Week 3 — Endangered Animal
Background
For this week’s assignment, I was instructed to find new purposes for artificial things that have become “waste”, and using them to create new things that get people to think about the relation between we make or design, and their impact on our planet, its natural ecosystems, and the nonhuman world. I was given the task to conduct some research about an endangered species that is currently under threat, and design and prototype a bust or model representing the creature chosen by using recycled materials. The endangered animal I have ultimately chosen is the Hawaiian monk seal.
Research
According to the IUCN Red List, the Hawaiian monk seal is considered to be currently endangered. Upon conducting the research, I have read through the IUCN’s listed website to gather information to determine what were the causes/factors that cause these species to be on the red list.
Before designing a prototype model of the animal, there were a series of questions that came upon my mind to consider first:
- What is a Hawaiian monk seal?
- What kind of environment/ecosystem does the animal live in?
- Where does the animal usually reside in what region?
- What is their diet?
- Why is the animal endangered?
- What are the initial root causes/factors of the animal to become on the endangered species list?
- What kind of environmental waste is impacting their lives?
Following upon these questions, there were a multitude of things that have greatly impacted the Hawaiian monk seals’ everyday lifestyle. A huge contributor to the species’ population declining was, indeed, due to environmental waste and human activity.
Lots of the environmental waste are recycled materials that have disturbed and damaged the species’ living ecosystem. The seals have high mortality rates associated with an increase of marine fisheries and plastic waste entanglements such as nets or plastic bags. Additionally, a huge presence of human activity expanding within the Hawaiian islands have caused a disturbance in their habitats. This has caused the species to eventually migrate to other surrounding uninhabited islands as a form of refuge or escape.
Exploration
First, I started off with this assignment by determining what kind of model or prototype did I wanted to design for my animal.
Here were the option choices that I have came up with before deciding:
At first, I wanted to design and prototype an enrichment device for my animal to play and interact with as a way of making an enhancement for the animal’s environment.
Though, during my process, I decided that it would need to take more effort and time to research and find ample recycled materials to utilize to make the prototype more realistic and appealing. Instead, I decided to go with modeling my animal ultimately.
As for my next steps, I was examining what recycled materials I had currently within my household that I can use to design and prototype a model for my endangered animal. The recycled materials that I have chosen mainly consisted of using plastic bags and packaging supplies that I have received from previous packages. Also, I have used a sheet of printing paper, a pair of scissors, a black pen, and clear Scotch tape for minor decorating and detailing purposes. These were the items that have been the most accessible and easiest to use for the prototyping model.
Prototyping
During the prototyping process, I had made a lo-fi sketch of what the model should consist of when it came to the visual design outlook for the animal.
Here is my simple drawing that I have sketched while having the gathered materials noted down:
Final Prototype Design
I have taken pictures of my Hawaiian monk seal posing in multiple different angles. There are some pictures of the seal laying on top of an Adidas shoe box serving as a platform that I thought would make the overall look feel more sculptured and realistic.
Self-Reflection Time!
Overall, I had lots of fun doing this creative project! It definitely was a journey to come up with a creative prototype that only utilized recycled materials that I had collected over the course of one week. As I usually tend to make prototypes digitally, this assignment had once again sparked my interests in arts and crafts! I have learned a lot about the importance of the design and prototyping process with such physical attributes. Also, I realized how much creativity that I had when making the model.
To summarize further, I learned that it is important for users to be aware of their surroundings and how it impacts others in multiple different ways. But what makes the situation much more useful and efficient is how we could all innovate and design such things to make the audience more aware of the situation and for the betterment of the environment around us!
