Linking Waste in the Medium of Blogging
Why do people blog? Why would the topic of Waste be relevant to using blogging as a focused medium? First of all, people blog for these reasons: 1. To Express Your Thoughts and Opinions
2. To Market or Promote Something
3. To Help People
4. To Establish Yourself as an Expert
5. To Connect with People Like You
6. To Make a Difference
7. To Stay Active or Knowledgeable in a Field or Topic
8. To Stay Connected with Friends and Family
9. To Make Money
10. To Have Fun and Be Creative The issue of Waste is relevant to us all. We hear it all the time-reduce,reuse and recycle. "Look after our planet, we only have one!" Waste matters because we share this Earth that we all call Home. The digitalisation of this Century involved with technology is the go-to place for sharing and informing issues to others. Blogging provides an excellent vehicle of communication in speaking to people about a topic relevant to us all-waste. The relationship of blogging and waste is through the relevance of both subjects in itself. People are interested in stories. People like to connect and share. In a society we live in, technology is designed for us to connect with each other, but could we actually be disconnected in a connected world? We are facing our phones, our laptops, our tablets 'connecting' to our friends and families; we build relationships through interpersonal contact instead of face-to-face contact. But hold on to that thought, if social media and online interaction is the natural form of communication now, that means we are still connected right? In fact, we can see what our friends are doing, thinking and how our families are doing at the tip of our fingers with our devices. Then so, when we look at the nature of blogging, its ability to transport the reader in many places while staying at one place means we are engaging with and attempting to connect to their experience. With that experience, say we read a blog based on someone's journey to reducing waste; we are connecting to layers of their thinking, reflecting their practices and expanding our learning by implementing it as inspirations, so we could potentially emulate the action. We borrow from their experiences and regenerate or imitate what we liked about their personal encounter. To write and share experiences within the mode of blogging is like writing a online diary or personal journal. But why do we want to share our personal diaries that we keep so secret? We lock our diaries with a key to keep people away from our intimate thoughts, expressions, confessions, reflections and stories. Truth is, people want to be listened to. We often feel safe and accepted by fitting into the crowd, hence, by conforming to the set standards, we survive by not being labelled or ridiculed as ‘social-outcasts.’ Our tendency to be liked and listened to, can resort to us reaching out to connect with others for companionship. Thus, the online platform of blogging even allows us to be heard while being anonymous. Being anonymous doesn't always necessarily mean the person is afraid of being judged or is hiding in fear, the anonymity goes back to the idea that diaries are an intimate and personal documentation. That staying anonymous gives an equality of focusing on the issue topic without someone else probing on their personal information. Diaries often always use personal pronouns and if we were to pick up any diary, we want to understand and listen to their story without making presumptions. Blogging ultimately gives us a voice, we choose to participate in discussions and connect in a medium that enables us to be as complex or simple as we want. Thus, the issue of waste is ideal to be heard through blogging. The personal encountering of my journey reveals in-depth discussions of my thinking, critical analysis, ideas on reducing waste and projects I make and also get involved with. It is still a personal documentation because the issue of waste is a topic that concerns me enough to be actively implementing others to make greener choices. This brings to my mind, a question that I have constantly been asking myself: If my motive is to implement environmental change, then how do I measure the success of my Urban Waste project? I made the initiative to ask many people and the majority have suggested online media is the most efficient way to reach your message to people. Another suggestion was to give out a pamphlet information or create a reward chart where they could tick off a task which involves them contributing to waste reduction in a way. I decided blogging is the best fit in communicating the issue, the blog site offers a 'Traffic count' for tracking how many people has visited my site. Starting the Blog Thinking Process What feelings and perceptions surrounded my experience? What current existing methods of waste disposal are effective now? / And if not successful, outline the reasons why not.
With my main focus on waste disposal, does consumerism tie in as a theme, link in as part of the problem or should be more significantly recognised as the beginning of all the waste management issues?
Reflecting my process in specific detail will help break down my thoughts in small chunks, this will help me recognise and clarify the important connections between what I know now (limits) and with what I am learning (expectations and risk-taking)
How can I report back my findings in terms of communication? Photographs, maps…etc. Bring in knowledge from my Communication Design discipline
What other perspectives, theories or concept could be applied to the situation? Borrow books to help with referencing and expanding ideas, read back the provided readings given
Waste in the Urban
What does public space mean to me? How would I describe it to someone else? Is inorganic collection invading public space?
What restrictions would stop a space from becoming public?
What immediate visual/sound/feelings/emotions/concerns/ideas come into my mind of ‘inorganic collection’? what experiences have I dealt with before?
Could I recreate my version of an existing installation from an artist model who has already responded to recycling/environmental issues? If so, could I make the changes dramatically different but respond in the same meaning or issue?
