototyping is to use the recycled material to make an endangered animal and think about the relationship of human beings, animals and their ecosystems.
When reading this homework, I first thought about the discovery series that I watched in the early 2021, which is called Chasing Ocean Giants. In the series, we follow aquatic adventurer Patrick Dystra as he circles the globe to pursue up-close encounters with the world’s largest and most elusive ocean giants.
I had never seen whales before, even in the zoo when I was little, the biggest sea animal I have ever seen was dolphins. I thought they are far in the ocean so I barely had any close connections with them. However, at that time, I didn’t know that I was totally wrong.
After watching the series, I fell in love with these giant but cute whales. Have you ever seen a whale singing upside down? Have you ever seen a whale sleeping like alien egg sacs? Have you ever seen whales competing in running race to mate? Have you ever hear a baby whale learning to talk?
They are smart. They sing. They sleep. They eat. They live. They have babies. They are families. They are so real. They are just like us. And they are also struggling to make a living.
In 2018, a dead sperm whale was found in Indonesia which had ingested ‘6kg of plastic’. In 2019, a pregnant whale was found dead in Italy with nearly 50 pounds of plastic in her stomach. It is heart-breaking seeing the news saying that whales ate the bags thinking they were food.
We say we love ocean and think it is so far from us. But imagine one day, when we finally reach the offshore, what we find is only a pool of endless floating plastic and trash. Maybe at that moment, we will think that whales are not only the giant mammals living far in the sea, they are connected with us in every part of our life. Sometimes human beings are so selfish. Men are finding a new living place on other planet, but what about other creatures on earth? Where they would live? It’s unequal for them. They also have the right to swim, sing and eat. They have the right to live as well.
Sorry, we bring these to you. Though men are forgettable and needed to be informed of the results on our behaviors, more and more are aware of plastic issues. I see people carrying personal bags to supermarket. I see companies changing their package materials into cardboard. I know though we are changing, we need to be quick and makeup for the past mistakes.
Yesterday, I collected a lot of trash on my way home, and with only half an hour, I found bottles, cups, water pipes, plastic air package cushion, fan parts… I used these trash to create a baby whale. I want to memorize the baby sperm whale that died in her mother’s belly in Italy who never got a chance to meet the world.
What I have learned:
- Improve skills on research and prototype
- Reflect on how to make a world a better place for both human beings and animals. Everything has the right to live on the earth.
