Goal & Global Context
“ The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”
- Greta Thunberg |
“ The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”
- Greta Thunberg |
Defining the Goal and Global Context
I decided to create a piece of aesthetic and environment friendly floral art, using plant material, to represent “Eastern treasures”. At the floral competitions I attended, I often found that the displays were intended to represent an idea. Through my creation, I would like to demonstrate that sustainable floral art can also be created in a way that reflects an idea; the idea here being “Eastern treasures”. Adorning the hair lavishly with bejeweled ornaments is a part of Eastern culture and tradition since centuries. In India, hair adornment was one of the “Shola Shringar” or 16 adornments that enhanced a girl’s beauty, and gave her a Goddess like aura. Component 1 of my floral art will be a look alike of a bejeweled hair accessory or Keshapasharachana, which is an Eastern treasure. Component 2 of my floral art will be made of spices, to resemble a landscape. Component 3 will be made of whole turmeric. Both these components represent ‘Eastern treasures’ as the spice trade and its routes connecting ancient civilizations of the East have a rich history, and in the ancient days, the spice trade was so lucrative that spices were known as Eastern treasures. Even today, these spices, like turmeric, cardamom, clove, bay leaves, cinnamon, cumin seeds, etc. are considered as Eastern treasures due to their medicinal value, which is only studied and practiced in ancient Eastern medicinal practices like Ayurveda. The healing nature of spices can also be found in ancient Sanskrit texts. The goal is challenging, as I have to conduct extensive research; familiarize myself with new tools and techniques to create sustainable floral art; and then calculate the carbon footprint of my floral art. I will calculate the carbon footprint of each of the 3 components of my floral art, to decipher whether their carbon footprint is lower than the carbon footprint if fresh flowers were used instead. If the result is as desired, then my research will prove worthwhile. With this context in mind, I felt that the most pertinent Global Context would be “Globalization and Sustainability”. The project explores the impact of decision making on the environment. It creates awareness of the fact that we must live within the means of our natural environments, and ensure that our lifestyle does not adversely affect our planet. |