Thursday, January 14, 2016

[Yasmin_discussions] Yasmin_discussions] critical making and theoretical ideas

From Eva Bubble, Transformaking2015 Summit participant

As participant of Transformaking 2015 held in Yogyakarta, I will give
an account on our project, highlighting some basic ideas related to
the field of critical making.
As an environmental art organization, Green Root Lab participated in
Transformaking Festival with its research project about water quality
and filtration possibilities. The basic problem giving the core of the
project was the lack of drinking water or clean water in Indonesia,
where people do have their wells and can boil the water they get from
there, but in many cases this water still contains harmful metals or
even bacteria, therefore, they are forced to buy bottled water of
companies ? if they can afford it. So our main focus was health and
environment as well as the idea of a self-supporting local community
and a stand against the power of consumerism. And last but absolutely
not least: experimenting.
After reviewing the relevant literature to our idea, we decided to
experiment and build a (material) prototype for water filtration
and/or purification. We chose to use a ?traditional innovation,?
natural materials that are easily available (stones, sand, activated
carbon), bearing in mind a sustainable system. Given that none of us
are scientists or specialized in water management, it was truly an
exploration process to jointly extend our skills and knowledge on the
issue. Being a painter is mostly a lonely activity but this ?making?
process encouraged collaboration and resulted in a shared knowledge
and open design.
We had to be critical, reflective, and constantly raise questions to
ourselves. After analyzing the water samples (before and after
filtration) we were faced with what worked and what did not with the
prototype (i.e., it reduced the metals but did not filter the
bacteria). This gave curiosity and reason for further exploration, and
at our present stage, new ideas and alternative possibilities are
being investigated.
All in all, we were and are researching innovative solutions with
respect to traditional methods at a local level to offer usable,
affordable and empowering solutions for a basic problem. Also we can
conclude that our project is driven by curiosity and being eager to
learn and experiment with materials to meet our ideas.

Eva Bubla (Green Root Lab)

Keywords: consumerism, curiosity, ecology, environment, experiment,
exploration, health, local community, open, reflective, shared,
self-supporting, sustainable, water


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