Trash Society

Alex Nam

My contribution to this project was making a collage about consumerism in American society and climate change. My collage expresses the massive amount of trash produced in the United States. The collage shows the overview of the thesis of my paper. Consumerism and technology nowadays greatly impact climate change, as it encourage overconsumption, increase carbon dioxide emissions, and harm nature, including humans, according to The Age of Resilience by Jeremy Rifkin.

Several art pieces inspired me to create the collage. “Turning Trash into Treasure: The Waste-to-Art Movement in India” by Ramon Burns. The creature is made out of trash. It is an environmentally friendly art that uses trash to make art instead of throwing it away. The second piece is called “Trash Art” by Angie Kordic. It is also made out of recycled trash. The third piece is called, “When Life Gives You Trash, Make Art,” by Anthony. The fourth piece is called, “Dirty White Trash (With Gulls),” by Tim Noble and Sue Webster and the fifth piece is called, “Wasted Youth” by the same artists. “Wasted Youth” has a message that criticizes capitalism. It expresses the extended accountability for a product's entire life cycle to the businesses that manufacture it instead of putting the onus on end users and local waste disposal infrastructure."These art pieces are all made out of recycled trash, which is the biggest point that inspired me to make the trash collage. Even though they all might have different messages, the fact that they used trash instead of fancy materials for their artwork made their artwork more special and interesting.

At the library, I found the book, “Coping with Urban Climates: Comparative Perspectives on Architecture and Thermal Governance,” by Roesler and Sascha. It gives an overview of the environment and climate change in urban society, which are affected by the social structure and economy. The book focuses on urban heat and air pollution which is the main cause of climate change, showing how capitalism/consumerism society is directly related to causing pollution. Even though the book focuses on air pollution, the amount of trash produced due to overconsumption in a consumerist society is critical to climate change. According to Overconsumption Society Through the Looking-glass of Behavioral Economics written by Rodica Ianole and Viorel Cornescu overconsumption and consumerism are deeply related to each other(Ianole,2013).

Another book I found in the library is “Radical Technologies: the design of everyday life,” by Greenfield, and Adam. This book points out how people rely on technology excessively. Technology has a huge impact on people in general such as the economy, politics, and the entertainment industry. It expresses that technology has “colonized our everyday lives.” (Greenfield, 2017) Technology and consumerism in society are interconnected. Technology supports consumerism to be widespread as technology is a necessity of humans nowadays. We buy technology to live our daily lives. The whole industry nowadays is about technology and science.

The last book that inspired me was “Losing Earth: A Recent History,” by Rich Nathaniel. The book mainly talks about how we should take action against climate change before it’s too late. Humans already had an understanding of climate change in 1979 as much as we do nowadays, but since people at that time didn’t take action on it, we are going through the same problem that is only going to get worse. According to Climate Change and Environmental Citizenship: transition to a post-consumerist future? According to Moore, climate change is a “major threat” to all the lives on the earth. (Moore,2012)

In addition to this, the Age of Resilience by Rifikin, who gives an optimistic perspective on future climate change and generations, strongly shows Rifikin’s idea that consumerism is harmful to human mental wellness(Rifikin, 2022). And since humans are parts of nature, consumerism also impacts nature, as it causes climate change.

Citations

“---.” Art Works for Change, www.artworksforchange.org/portfolio/tim-noble-and-sue-webster.

---. “Turning Trash Into Treasure: The Waste-to-art Movement in India.” Give’s Blog, 24 July 2023, give.do/blog/turning-trash-into-treasure-the-waste-to-art-movement-in-india.

“Kooness.” Kooness, www.kooness.com/posts/magazine/talking-trash-in-contemporary-art.

---. “When Life Gives You Trash, Make Art.” Allen School of Health Sciences, 11 Aug. 2016, www.allenschool.edu/life-trash-art.

Moore, SD (2012). Climate change and environmental citizenship: transition to a post-consumerist future?. University Of Tasmania. Thesis. https://doi.org/10.25959/23205602.v1

“Coping With Urban Climates.” De Gruyter eBooks, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1515/9783035624243.

Greenfield, Adam. Radical Technologies : The Design of Everyday Life. London ; Verso, 2017.

Rich, Nathaniel. Losing Earth : A Recent History. First edition. New York: MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019.

Stricker, Eva, Guido Brandi, Andreas Sonderegger, Marc Angst, Barbara Buser, and Michel Massmünster, eds. Reuse in Construction : A Compendium of Circular Architecture. Zurich: Park Books, 2022.

---. “Overconsumption Society Through the Looking-glass of Behavioral Economics.” Procedia. Economics and Finance, vol. 6, Jan. 2013, pp. 66–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(13)00115-9.

Rifikin, Jeremy. The Age of Resilience. 1st ed., 2022.