Saturday 2 April 2016

OUGD503 - Brief 01 - GOAT Collective Submission

The GOAT Collective recently made a call out to artists, designers and creatives in general asking for people to send in submissions for an upcoming exhibition title 'Disposable Society'. The Disposable Society, or throw-away society is a human society strongly influenced by consumerism. The term describes a critical view of overconsumption and excessive production of short-lived or disposable items. 

Before receiving the brief, I knew a little about this phenomenon from studying Geography and Fine Art. I have strong opinions towards these topics, so thought it would an interesting project to undertake in  a short space of time. I didn't want to spend too much time thinking about this brief, so I decided to enter a piece of collage artwork that I made in a study session in college.

The main focus of the collage is making a comment on the state of smart phones nowadays. I have read a lot online about the lifespan of smartphones such as the iPhone. Apparently, some of the earlier models were designed to break down after a few years of daily use. They are actually manufactured to be disposable. This is most likely a tactic devised by the large corporations to increase sales and the scope of the brand. Is there any wonder why Apple debut a 'new' iPhone every year or so? It's all because of money. iPhones aren't really changing that much in terms of the capabilities, its merely the aesthetic and size that has changed over the years. So, I wanted to make a comment on this using the power of collage. 

My collage is basically saying that iPhones are disposable, because a new model comes out every few months. There are so many that it feels like Apple are simply churning them out, vomiting beautiful design into the world, only for it to end up in the bin, being replaced by the next model as quickly as it was manufactured. This was the only piece of artwork that I submitted to the exhibition, and I completed it within the space of half an hour. Unfortunately, GOAT collective didn't accept my work to be shown in the exhibition which was a shame, but I didn't let this put me off from developing my collage skills further and being ever more inventive and experimental. 


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