Manufactured Landscapes

Today in Materials and Processes we viewed a documentary, called Manufactured Landscapes (Jennifer Baichwal 2006) about the photographic work of Ed Burtynsky.  This film provides photographs and videos from Burtynsky on his trip through different landscapes.  These weren’t what we typically think of as a landscape.  No mountains, deserts, or vast prairies.  Instead, he observed landscapes that had been altered by human activity.  This included factories, e-waste, debris, etc.   We have all realized that all the different products we use day in and day out came from somewhere, but we never picture that place in our head.  Burtynsky let’s us view this new landscape.  However, with all of this destruction, waste, and trash, there is beauty in his photographs.  Burtynsky takes these shots of things that are so bad, and produces something with aesthetic.  This is slightly confusing, right?  Burtynsky didn’t want to present the worlds problems in black and white.  He doesn’t explain what we are seeing, but let’s us decide for ourselves what these pictures mean.  As human beings, we have changed the nature of our planet: the air, water, land, etc.  Burtynsky explains that we are creating problems that run deep.  It’s far from simply deciding right from wrong, but it’s a new way of thinking that will help us improve the world.   Burtynsky explains this theory in the film Manufactured Landscapes (Jennifer Baichwal 2006), by providing videos and photography that let us, as designers and consumers, decide what we need to do to minimize waste and it’s impact on our planet.

Target Product

In Materials and Processes, we were assigned to explore a product, which we picked from a hat, at Target.  We were to investigate where the products came from, what materials and processes they utilized, history on the product, and find a “How It’s Made” sort of video to go along with a presentation of all the information found.   I have included a link to my presentation.  Enjoy!

Target Product Presentation

El Dorado Inc.

Materials and Processes recently traveled down to Kansas City once again to tour El Dorado Inc.  Our tour guide was Josh Shelton, who has been a part of the company since 1999, and a principal there since 2002.  El Dorado Inc. is now a small business of 23 employees that provides urban planning and design.  Their customers range from big companies, to small residencies.  They get most of their business through community involvement and word of mouth, but have completed work on a national level.  They specialize in angular tubes.  Some of the processes Josh Shelton mentioned included cold saw, the drill press, and tig and mig welding.  All of their coating and painting is done out of house.  Their shop was pretty small compared to what we were used to seeing during other tours.  El Dorado employees use the shop for prototyping, just to show that what they want to accomplish on a bigger scale can be done.  I have a high respect for this company.  They are so close knit.  Their office space is completely open.  Really, it’s hard to get any alone time in this place. They welcome ideas and input from all employees.  They produce amazing things, but also find time to bond with a beer in the shop at the end of the night.  I also gained a ton of respect for Josh Shelton for the couple of hours I knew him.  At the end of the tour, he stated the great importance of working hard in school, making great work, and making connections in the design world to get the job you are dreaming of for after school. This whole trip really inspired me.

Tape Project

For our second project of the semester, we were to make a tape dispensar based off of a topic we picked out of a hat.  I picked the word "beetle," which was ironic since I just started a job as an entomology lab assistant for KU.  Any-who, here is my process book that shows the steps taken to complete my final product.  Like my last project post, click on the first picture shown.  This will make the picture larger, and make it easier to flip through the book.

There is only one more project for this semester, so stay tuned!

Huhtamaki

Last Thursday, Materials and Processes drove down to DeSoto, Kansas, to take a tour of Huhtamaki.  We were greeted by plant manager, Aaron Smith, and learned about the many materials used in the company.  Here come the statistics.  Huhtamaki is a global packaging company that operates in 31 countries with 58 manufacturing units.  The Huhtamaki we toured was the headquarters for North America.  They have annual sales of $800 million.  Huhtamaki has 3 business units: consumer goods, retail, and food service.  There are 4 different technologies: fiber, shaped paperboard, folding carton, and plastics.  Paperboard converting operations include sheeting, printing, dye cutting, and forming.  In Huhtamaki, there is a machine shop and then an assembly area.  They custom make their machines in shop, which is very interesting.  On the other end is the assembly area, where they put their products together and ship them out.  Materials used in the assembly area include paperboard, commodity plastic resins, and molded fiber (wood cellulous).  Metals and engineered plastics are used for equipment manufacturing.  They make many different kinds of grades of cups.  There are bleached white (SBS), unbleached or “kraft” (SUS), and news back and other recycled grades.  Typical paperboard classifications include folding carton, cup stock, cylinder board, and corrugate box and linerboard.  Cup stock is usually SBS, and can include a clay coating.  They are specially made for high stretch for forming the top rims, like the cups you see at McDonalds. My favorite part of this trip was seeing how these cups were formed.  These cups started out in flat sheets and were molded by machines. The smaller the cup, the faster they are made.  This company was very high tech, and put together.   They produce everything from boxes and cups for fast food companies, to ice cream containers, to their own Chinet plates and cups.  This field trip presented us with an extremely good amount of information along with a wonderful tour of the place.