All posts by zap-editor

j. Gross Domestic Problem

GROSS DOMESTIC PROBLEM

ANU TV, Australia
2017,   17 min 4 sec

In this video ANU academics Robert Costanza and Ida Kubiszewski discuss the limitations of GDP as a measurement of societal success and assess alternatives with Lorenzo Fioramonti. Fioramonti states that GDP was never meant to be an indicator of success in normal conditions, it is a measure of material consumption within the formal economy.

Constanza adds that in World War II it was very helpfull as a tool for understanding production of war material. In these normal (non-war)days, when a natural disaster occurs, GDP goes up, explains Kubiszewski. That means it looks like a benefit but in fact it is a cost to society in many ways. On the other hand a lot of important components to society, such as volunteer work, household work, stay at home moms, are being ignored in the system of GDP.

r. Lynn Margulis, Interview

 INTERVIEW

Rutgers University Television Network
2004, 26 min 57 sec 

In this interview with biologist Lynn Margulis (1938–2011), conducted in 2004 by Jay A. Tischfield of the Department of Genetics at Rutgers University, she articulates the idea of symbionts, the basic entities of symbiogenesis. Her 1967 paper “On the Origin of Mitosing Cells” describes endosymbiosis, a whole new history of biology, and the focus of this field, which Margulis championed, is the evolution of symbiotic systems that generate holobionts rather than the gradual evolutionary mutation of individuating organisms. Take the human digestive system, which is key to our metabolism, for an example: it depends on bacteria that are separate organisms from us to function. On some level, an organism can only exist as a holobiont. In a concise conversation, Margulis speaks of some of those who developed the understanding of life as symbiogenesis and symbionticism, from Ivan Wallin to Konstantin Sergeevich Mereschkowski and from Boris Kozo-Polyansky to Liya Nikolaevna Khakhina. Being together precedes being.

The interview was made available online at Artandeducation.net

b. Superflex, Why We Flooded McDonald’s

WHY WE FLOODED MCDONALDS’S

Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
2015, 15 min 26 sec

Superflex’ starting point was to focus on the idea of the mass-production of food, and they felt that the most heavily branded fast food restaurant was McDonald’s. They built the restaurant from scratch, basing it on what a McDonald’s would have looked like in the 1980s, as they believed that this was perhaps the most iconic image of it. Every detail – down to the small boxes for Happy Meals – were handmade in a studio in Bangkok. The adding of water functioned as a melt-down of the restaurant but at the same time made the different things in it come to life: “All these dead objects start to become actors.” Moreover, the water also created limitations in the set, as it was not possible to undo – they could stop more water from coming in, but not reverse the consequences of the water that was already there.

The film is shot around 2008, where there were “a lot of post-apocalyptic scenarios going on.” The financial crisis, global warming and such took up a lot of space in the media, and Superflex wanted to make their own version of this “end-of-the-world” set-up “in a mild Scandinavian way, but still using some kind of global vocabulary – the raising of the water, the most famous fast-food chain.” Though the movie is heavy on the use of symbolism, the approach is also quite humorous: “It’s almost like slapstick.”

 

p. Awake, a Dream from Standing Rock

AWAKE,
A DREAM FROM STANDING ROCK

Josh Fox, Digital Smoke Signals
2017,  1 hour 29 min

While many may know the details, AWAKE, A Dream from Standing Rock captures the story of Native-led defiance that forever changed the fight for clean water, our environment and the future of our planet. … It is a labor of love to support the peaceful movement of the water protectors.

d. Christopher Miles, Alternative 3

ALTERNATIVE 3

Christopher Miles,
1977, 54 min 16 sec

Alternative 3 is a television programme, broadcast as a fictional hoax, an heir to Orson Welles’ radio production of The War of the Worlds. Purporting to be an investigation into the UK’s contemporary “brain drain”, Alternative 3 uncovered a plan to make the Moon and Mars habitable in the event of climate change and a terminal environmental catastrophe on Earth.

