Gazing upon the Wasteland

Gazing upon the Wasteland

For my photoshop assignment, I took the opportunity to express an environmental concern that has been building up globally and primarily in the United States: Waste. Waste and pollution are directly correlated to overconsumption, something quite prevalent throughout the West. Specifically, the consumption of plastic and plastic waste is what truly upsets me. Plastic is toxic (contains BPA), most of it cannot be recycled, and over 80% of all non-recycled plastics end up in developing nations (such as the one used above from India) who suffer the consequences of our first world consumption. This week (today and tomorrow in Coates), SOS is promoting a school-wide "Bag the Plastic" campaign. We are asking students to be aware of their plastic use and try to limit it as much as possible. How to combat this global issue is by starting with the self: Reduce, reuse, recycle, in that order.

I chose to place the landfill photo in a spherical shape, which represents the earth. The idea of a higher power represents the hand holding the earth among the heavenly backdrop (clouds and light). Both the landfill and the clouds photos were not distorted, which I find truly fascinating [See original images below]. I use the image of the child in the gas mask to provoke a feeling of an uncertainty and fear for the future generations that will be dealing with the waste and pollution problems our generation and the one before us have created.

Preliminary Photos Used in this Work:

Photo Fakery: How Food Images Influence Taste Perception

How Images of Other Consumers Influence Subsequent Taste Perceptions

This article addressed photo manipulation from a very specific perspective on food images. These images are seemingly everywhere, and yet the influence that such images have on consumers outcomes is not well understood. The authors propose that the effect that image exposure has on taste perceptions largely depends on the interaction between the type of food (healthy vs. unhealthy) and whether the image shows the food alone (food image) or the food being consumed by a person (consummatory image). Specifically, the authors show that exposure to consummatory images that have been distorted with tools such as photoshop of unhealthy (vs. healthy) foods, also manipulates taste perception relative to food images. The author proposed that the effect of seeing an image of someone else engaging in unhealthy food habit makes it seem socially acceptable, and therefore the audience will perceive it as such. 

Interestingly, this argument would be useful in reform of fast-food (unhealthy food) commercials. Obesity is an epidemic in the United States. Part of this epidemic directly relates to how the average US citizen interacts with the market. We are a consumerist nation and companies that market and promote unhealthy foods are partially responsible for the consumption and obesity problems prevalent throughout the country. If we can change the norms on food consumption in the United States perhaps we would see a decrease in obesity rates.

Works Cited

Poor, Morgan, Adam Duhachek, and H. Shanker Krishnan. "How Images Of Other Consumers Influence Subsequent Taste Perceptions." Journal Of Marketing 77.6 (2013): 124-139. Business Source Complete. Web. 5 Nov. 2013.

Class Presentations

My Presentation

Before presenting, I had a sequenced plan of how I wanted to present my topic. That plan sort of just went out the window when the person going right before me also chose yoga as a topic! Because of this, I was forced to adapt my presentation. Ironically, the most important thing I learned with this presentation was to allow for more flexibility in the outcome of the presentation. Flexibility is a key component of yoga, as well as life. If you fall out of a posture, you are told to get right back in it and to keep persevering and not to worry about how your posture looks (especially compared to others in the class). Flexibility is key in the outcome of poses: both physically and mentally.

Class Critique

Wow. The assortment of topics was most interesting to the say the least. Everyone's presentation was extremely different and unique. I was most surprised by the amount of personality and individuality that came through with each presentation. My average class presentation rating was a 9.167 and in my opinion, every presentation was well done. However, there were some that stuck with me more than others. One of the presentations that I have not stopped thinking about was texting and driving ( by Andrew).  Not only is it a pressing issue, but the topic was presented in  a heartfelt and informative way. Another presentation I though was very well done was on the topic of couch surfing. Will brought a lot of experience and enthusiasm to his subject and truly made me want to create an account on couchsurfing.com. His information was very clear and the presentation was graphically pleasing. I enjoyed the presentation from start to finish!