

DESIGN FOR ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE
-Intravention Design
INTRAVENTION
How it works, Effects, Duration
My intravention is to create a “seaside gallery” in a natural environment, using the rocks of the seashore as a canvas to paint images of polluted seas or beautiful blue seas. Using the Edinburgh seaside as a practise destination—Granton Beach—the bright colours of the seaside will attract attention, and the content of the paintings will inspire reflection. I chose Granton Beach as my test site because it is not as blue and beautiful as the sea at Portobello Beach. People are always looking for the good things, getting so caught up in the visual beauty that they don’t see the bad things and don’t think about why the seascape is different when it’s the same coastline. So, the bright seaside gallery will be a contrast to the seascape next to Granton Beach. I also have a plan to organise a seaside painting event, inviting visitors to the beach and the neighbourhood to participate, where people can use colour to express their concerns about the sea and share their love of it with each other. The paintings left on the rocks will also create a beautiful sight that will visually attract the attention of people who are playing and walking on the beach, who I believe will be struck by the visual contrast between the colours of the seaside gallery and the reality of the ocean, and the content of the paintings will also call attention to marine pollution and marine life. These action plans will provide a participatory and performative dimension to the project. Another effect I hope to achieve is that the seaside is a popular place for people to play, but at the same time, people’s activities can also pollute the sea, and when people see the seaside gallery, I hope this will act as a cue or suggestion that people should not act in a way that pollutes the sea. The project started out on a small and local scale. When the Ocean Gallery project has had some effect and impact, it can be used as a model for future development on a larger scale, calling for people to spontaneously create galleries for the marine conservation movement, and the project will draw attention to marine pollution and marine life around the world, as well as reflecting on their own actions. Initially, I planned to create a colouring game—perhaps a colour contrast between the blue ocean and the polluted ocean—to draw attention to this. But this was far less effective than creating a direct interaction and connection between humans and nature in real life. As the project is planned, people are encouraged to participate in the rock painting, and the seaside gallery is spread throughout the beach. More than anything else, it is hoped that when people see the seaside gallery, it will lead to reflection and action.


SEASIDE GALLERY


INSPIRATION FROM SPECIES AND OTHER WORKS
Learn from species
By reflecting on my companion species and my observations of crows, I wanted to create a way to make people aware that this is a multi-species world, and that this planet is not just a home for humans. Nor would it be like the Crowbar (Debczak, 2017) project, which uses the intelligence of other species (crows) to solve environmental problems caused by humans. I want people to realise that some of their actions are already murderous to other species and that humans never take responsibility for them, but that the consequences of these actions will eventually be harmful to the planet and that people will suffer the consequences. So, I hope that my intravention will make people move from visual shock to behavioural reflection.
Learn from other works
There are many artists who also use their work and actions to call on society to protect the environment, and this combination of art and environmental activism becomes even more impressive when their work is part of the solution, and they take direct action to protect the environment (Oct). MARIAH READING is an eco-artist from Bangor, Maine. Throughout his journey to Aboriginal lands, READING creates impressionistic paintings on bins to depict the dangers of pollution and climate change. He also uses the waste he picks up along the way as a canvas to paint the landscape, to convey the idea that “the landscape is not a landfill” (2017). I was also inspired by Pascal Schelbli’s “The Beauty,” in which she replaces the creatures of the ocean with marine litter, depicting an ocean that is both breathtaking and dirty, exploring a world where worry and fear disappear into the mysterious depths of a polluted blue ocean (TheFilmakademie). Both artists’ works are visually striking in their artistic content and form and convey a message about the problems facing the environment today. However, I believe that these two forms lack a sense of participation and sensory experience, so my intravention enhances this experience, giving people a sense of being there and understanding the current threats to the ocean.



REFLECTION
In this course, I have learned to look at the world and the environment we live in from a different perspective. I learned to look at environmental issues from both inside and outside the environment, not only from a desk study of the causes and effects of marine pollution but also from the inside, putting myself in the middle of the problem and questioning our routines. My intravention design is not a direct condemnation of people’s behaviour towards marine pollution; it may not have the effect of directly changing people’s behaviour, but I hope to raise awareness at a conscious level so that the idea of protecting the oceans is deeply embedded in people’s minds. The “Ocean Gallery” will be a beautiful sight on the beach, but it will tell the saddest truth.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Debczak, M. (2017) A Dutch startup wants to train crows to pick up Cigarette Butts, Mental Floss. Mental Floss. Avail- able at: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/505089/dutch- startup-wants-train-crows-pick-cigarette-butts (Accessed: October 27, 2022).
Mariah reading art (2017) Mariah Reading Art. Available at: http://www.mariahreadingart.com/ (Accessed: December 11, 2022).
Oct, P.U.B.L.I.C.A.T.I.O.N.30 (no date) How works of art can impact the preservation of the environment, Blog. Available at: https://blog.timelinefy.com/how-works-of-art-can- impact-the-preservation-of-the-environment (Accessed: December 11, 2022).
Science of the total environment an International Journal for Scientific Research into the environment and its relationship with man (2001). Amsterdam u.a.: Elsevier.
Sea (2022) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea (Accessed: December 11, 2022).
Taylor, J. (2019) Plastic found in every single beached mammal tested on British shores, Evening Standard. Evening Standard. Available at: https://www.standard.co.uk/futurelondon/theplasticfreeproject/plastic-pollution-single- use-plastic-a4053361.html (Accessed: December 11, 2022).
TheFilmakademie (2021) The beauty – animated short film (2019), YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57Tzu7cAxeo (Accessed: December 11, 2022).