I’ve been given the theme of
recycling to research its use in the following media: literature, film, game, animation
and art.
Literature: The Borrowers by Mary Norton.
In this book, a family of tiny people called Borrowers live secretly in another family’s house. They ‘borrow’ things from the residents, such as thimbles and bread crumbs to survive and make a comfortable home for themselves. By taking and re-using things that the humans in the house don’t really use or would just throw away, the Borrowers are recycling in their own way. Even though The Borrowers wasn’t written with the theme of recycling in mind, recycling does play a major part in the book as taking and re-using items is how the Borrowers survive; essentially it is their mainstay.
In this book, a family of tiny people called Borrowers live secretly in another family’s house. They ‘borrow’ things from the residents, such as thimbles and bread crumbs to survive and make a comfortable home for themselves. By taking and re-using things that the humans in the house don’t really use or would just throw away, the Borrowers are recycling in their own way. Even though The Borrowers wasn’t written with the theme of recycling in mind, recycling does play a major part in the book as taking and re-using items is how the Borrowers survive; essentially it is their mainstay.
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| A safety pin and piece of string can be used to scale a desk. |
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| In this illustration from the book, you can see how various household nicknacks have been re-used and given new purposes such as the chess-piece ornament. |
A 1995 post-apocalyptic sci-fi
film, Waterworld is based on a world where the polar ice caps have melted, flooding Earth so completely that only man-made islands of recycled and re-used scrap remain. Practically everything that the inhabitants of this world own has either been recycled or re-used.
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| The headgear has clearly been made out of bits of scrap material that has been found. |
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| Even this girl's dress has been made from recycled materials, it doesn't even look as if it's all fabric. |
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| The boats in Waterworld have been made from recycled materials too. |
Game: Pikmin 2.
In Pikmin 2, the main character Olimar must go to the Pikmin planet in order to find 'treasures' that will save his employer from bankruptcy. These treasures however are what most people would think of as cheap things that can be thrown out when they're not used/wanted anymore or have broken. For example, old run-down batteries and rubber ducks can gather a good price. Berries can also be taken and made into little potions that will have different affects on the Pikmin, therefore the berries are recycled in a way instead of just dropping to the ground and rotting.
In Pikmin 2, the main character Olimar must go to the Pikmin planet in order to find 'treasures' that will save his employer from bankruptcy. These treasures however are what most people would think of as cheap things that can be thrown out when they're not used/wanted anymore or have broken. For example, old run-down batteries and rubber ducks can gather a good price. Berries can also be taken and made into little potions that will have different affects on the Pikmin, therefore the berries are recycled in a way instead of just dropping to the ground and rotting.
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| Some of the 'junk' that Olimar and the Pikmin see as treasure. |
Animation: Flip Book Animation by Tangy_JJam.
This short flip book animation shows a girl planting a tree and watching it grow and mature. But then the leaves begin to blow away, the branches following and finally the whole thing has disappeared as the leaves and the branches and the trunk turn into sheets of paper, piling up on a person’s desk so that they can write on them, only for the person to scrunch them up and throw away sheet after sheet. The girl watches in horror as more trees disappear to suffer the same fate and as it begins to rain, she too begins to disappear. From the difference in the rain at the start of the animation which were droplets, to the rain at the end which steamed and melted the girl like acid, I think it’s a safe bet to say that the rain at the end was acid rain which is created by excess sulphur in the air due to factories. Trees can help to prevent acid rain by balancing out the components in air.
This short flip book animation shows a girl planting a tree and watching it grow and mature. But then the leaves begin to blow away, the branches following and finally the whole thing has disappeared as the leaves and the branches and the trunk turn into sheets of paper, piling up on a person’s desk so that they can write on them, only for the person to scrunch them up and throw away sheet after sheet. The girl watches in horror as more trees disappear to suffer the same fate and as it begins to rain, she too begins to disappear. From the difference in the rain at the start of the animation which were droplets, to the rain at the end which steamed and melted the girl like acid, I think it’s a safe bet to say that the rain at the end was acid rain which is created by excess sulphur in the air due to factories. Trees can help to prevent acid rain by balancing out the components in air.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud8dSDy5lB4
This animation has a
strong message: that by wasting paper (made from trees), people are destroying
trees which will eventually lead to our own downfall. The underlying message is
that if people would waste less and recycle more (instead of throwing paper
into a normal bin that will go to landfill), we could prevent this from
happening, saving trees and ourselves.
Artist: Miwa Koizumi, Caroline Saul and Laura
Healey.
Using and heat gun, Koizumi heats up thrown-out water bottles, creating small aquatic-looking creatures called PETs (PolyEthylene Terephthalate, this is the type of plastic that the water bottles are made from and it can be recycled).
The message could be that despite the fact that these plastics can be recycled, they are still thrown out to go to landfill, or to blow away and end up in rivers and oceans which contaminates the environment and has started to become a part of Earth’s coasts. So Koizumi has recycled old water bottles into something more meaningful.
Using and heat gun, Koizumi heats up thrown-out water bottles, creating small aquatic-looking creatures called PETs (PolyEthylene Terephthalate, this is the type of plastic that the water bottles are made from and it can be recycled).
The message could be that despite the fact that these plastics can be recycled, they are still thrown out to go to landfill, or to blow away and end up in rivers and oceans which contaminates the environment and has started to become a part of Earth’s coasts. So Koizumi has recycled old water bottles into something more meaningful.
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| Miwa Koizumi's PETs. |
Caroline Saul also
uses plastic to create ‘bulbous forms’ by melting, reforming and colouring
plastics that would otherwise go to landfill.
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| Caroline Saul's Bulbous Forms. |
This same kind of
method is also used by Laura Healey when she makes her dragonflies. The wings
of the dragonflies are made out of old drinks bottles which she cuts into
pointed oval shapes and then colours with alcohol inks. Once the wings have
dried, she heats them over a flame so that they shrivel up (this effect can
also be achieved by putting some types of plastic into very hot water). The
wings are then attached to a wire frame that makes up the body of the
dragonfly. By doing this, Laura Healey has recycled old plastic to make very
organic looking, natural art.
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| Laura Healey's Dragonflies. |
Illustration: Umm...
This illustration shows, in a humourous way, how things can be recycled into something completely different; the now-bicycle that belongs to a small child is shown to have been a deadly weapon that took many lives.
This illustration shows, in a humourous way, how things can be recycled into something completely different; the now-bicycle that belongs to a small child is shown to have been a deadly weapon that took many lives.
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| Recycling can turn one thing into something completely and utterly different. |
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