Assignment Portfolio

Here is a link to my finished portfolio!

Improbable Monument: Proposal

Proposal: Monument to Commemorate Nestlé-Brand Water Practices

            Even though California is entering its fourth year of a serious drought, Nestlé continues to extract water from precious, finite aquifers at unsustainable rates. It’s unclear how much water Nestlé extracts annually, as they haven’t submitted an extraction report since 2009. No reports have been received from their Arrowhead plant located in the Mojave desert, as it is protected by Native American Reservation sovereignty.

Arrowhead Mountain Company Bottling Plant, located on Morongo Reservation land

         

   In an interview, the CEO of Nestlé Brand, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, admitted that he believed the notion that humans have the inherent right to access water is an “extreme solution”, and that it’s better to put market value on the resource “so that we’re all aware it has its price”. Nestlé is the most prolific brand of bottled water in the world, having presence in the Third World as well as developed countries, even though the morality of extracting water from third-world aquifers is still heavily debated by critics.

           

My proposal includes building a 25ft long water bottle made from a specific synthesis of Superabsorbent Polymers (SAB’s) and polyethylene and setting the giant structure atop a cast stone fountain base set into the ground with no apparent plumbing to serve as an actual functioning fountain. This piece would be found in the Mojave Desert, in a rather arid, secluded area of the territory, where it will sit inactive for most of the year. The synthesis of SAB’s and polypropylene would serve to allow the water bottle to “absorb” moisture caught in the air or from annual rainfall (it should be noted that the Mojave Desert receives a maximum of three inches of rainfall annually), where the water will sit, seemingly untouchable, until the captured water is “extracted” by unknown means and the cycle repeats itself.

Finished concept of the Mojave Monument to Nestlé Brand Water Practices

          

  This monument would be a clear illustration of Nestlé’s questionable practices regarding the world’s shrinking water supply. The logo on the bottle itself would be the general Nestlé logo instead of the more specific Arrowhead logo, as it would signify its importance as relevant to all Nestlé bottled water brands, and even the bottled water market itself. The logo would be made with washable ink, so that, eventually, it would only be an unspecified water bottle as the centerpiece; however, since it would need water to wash off, and since the rainfall in the region is so little, the brand name would linger on the bottle face for some time.   

            Because of the bottle’s size, it would need to be built from separate casted molds instead of the ultrafast high-pressure methods used by many plastic bottle makers. Then it would have to be mounted as a separate piece onto the fountain bed, which would be a relatively cheap construction, considering its apparent uselessness. The bottle will be assembled completely sealed off from any access to its hollow area; the extraction of the water will remain a mystery, and every new visitor will wonder where it goes. 

            The object of this monument is to bring greater awareness of a concern that is happening under our very noses. Because of a plethora of political controversies and celebrity nonsense, these unethical practices by Nestlé and many other companies besides remain relatively unnoticed by the general populace, unless it directly affects a specific area. If we are to take a stand against these tycoons, first we must be educated, and before we can even do that, we must be aware of what is going on around us. We cannot afford to wake up one day and wonder where all the water went. 

Improbable Monument: Final Concept

MONUMENT TO NESTLE BRAND BOTTLED WATER IN MOJAVE DESERT

Created to evidently commemorate responsible bottling policies practiced by Nestle, this 25ft bottle of water will be situated in a picturesque fountain oasis that will have unfortunate, perpetual difficulties in pumping enough water to establish the full effect of the majestic bottle of water. 

Obviously this is a sarcastic monument, to protest Nestle's privatization of water. Nestle has explicitly declared that "access to water is not a public right."


Links for reference:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-privatisation-of-water-nestle-denies-that-water-is-a-fundamental-human-right/5332238

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEFL8ElXHaU

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/us/drought-widens-economic-divide-for-californians.html?_r=0

Improbable Monument: Dumbass Ideas

Here is a dump of some of the ideas I've come up with so far while brainstorming possible ideas:



CHIP BAG MONUMENT--

After blowing through an entire grab bag of assorted snacks with my sister, I idly wondered what it would be like to build a monument dedicated to the deliciousness of Frito Lay brand snack chips, made entirely out of the plastic bags the chips come in.

The "improbable" part of it would come from the sheer impracticality of building something stable and enduring with nothing but such a light, flimsy, easily weather-degradable material. It would also be unorthodox to build a monument for greasy, salty snack foods (although the commentary behind the monument might be interesting in itself). For the sake of construction, however, I doubt I'll go with this option (I have absolutely no idea how I would go about constructing something out of paper bags in sketchup).



SEX TOY MONUMENT--

I read the "no censoring" section of the original project instructions, and true to form, I immediately thought of something that would require censoring.

The idea would be to build some sort of spire-like (dildo) silicon construct, or perhaps a cavern or tunnel of some sort (flesh light) that would also be lined with silicon material. I'm not quite sure how well silicon stands up to long-term outdoor conditions, so I cannot really say how a 25 ft tall dildo would hold up out in the elements (although a flesh light cave might be somewhat more resistant due to its construction. The surface dedication of a sex toy monument  would be the celebration of human sexuality--although, in its deeper layers, it could be a defiant claim on female pleasure, as much of the sex toy industry caters to female patrons and sexual drive.


NORTH KOREAN MONUMENT TO SONY--

The improbability of this particular idea is rather explanatory.

Virtual Placemaking: Dam Foolishness

The basis of this project was sticking a piece of historic propaganda discouraging the Tuttle Creek Reservoir from being built around an area that was most affected by the inevitable dam.

Randolph was one of four cities that were actually submerged by the resulting lake waters that welled up due to the Tuttle Creek Dam in 1962. "Old Randolph", ruins of the town that still stand half-way submerged near the northern part of the lake, can still be seen to this day. It was a politically charged debate that spanded over a decade and even though the slogan "Let's Quit this Dam Foolishness" won Howard Shultz Miller a position in the U.S. House of Representitives in 1952, it did not stop the dam from being built. While the value of the dam was proven during the Flood of 1993, the original flood waters that were caused *by* the dam aren't generally addressed.    

Seeing the Past in Present Tense

The biggest question take-away I got from this article was the question of whether or not there was such a thing as an "accidental" monument? A footprint or fingerprint imprinted in the concrete of some walkway, or perhaps a shoe that was caught somewhere in the air, in the treetops or the cable lines, that no one could or cared to get down. 

Could monuments meant for one memory actually preserve something drastically different? Say, Mount Rushmore--a clear representation of great US presidents, a cornerstone of American pride. What's to say that it's not actually a monument of colonialism, or the great destruction the immigration of European peoples brought to the "New World"? In some lenses, this monument mockingly celebrates known "murderers".

Radical Cartography: References

For referencing this project, I turned to different types of provincial maps:

As well as elevation maps:

as visual and technical references.