The programme was originally meant to be broadcast on April Fools’ Day, 1977. While its broadcast was delayed until 20 June, the credits explicitly date the film to 1 April. Alternative 3 ended with credits for the actors involved in the production and featured interviews with a fictitious American astronaut.

e. Matt Coolidge, Place as Commodity

PLACE AS COMMODITY

Matt Coolidge, The Center for Land Use Interpretation
2008, 2 min 35 sec

An interview segment with Matt Coolidge of the Center for Land Use Interpretation about American places developed as commodities, such as Disneyland, explaining his approach to developing regional exhibits about land uses and their impacts on the environment.

g. Sue Williams, Death by Design

DEATH BY DESIGN

Sue Williams, Ambrica productions
2016, 1 min 51 sec

Filmmaker Sue Williams investigates the underbelly of the international electronics industry, revealing how even the tiniest devices have deadly health and environmental costs. Language: English Writer: Sue Williams Director: Sue Williams Producer: Hilary Klotz Steinman, Sue Williams myNK is a curated OTT platform for World Cinema. Join our Beta Test and help us build an engaged community.

f. Jeremy Scahill, The Hague Invasion Act

THE HAGUE INVASION ACT

Jeremy Scahill, Johan Grimonprez, Excerpt from THREE THOUGHTS on TERROR
2018, 40 sec

In Three Thoughts on Terror, investigative journalists Robert Fisk, Jeremy Scahill and Vijay Prashad approach the concept of terror from their respective angles. Fisk dismantles terror as a term that is rendered meaningless to alienate political movement from its origins: justice and injustice. Scahill points out that terror is a relative term, as its interpretation depends on which side of the bombing you’re on. Using the absurd example of the ‘The Hague Invasion Act’, he shows how the US sticks its thumb in the eye of international law: “Some republicans in the US Congress were discussing putting forward legislation that they referred to as “The Hague Invasion Act”, the idea that if US personnel were ever to be brought to The Hague on war crimes charges, the US could deploy military forces to The Hague to snatch those personnel and liberate them from the evil clutches of international law.” Vijay Prashad takes rather a philosophical approach, reciting Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz: “what you see around you, leaves you with no obligation but to feel something. And if that feeling cannot be controlled, you have to do something about it. You can’t refuse this world.”

 

h. Akinori Ito, Man invents machine to convert plastic into oil

MAN INVENTS MACHINE
TO CONVERT PLASTIC INTO OIL

Akinori Ito, Our World 2.0; United Nations University
2009, 5 min

We are all well aware of plastic’s ‘rap-sheet’. It has been found guilty on many counts, including the way its production and disposal raises resource issues and lets loose extremely negative environmental impacts. Typically made from petroleum, it is estimated that 7% of the world’s annual oil production is used to produce and manufacture plastic. That is more than the oil consumed by the entire African continent. Thankfully, there are those who fully appreciate that plastic has a higher energy value than anything else commonly found in the waste stream. A Japanese company called Blest created a small, very safe and easy to use machine that can convert several types of plastic back into oil.

Though Japan has much improved its ‘effective utilization’ rate over the years to 72% in 2006, that leaves 28% of plastic to be buried in landfills or burned. According to Plastic Waste Management Institute data, ‘effective utilization’ includes not just the 20% that is actually recycled, but also 52% that is being incinerated for “energy recovery” purposes, i.e., generating heat or electric power. “If we burn the plastic,
we generate toxins and a large amount of CO2. If we convert it into oil, we save CO2 and at the same time increase people’s awareness about the value of plastic garbage,” says Akinori Ito, CEO of Blest.

Blest’s conversion technology is very safe because it uses a temperature controlling electric heater rather than flame. The machines are able to process polyethylene, polystyrene and polypropylene but not PET bottles. The result is a crude gas that can fuel things like generators or stoves and, when refined, can even be pumped into a car, a boat or motorbike. One kilogram of plastic produces almost one liter of oil. To convert that amount takes about 1 kwh of electricity, which is approximately ¥20 or 20 cents’ worth.

The company makes the machines in various sizes and has 60 in place at farms, fisheries and small factories in Japan and several abroad. “To make a machine that anyone can use is my dream,” Ito says. “The home is the oil field of the future.” Perhaps that statement is not as crazy as it sounds, since the makeup of Japanese household waste has been found to contain over 30 % plastic, most of it from packaging.

Continually honing their technology, the company is now able to sell the machines for less than before, and Ito hopes to achieve a product ‘that any one can buy’. Currently the smallest version, shown in the videobrief, costs ¥950,000 (US $9,500). [Note of 30 November 2010: Blest informs us that, since we visited them last year, improvements have been made to the machine and the price is now ¥1,06o,000 (around US$12,700) without tax.]