Video Reflection : The 11th Hour

The 11th Hour is pretty much a wake up call for us to be more conscious about our environment and everything negative that happens to it, that they will all eventually come back to haunt us. The link between us and the environment is something that alot of people haven't figured out yet. People don't realize that these natural disasters - flood, food poisoning, world hunger, global warming -- all these are the impact of human actions. The destruction of the environment - cutting of trees illegally, dumping chemical substances, the dumpings of chemical substances into the river, all these helps cause the natural disasters which in turn take out lives - thinking about it again, it's like karmic retribution.

People interviewed in this documentary in one segment want us to just sit back and think - about the impacts of our actions, about why are we not responding, and what are the forces that are blocking change. The problem is not global warming, and other natural disasters that occurred, it's more about how we think and act. 

I think a big component of this documentary which is very relatable to designers is the consumerism aspect of it - about how we can make a product efficient enough to reduce consumerism. As one segment describes, we, as people living in developed countries are very selfish, we always buy new things that are offered on shelves, no matter how unneccessary they are for us just for our own satisfaction. The ones that get the negative impact of how we think and act are people who are living in the underdeveloped countries, in which we dumped our chemical waste in, and the ones which trees we logged just so that we're able to make products.

Watching this documentary, as designers it motivates me more to create products that are more environmentally friendly and push myself more to think about consumerisms and how my designs can reduce that. As one member of the ecosystem, it also helps me to think more about the environment and act upon it, because based on the harm we've inflicted upon the mother nature - it's either now or never.

Video Reflection: The Lightbulb Conspiracy

The Lightbulb Conspiracy: the Untold Story of Planned Obsolesence is a documentary about how a conspiracy by companies all over the world in encouraging consumerism by planning the "expiry date" of products in order for consumers to buy a new one.

One of the examples of this 'conspiracy' is the chip that lock printers after several prints, as seen in one scene of the documentary. It is definitely unfair, but thinking about it again, like one of the interviewees said, it's what keeps companies, designers and the entire industries going from becoming obsolete themselves. This is why a new product is made every 3 minutes in the world, it is why Apple keeps releasing newer version of their models in every few months, with just the slightest improvements. I understand the industries' need to do this, but at the same time I find it kind of unfair, especially to some people. Imagine when someone works their asses off for a product they've always wanted, but just after they bought it, a new one came out - a newer and better one with a price similar to what they paid for the one they bought.

I guess it is kind of ironic how companies labels everything to be green and environmentally friendly for that extra factor to make customers buy them while at the same time they want them to have this expiry date that makes customers having to buy a new one. One of the examples shown in the documentary would be the lithium battery on an iPod that only lasts for 18 months, with a less than 2 years warranty originally.

To be honest, I think this documentary have less of an impact to designers as it is to engineers. I feel it impacts us as designers in terms of us, now thinking about there are actually more things that we have to take into account when designing something in order for us to satisfy our employers. Hopefully, a balance can be achieved between all these so that a satisfaction can be achieved between all parties, the environment, the companies, the designers and the consumers.