This Friday, December 7, 2007, I am presenting my master's thesis entitled Conspicuous Conservation: The Rise of the Sustainable Class to the industrial design department at Pratt. It's been three long semesters on this puppy. I'll soon have a link to a pdf of the document for any one who wants extra punishment over the holiday break. So keep an eye out for that one. In the meantime, here's the blurb I send out when someone asks what this thing is about:
This thesis explores how product design is used as a currency for demonstrating social power (conspicuous consumption). It looks at ways of reducing the amount of waste created as a consequence of this phenomenon; and it looks at rising environmental consciousness in consumer trends. It proposes "transparency" of the entire production chain as a model for sustainable design and manufacturing. It further proposes that transparent sustainability will become a new form of social ostentation that helps drive the sustainability movement (conspicuous conservation).
So there it is in a nut shell. My products are done. I cannot show the product that deals most directly with the transparency mentioned above yet because it may go into production soon-- very exciting-- and so there's proprietary information and logos and stuff and I could get into trouble.... But the second product is below. The graduated trash bin draws attention to waste, showing off the sustainable awareness of the user. And being glass, it forces more careful behavior regarding what we "throw" away. You don't want to break this thing. It's really expensive. I'll need to reshoot I think; the sandblasted graphics aren't popping yet. It's a prototype....
