Jessica White

THEMES REFLECTION

During my time in the better lives workshops I explored a variety of themes relating to a ‘Wicked Problem’. I engaged in a group discussion where we talked about some issues in our society relating to the fashion industry, sustainability and the excessive waste we produce. One of the members of the group brought up the great pacific garbage patch, which other members of the group and I did not know existed until this discussion and it was quite shocking for us to see the images of the garbage patch.

However, I decided that I was more interested in a different ‘wicked problem’; I remembered reading an article online about the work of one man in trying to preserve America’s ‘lost’ apple species.And this led me to the issue of declining biodiversity in the environment, both in plants and wildlife; I felt that the issue all came down to the agricultural monopoly from larger corporations. 

Jumping off from this, I noticed a very interesting parallel happening simultaneously within nature and capitalism: the decline in biodiversity (both in wildlife and agricultural) reflecting a very similar decline in independently owned brands, leaving only a handful of larger conglomerate brands to dominate the market.

This parallel was very interesting to me and felt like an indicative of a greater issue in society – Capitalism and the imbalance of power. I hope to explore this wicked issue to a greater extent in my final project for the Better Lives Unit.

Prior to my attending of the workshops I had recently watched the movie ‘ Parasite’ and the powerful themes presented within that film also helped to influence my state of mind whilst I was participating in class. Our objective for this project is to create a trailer in response to our chosen wicked problem; film and cinema have always been interests of mine, therefore I was very excited to explore this medium of communication through this task.

I personally felt that the group discussions held during class gave me an incredible insight towards how my fellow peers, who are soon to be involved with the creative industry, saw the world and interpreted its issues. It gave me great relief knowing that my peers were also politically and environmentally aware – as it sets a precedent for how we can see the creative/fashion industry evolving.

I really enjoyed my time during this project and my subsequent project outcome. My theme/ “wicked problem” I wanted to address in this topic was the issue of larger conglomerate brands holding a monopoly on various industries. 

What had originally attracted me to this topic was the decreasing biodiversity within agriculture, which was related to the commercialisation of farming and one or two varieties of vegetables dominating the supermarket. My project idea was to create a satirical employee induction video, in the foreseeable future where one company has seized control of a majority of the worlds industries. I felt that this would be a fun way to connect my interest in making short films to my chosen Better Lives Theme.

In preparation for shooting, I conducted some media research and watched the movies “Sorry to bother you” and “Snowpiercer”, both movies that are set in a future where inequality is rife and power is disportionately held by the upper class.

I had already booked into a studio for this project, however due to covid-19, my booking was cancelled and I was unable to go ahead with my film as planned. Therefore, I had to adjust my film idea and shift the focus of my topic slightly. Instead of looking into the future, I decided to focus on a food conglomerate brand that exists now – Nestle. 

Taking inspiration from some of the works Ms.Hess has shown me throughout the unit which can be described as visual collage works, I decided to do my film with a similar structure in mind. 

I downloaded old commercials from brands under nestle, and tried to find as many as I could to showcase how vast Nestle’s hold on the food industry is. I then edited the clips together in a montage, and showed my peers in one of our sessions. Using the feedback they gave me during the session(some said the editing could be more streamline and the video could be shorter, which i agreed with), I made some edits and showed my work the next week.

I was really proud of how I edited and improved upon my final trailer, though the edits were minor, I think that they really made a big impact on the final piece of work and definitely made the film a smoother and more professional watch.

Additionally, it was very interesting and insightful to see my peers’ works, and not only gain an understanding of their chosen issue, to also see how they have managed to create work during the Covid-19 lockdown. Seeing their finalised pieces of work really inspired me to be more creative during the rest of this lockdown!

Fashion and Society

One of the lectures that piqued my interest is the Lecture on Fashion and Society by Katelyn Toth-Fejel; sociology has persistently been an interest of mine so It was very interesting for me to explore fashion in that context.

Ms. Toth-Fejel talked about a small project she did several years ago, mapping out various local fashion resources available to the community surrounding. The case study she gave was WIlliam Gee in Dalston: William Gee is a family run haberdashery. It not only served as a place for people to purchase supplies if they needed to repair a personal item of clothing, however, it is also a staple amongst emerging designers who need physical samples for their designs. 

Participants interviewed by Toth-Fejel noted that if such a store did not exist, most of the ‘self-repairs’ done by the community would simply not exist, as it would take more effort to source a single button or zip online/elsewhere, rather than simply purchasing a new item of clothing. Therefore, an establishment like William Gee could potentially be saving thousands of items from the landfill per year. This reminded me of a previous lecture I attended where Kate Fletcher described nature as an ‘ecosphere’, operating in a self sustaining cycle; humans have created local communities with infrastructure needed to exist as its own ‘ecosphere’, which I found to be very interesting from a sociology standpoint.

Following this, Ms. Toth-Fejel, discussed our current state of climate emergency and showed us a link to an environmental footprint calculator. After the lecture I did the quiz independently and my results said I was living on the equivalent of 2.1 earths and my earth overshoot day was 19th June; these results were quite shocking to me as I expected a better result. Most of my carbon footprint came from travelling, and a majority from air travel – which is likely from traveling from Hong Kong to London. Upon reflection, I recall doing this quiz a couple years ago and having a much higher carbon footprint, so I felt slightly better about my results. I have clearly learned more about my impact on the environment as I grew older, but I understand that I still have a lot to learn.

My favourite part of all the lectures is the Q&A portion, I make an effort to ask at least one question per lecture, and sometimes chiming in on others too! For this lecture I posed the question: ‘How can we expect the fashion industry to make the DRASTIC change necessary to prevent the oncoming climate crisis, without a societal revolution?’ Ms. Toth-Fejel’s response to this was that she too was ‘prescribing societal revolution’ and that brands have already begun changing the status quo when it comes to what we consume. I personally foresee the need for a complete overhaul of how we live and consume, and the technologies we use to create a sustainable planet for us to live on, and this can only come from systemic change, which only legislation and governments have the power to implement.

In conclusion I found these lectures to be very helpful in expanding my insight of the fashion industry, however, I appreciate that a lot of it was not directly related to fashion, but also the world of technology, sociology and environmental science. It gave me a great opportunity to learn more regarding topics I may not have the resources to learn about otherwise.