Nature and Technology

Originally I spent a lot of time trying to combine Nature and Technology working in harmony,
Whether it be an animal having a day job, or a ladybird with helicopter wings. This appeared to be
the most straight forward and obvious way of producing five images based around the brief of
Nature and technology. I began work based around the idea of a grizzly bear carrying out everyday
jobs, such as a builder, policeman or a doctor for example. However, during my production process
of these images I began to worry that the idea had no direct relation to any iconic themes in nature
or technology. A grizzly bear is hardly an iconic animal of nature, and doing different jobs is not
really an effect of technology nor a technology in itself. This made me begin to think about how
technology is directly affecting nature as a whole, straight away Global Warming came to mind.
This theme gave me the opportunity to have a direct relation between both nature and technology,
as technology is having an affect on nature, as Global Warming is proving.

“By 2040 the Arctic may have its first ice free summer“, indicating that animals such as the Polar
Bear, Penguins and Seals’ natural habits will be totally wiped out due to the effects of Global
Warming. This will have a huge impact on these animals causing them to either adapt to the
environment they are left with, or to be totally wiped out. We can predict this as there has already
been “a 17 per cent decline in polar bear numbers on the western coast of Hudson Bay in Manitoba
province - from 1200 to fewer than 1000 over the past 10 years - due to the effects of global
warming.” But what really is Global Warming and why should we care about it? “As human-caused
biodiversity loss and climate disruption gain ground, we need to keep our sights clear and
understand that the measure of a threat is not a matter of whether it is made on purpose, but of how
much loss it may cause. It's an ancient habit to go after those we perceive to be evil because they
intended to do harm. It's harder, but more effective, to "go after," meaning to more effectively
educate and socialize, those vastly larger numbers of our fellow humans who are not evil, but whose
behaviour may in fact be far more destructive in the long run." (Ed Ayres 2001)

There is a lot of controversy looming over Global Warming, as to whether or not its really
happening. In 1998 20% of people didn't belive in Global Warming and its affects. My attempt to
convert this 20% of the poppulation is based on the theory outlined by Abbinnett (2003 p. 74) by
Marxism about the development of technology by stating that,“Marxism demands that we attend
both to the logic of representation (distortion, false identity) which determines cultural
reproduction, and to the development of the technologies through which this reproduction is carried
out” Based on this, if I produce images which are photo-realistic, which once wouldn't have been
possible without the advances in computers, the audience will believe to an extent what they see
initially, until they put some thought into its real deeper meaning, in this case global warming.

Carbon Dioxide from Power Plants, Cars, Airplanes, Buildings, and Deforestation are all
technologies all used to give humans a more convenient and easy life style, however potentially
doing the exact opposite to wildlife that habitat the Arctic. I have therefore produced a series of
images and a website to reflect the impact of global warming and represent the dramatic effects it is
causing the environment. My aim was to produce five iconic images, which would really make the
person viewing the images feel very aware about the real effects of Global Warming, and I felt this
could be achieved through a mix of both surrealism and realism. By doing so it is adding a level of
Hyper Reality, making it difficult for the audience to distinguish beween what elements of the
images are real and which ones are sureal. By adding this level of depth to the image it should
encourage the user to think about the underlying meanings of global warming.

In all of my images I have taken animals such as polar bears and penguins which are very iconic
when talking about global warming, out of their natural habitat in which we associate them, and put
them in an environment in which we would not expect to see them. This instantly would make the
audience think why these animals were in that situation, hopefully making them realise that this is
how these animals are going to end up if they do not do their bit to minimise Global Warming. My
overlaying theme of these animals in these situations is how they have been made homeless due to
the effects of technology, which has caused their habits to be destroyed. The scenarios I have put the
animals in are typical to the ones of homeless people, giving the images an aspect of realism,
however applying this to animals and putting them into the scenario of a homeless person adds
elements of surrealism to the mix, as you do not see animals holding signs, which is intended to
make the audience think about what is being portrayed.

Image One (above) has been designed to be clear, hard-hitting and slightly mono-chromatic. These
dull colours are associated with a cold bleak winters day, which of course is what this animal wants,
however his natural habitat has been removed due to the effects of global warming. The seal has a
bright street light shining over him, which I feel is very relevant to the image as light pollution is
another technological advance which is harming the o-zone, in-return harming these animals. I have
placed a newspaper over him as I this ties in well with recycling, something which should happen
more often to ensure that this image remains surreal. The image itself with out the “think! Global
warming” logo and the tag line “technology won the war, nature gave up on the battle” would have
“limits of interpretation” (Umburto 1990) which means people may not instantly be aware the cause
of the seal being on the bench, hence the logo and tag line being implemented. I gained inspiration
for this image by trawling through homeless people pictures on Google and realised the majority of
them were on some sort of park bench. This got me thinking a long the lines of homeless animals,
the consequenses and what they may do to help themselves if they were forced into this currently
virtual world.

Image two (above) takes another stereotypical view of homeless people and turns it into one
relevant to the polar bears habitat being destroyed. It is implying the lack of care from humans, all
three people are walking as far away from the bear as possible, the bowl in which it is asking for
money is empty, and the woman at the front appears to be laughing at the sight of the bear being
homeless. This is dealing with critical issues of lack of understanding about global warming, and
implying humans selfish, materlistic attitude which advances in technology has brought about. I am
showing this by having each of the people carrying expensive designer shopping bags which all use
natural materials and are produced in factories which are major contributors of carbon dioxide into
the o-zone.

I have applied the possible consequences of technology to my first three images, however I wanted
the next part of the campaign to focus on making the audience realise how technologys are
impacting on the environment. As I mentioned earlier, big contributing factors are cars and factorys,
hence the production of images four and five. Both of these images remain with the same logo as on
the other images, as if it was released as a real advertising campaign, these would carry on in the
series however portraying a similar meaning but focusing on the actul causes of global warming and
not the affects as in the other three.

I have portrayed my five images as a form of charitable campaign to reduce global warming. The
logo of the campaign “think! global warming” is a semiotic, the icey backdrop on the text is
intended to make people associate the Arctic with global warming, and the red text is used to
indicate hot, as this colour is used in everyday life to represet this such as on bathroom taps for
example. The same applies to the blue used in the logo, and the general theme of the website as
people associate it with coldness. Both hot and cold are the conflicting factors based around global
warming. The typograhy lecture made me think quite deeply in how I should portray the text on the
images, and made me realise how important that these considerations are. I wanted the campain to
be clear-cut and down to the point, sending a strong message to the audience. I decided to use a
sans-serif font as this is what websites based around technology used, also decided to use just small
case characters as this allowed the text to look more simplistic and easy to read as the audience
doesn't have to deal with grammar.

In summary to this project I feel as though my images are well related to the arising themes of
global warming, and portray the problems that are being caused by technologys in a bid to try and
make the target audience more aware than they already are of what will happen if we dont change
our lifestyles to be more considerate.