AD5803 - Unsustainability Ideas

Thinking about the theme of "unsustainability", we immediately associate this term with its environmental branches, such as global warming, plastic pollution, food waste, CO2 emissions, non-renewable energy... but, as we discussed in class, the issue of unsustainability is incredibly broader than this and it really includes every aspect of our daily life and society.

Since I started thinking about which faces of the unsustainability spectrum I wanted to explore through my project I decided that I wanted to focus on something more socially related, leaving the issues mentioned above in the background.

The reason of this decision is not a matter of "issues priorities", absolutely not, I am incredibly personally close and active on the environment conservation, but these themes are already massively developed in photography and consequently it is very difficult to make a project that stand out and possibly makes an impact.

So I started thinking about what else really interested me and I made a list of potential topics, which are really relevant but often unpopular or underestimated. I came with these top three:

Modern day slavery in the UK

In December, I came into this interesting article that caught my attention: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/slaves-human-vending-machine-modern-slavery-food/ a "human vending machine" in London raised awareness about the issue of modern-day slavery. According to the Global Slavery Index, there's an estimated 136,000 people in Britain currently trapped in slavery.

Hostile architecture

We often do not realise how architecture is political and affects our behaviours. In particular we find in cities the so-called anti-homeless architectural objects, designed to deter the homeless from sleeping nearby.

The photographer Julius-C Schreinerabout did the series "Silent Agents" in which he took pictures of hostile architectural objects. Another interesting aspect to develop would be the relation between architecture and consumerism, it is interesting how particular designs are intended to shape our behaviour as consumers. For example an uncomfortable bench in fron of a cafè, unconsciously suggests us to sit inside and consequently buying something.

https://www.indy100.com/article/disturbing-anti-homeless-architecture-ryan-brown-twitter-8189081

https://www.popsci.com/unpleasant-design#page-14

https://www.businessinsider.com/public-spaces-that-manipulate-you-with-unpleasant-design-2016-7?r=US&IR=T#8-blue-anti-injection-lights-11

Medical trials

Clinical trials are scientifically controlled studies undertaken in humans to establish or confirm the safety and effectiveness of investigational medicinal products. People take part on a volunteering basis, they must pass a health check and satisfy different criteria and once they start the trials they get paid. I did not know anything about this practice until a friend told me about it. He often struggle for money and he take part to these experiments because apparently they are very profitable.

This fact really shocked me and I immediately wondered about how many people put their health at risk with these experiments, not for scientific development and research reasons, but in order to get some "easy" money. I would love to do a project about it, but I believe that this is more suitable to be a long term project.

Fake news

One of the biggest topic of nowadays is the dangerous phenomenon of fake news. There is a category of fake news that I consider particularly interesting: the conspiracy theories. The Flat Earth Society, Creationism believers, Chemtrails, Time Travellers... the world of conspiracy theories is massive and fascinating but also incredibly dangerous since it does not recognise the scientific community.