- Give three examples of how you can use nature as a model / mentor / measure for your own designs (and life).
Janine Benyus talks about how nature was and still is the original master of design. We have much we can learn and apply to our own designs, and even lives, by simply looking at the natural world with a critical eye. For starters, Benyus uses the example of the bullet train problem. When engineers were trying to reduce the noise of the bullet train they hit a wall, they had no idea how to approach the problem. Luckily, however, one of them was a conscious observer of birds and he realized that the Kingfisher is already doing what the engineers hoped the train would do. So, they borrowed the beak shape of the bird and used it for the train, leading to great improvements in efficiency and greatly reduced noise. Another way for how we can use nature as a mentor for our own lives is by looking at birds during migration. Very simply, the birds fly in groups (typically a V shape) because the coordination helps reduce effort and makes every bird better off in the long run. Taking this example as a guide, we should seek to do the same when we as people have to work together. Birds show how effective working together toward a common goal and how one person temporarily taking the brunt of a problem, only to be relieved later, can help improve efficiency in large projects. Finally, the last way nature can act as a measure for our own designs can be seen in art. Not everything nature teaches us has to necessarily be “practical”. In fact we have learned a great deal about symmetry and beauty from examining flowers and natural geometric forms in crystals to the patterns found on butterflies wings, the possibilities are endless. Natural beauty is all around us and has influenced artistic expression from the very beginning.
- Pick one of Life’s Principles. Explain how you might apply it to your work and life (could be unrelated to your GSIF projects).
The Principal of Life I choose was resilient/resilience. I chose this principal because it applies to everything I might do and am doing. If I am unable to remain strong in the face of adversity, or bounce back when I fail, I won’t have a hope of accomplishing anything great in life. For instance, an example of how I need to better apply this principle to my life and also hits really close to home right now is the stress of being overworked in school at the moment. I know I like to be busy, but sometimes I feel as though it’s all too much and I panic, sacrificing some work in the process. This happened recently and I lost a great deal of progress and fell behind in a couple classes. However, I was able to remind myself of the importance of remaining resilient and have (for the most part) gotten back to a good spot. I need to also keep this principal in kind throughout the rest of my life because I know what can happen if I allow myself to slip up. I just need to stay focused.
- How do you envision integrating the Cradle to Cradle Design concept into your project (and life)? Give one compelling example.
Cradle to cradle design is going to be something incredibly difficult to integrate into our project as we are producing a less tangible final product. So, instead of thinking about how our literal documentary could integrate the cradle to cradle design concept, we should instead think both about the longevity of the film and the impact of its message. I believe that if the film is able to be viewed for years after its release (possibly in classrooms here for instance) that would allow the film itself to live on and spread its influence to multiple generations. On the other hand though what’s more important is how long the impact of the film and research lasts. If we go in with a cradle to cradle design concept about the information itself then hopefully we can make it so that the information we present is saved in the communities we visit for years to come. If this were done with just a few of the people we came across that could have a small ripple effect where more people learn of solid methods of safe childbearing, passing that information on to future generations.
- Give three examples of something very interesting you learned from a friend that was a completely alien concept to you.
The first thing I learned from a friend that was completely alien to me was, in retrospect, something that definitely should not have been alien to me at all but I never realized just how much of a bubble I was in until I met my friend. What he taught me about was his Jewish faith. I know it sounds bad, but I had never met anyone who was Jewish back home. Everyone was either Catholic or nothing. When he first started explaining the tenants and various sects of the Jewish faith I was incredibly confused, but also intrigued. How could something so prominent in many people’s lives go unseen by me for years? Another example of being taught an alien concept is the language of Latin and its application to understanding other languages. I decided to take Latin in high school and had no idea what I was getting myself into when I started. I only decided to take it because my friend who was a year older told me too. I’m glad I did because now I have a much better appreciation of both my own and foreign languages and am able to understand the development of language better.
Finally, the last thing a friend taught me that I thought was alien was how to talk about feelings and open up to other men about my emotions. I know this is less culturally based but I was raised in an environment where men were discouraged from showing emotion to each other. Being open towards my mother was fine, but I would never have dreamt of being sad in front of my dad. One day though, I saw my friend do exactly that. It was after practice and they were driving me home. We had an erg test (rowing machine; would do 2k for best possible time) that day and my friend had not done very well. He did miserably actually. I expected us to just have a quiet ride home because if I were in his shoes I would have just said nothing and avoided telling my dad I was upset. But he did the opposite. He opened up and expressed how bad he felt about his failure and how sad it made him. His dad meanwhile was warm and receptive, saying that there will always be another chance and to not get too down. I had never really thought of trying to do this before, I assumed it wasn’t allowed. Thankfully, being introduced to this kind of family dynamic turned out to be very beneficial as I am now able to be more open with people than I was previously.