Project 1B: Spot the difference (portrait 3)

Name James Burling
Subject My world in relation to a good book (or books)
Postcode 2340
Visit Time 5/12/2004 9:37 PM

I was pretty much born with a book, for want of a better phrase, ‘glued’ to my hand, so I spent most of my life, to say the very least, reading my way through it. And the book helped me understand my world a little better too: Dinotopia, by James Gurney, opened me up to a land unaffected by the passing of time, and undiscovered (or so it supposed); Gulliver’s Travels by Johnathan Swift did the very same (although I only read the first two adventures; I don’t know why I haven’t got the other two, or why they weren’t published at the time). Thomas the Tank Engine by The Reverend W Awdry (better known as the Railway Series) brought about my love of trains, and the interaction between the steam loco and its driver (it’s almost a fraternity between the two). And the enlightenment stories are completely endless. But back to the real stories. I have had a couple of interesting ’situations’ with books in my life; I’ll give three now. Do not worry; they are very short stories. One involved the first volume of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy (Inferno). In the hope of getting the book (I had purchased the other two that day), I ordered it through one bookshop. After doing so, I ran frantically back to my ‘home’ bookshop (I have my allegiences when it comes to things like bookshops) and told them. They set up the challenge of getting the very same book faster than the first. Unfortunately, the first bookshop won by getting it in in a week and a bit; the other is still waiting for it. The second involves a book that ran out of print before it arrived, after waiting for it for four (maybe five) months. We’re still in search of a copy of the Tagbook.
The third concerns the Holy Bible. I found it (again) after deciding to clean myself up in action, and ended up going to church as a result. (Yes, I am a Christian now; Anglican, to be precise.)

After change move on from praying for change to having the power to make change.

Project 1B: Spot the difference (portrait 2)

Name Sarah
Subject Where does one start…..
Postcode 2036
Visit Time 2/12/2004 4:05 PM

When you think about your favourite novel where do you really start? Is it the story you read as a seven year old that took you away to faraway wishing places? Or is it the inspirational To Kill a Mockingbird when you were 15? Or the more sophisticated Amis, McEwan? I was always read to by my parents as a child, then when I was six or seven my aunt gave me copies of Enid Blyton stories. This lead me to the Famous Five and Secret Seven, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and Trixie Beldon. I was 11 when my father gave me Murder on the Orient Express and Agatha has been a favourite of mine ever since. School opened up the world of Henry James, Jane Austen, Evelyn Waugh and Virginia Woolf. Then onto The Lord of the Rings trilogy and George Orwell. I love most books and while looking at the rest of the reviews realised that most of my favourites had already been listed. I hope to be able to pass this love to my three young children. But to give you my ultimate favourite – I just don’t think that is possible, every book is a favourite, every book is a treasure.

After change realise that you don’t need everything to get the most out of life. Choice is great, and we are lucky to have choice – however choosing the essentials is intelligent and responsible.

Project 1B: Spot the difference (portrait 1)

Name Jo Smith
Subject Eucalyptus
Postcode 3104
Visit Time 1/12/2004 8:31 PM

I hate eucalyptus trees. To see them in the landscape whilst driving thru the countryside they look like sprigs of parsley stuck into the landscape and we all know what parsley is (according to the shortest poem in history by Ogden Nash, ‘parsley/ is ghastly.’) Eucalyptus trees are messy, dirty, dangerous trees forever dropping their branches, bark and leaves. And yet… and yet, my favourite book is ‘Eucalyptus’ by Murray Bail. It is the classic fairy tale with all the trimmings. And yet.. I wish you’d asked for my top ten favourite books… or even my top five, or even top three books then I would only have had to justify ‘Eucalyptus’s’ place among the competition and not as an outstanding first pick because really, I do hate eucalyptus trees.

After change look beyond hating the trees and find use out of the products that come from eucalyptus.

Lecture 4: “Powers of the Community – Surviving Peak Oil”

Sunsets

The colours of sunsets always inspire me. There’s just something about them.

Lecture 3: “The Hunter-Gatherer Brain”

Lecture 2: “Ethos: a new voice in design”

Lecture 1: “The Designers Accord”

Project 1A: change (portrait)

Attached (below) is my “change” portrait. It is inevitable, I change a little bit each second, each minute, each day…we all do, it’s a part of living and being human. Sometimes, we think we already have quite a lot of knowledge, and don’t think all that much change will occur, but change often happens without us always realising. I feel like I’m going to fit into that above category this semester, but I can’t say that for sure yet. Research will end up turning into a journey of discoveries, and then change will occur. I cannot see what that change will be yet.

Project 1A: change (portrait)

I currently feel that I will not change that much as an individual (maybe pull a few new faces *grin*), but maybe my knowledge will grow and I’ll put it towards something useful.

The change might not be visible to the naked eye. It might just be a change of outlook. Who knows, we’ll see!

“Ethos: a new voice in design” Lecture

In response to last night’s lecture “Ethos: a new voice in design”:

How come it is all of a sudden now, this year, that sustainability is an issue we need to address at Swinburne, when we have known about the need to become sustainable for many years? Why didn’t we start being active as the design community in sustainability 10 years ago? Was the fact that we could still water our gardens and think it was ok to waste resources because there wasn’t that much in the media telling us otherwise meant that we didn’t worry about how design affects sustainability, because it didn’t seem a big enough issue? How come it’s taken until the panic button is hit to do something?

Denise Meredyth in the panel yesterday called sustainability “trendy”, and then I wonder if we’re doing this for all of the wrong reasons? Sustainability shouldn’t be about being “cool”, it’s about survival and living. Dumbing it down to “trendy” bothers me. It makes me wonder if Swinburne is just latching onto the new trend of being sustainable because it sounds good.

It doesn’t surprise me that much really. The “Australian” ethos seems to run in a leader-follower fashion, where we are reactive, rather than proactive; we won’t do something until an issue reaches breaking point and directly affects our own livelihood. Otherwise we seem to have this crazy notion that someone else will fix it, a “she’ll be ‘right” mentality. We’ve turned our heads away and closed our eyes on sustainability for so long, and now it’s shoved in our faces, we have to apparently do something. Hmm. I don’t blame anybody for this, it’s a tough thing becoming proactive, and needs knowledge to make it happen. And sustainability doesn’t seem to be the most trustworthy media issue either with often clashing findings, which isn’t helping the skepticism surrounding the issue.

Maybe I’m half the problem in my own argument. I am frustrated at Swinburne taking on sustainability and forcing it onto us later and not sooner, because I’ve been brought up in a family who has always taught me to live as sustainable as possible. It’s always been a part of my life, and it used to shock me when I first came to Swinburne how wasteful so many people can be. I ended up shrugging it off and saying “well that’s them and this is me”. Yes, I’m possibly just as ignorant as everyone else.

Don’t get me wrong: I think it’s fantastic we are given projects where we can concentrate on sustainability, and I hope this year we will be able to expand on sustainability in design – whether through educating the public, creating new systems, or even improving existing products, and I’m very excited at the prospects – however I don’t believe it’s taken until now for sustainability to become a “real” issue we need to address at Swinburne.