The Symposium in the course

So, we had done the symposium. I felt nervous, but I finished finally. It was a nice experience.

The main topic of this symposium is ‘I buy to belong’. We should talking something about this and make it relate to our projects. My topic is ‘From Curiosity to Addiction – why to buy, belong to what. I started with a case study – smoking, which was about my project. Then I talked about my thinking about curiosity and addiction in normal buying. I feel curious to want to own goods, then I belong to a member of group to support some designers. It seems that this idea is abstract, but it exists in the society. We don’t realize this sometimes. Maybe it can be understood as someone is a member of LV. He/She has a partiality for products of LV. This situation sometimes can be said as a ‘addiction’. Because the concept is abstract and time is limited, so maybe my presentation is not so successful. However, I enjoy sharing this with others.

My classmates also shared their ideas about ‘I buy to belong’. They also combined this with their projects. For me, I gained a lot of new ideas about ‘I buy to belong’. Actually, I think if we could make our topics combine together, it would be better. Anyway, this symposium is successful.

Addiction

This work is made by Anthony. He said people used this kind of packet to pack cocaine. He chose the beatuiful pictures to be the surface of the packet, which were attracted. Is this packet as a symbol of addiction? Anyway, I found something about the symposium from this work. These little packets inspired me.

That is, what the meaning of addiction? Drug, Cigarettes, Alcole will make people have addiction. However, this is just something make your body want. What about general goods? Can they make us be addicted to? What the meaning of addiction here?  

'I buy to belong' -- Symposium

Now, we are going to have symposium whose topic is ‘I buy to belong’. What is ‘I buy to belong’ mean? It is likely explaining the progress of consuming. How can I combine my project with this topic? Maybe I can think about the progress of people start smoking. At first, people just want to try the feeling of smoking. This is pushed by curiosity of people. If people continued to smoke, they would be addicted to nicotine. The ‘buy’ is because of curiosity? Then belong what? People who continue to smoke belong to smokers. Maybe I can think about this and make it clear.

'Lost' -- Kathy Prendergast

This work was made by Kathy Prendergast. She expunged all places names of North America’s map except names which had the word ‘lost’. It is an emotional work. Maybe you will feel lost when you are looking at this work. Its form and its idea are combined very well. It makes me think about my work—the book I made. What feelings of audience will be when they are looking at my book?

Reference: http://www.englandgallery.com/artist_group.php?mainId=98&media=Prints&_p=1

Women from Antwerp in November -- Chantal Akerman

Finally, I found this video which about Chantal Akerman’s ‘Women from Antwerp in November. This work is about women smoking. The video focused on faces when women smoked. When they were smoking, they were also doing other things. Although the film just had a few minutes, it would made people feel it was not enough. This feeling is just like the addition of smoking. It is a interesting work which can pass emotion to audience.

http://www.artivi.com/encounters/akerman.php#share

Thinking about Symposium

My project is about smoking, then another word comes out - addiction. I searched this kind of symposiums on the internet. Most of them are talking about drug or alcohol addiction. Some of them are talking about smoking addiction, but I can't find much information. This is a video about addiction.

Actually, it is hard to combine addiction with design and this topic is not so interesting. However, I think before addiction, it is curiosity to push us to try something. Everyone has curiosity and it can help us to explore. I think it is a interesting topic for me to talk about in the Symposium. I need to do more research about it.

The Changing Situation and the Unchanged Profit

David introduced an article to me, but it was in 'The Independent Newspaper' and it was in overdue newspaper. So it was difficult to find this newspaper. Finally, I cound't find the newspaper, but I found it through internet. You can read it in this link:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/the-unstoppable-march-of-the-tobacco-giants-2290583.html

The author Emily Dugan wrote this article to summarize the situation of cigarette industry in the world. She showed a lot of datas to explain this sitiation. Every year there are more cigarettes consumed around the world though people made many compaigns to persuade people not to smoke. Meanwhile, it seems that the main market of cigarettes begin to change from developde countries to developing countries.

Many countries in the world try to clamp down on cigarette because more and more people were killed by smoking. In order to earn more money, tobacco companies are always having methods to solve these problems. Nowaday, more non-smoking compaigns are developing in the world.

After reading this article, I think we want to reduce cigarettes consuming, but it is a long struggle. The situation will chang with time, but the profit will not changed.