Throughout this semester, I was the most intrigued with the lecture on the topic of the Anthropocene. An Anthropocene is defined as a geological age/epoch, in which humans and human activity has been a dominant influence, altering the planet. It can also be viewed as humans being hostile to non-human creatures. Throughout the semester the term Anthropocene was used frequently in classes, as it boils down to how humans interact and the mindfulness of what and how they are interacting.

Anthropocene is commonly used in conjunction to environmental issues, such as global climate change. A quote that can be used in this scenario is from Michael Serres, as he states, “the Earth if quaking anew: not because it shifts… but because it is being transformed by our doing…”. I have chosen to include this quote, as it provides a simple understanding, which should be perceived in a general sense by the public, as global climate change is a difficult but simple issue to understand and should be taken into high consideration by everyone.

As humans evolve and progress ourselves to have more comfortable and easier lives, it becomes in detriment to the environment, as we exploit our free natural resources for selfish gain. This ideology of for the betterment of human comfort has been used throughout history, especially with companies and even government. An example is our method of killing off a species for eating our crops, sometimes even leading to a war, such as the Great Emu war that occurred during the 1930’s in Australia.

Some other factors of our hindrance to the global climate change include, rapid loss of biodiversity, resource depletion, forced migration, extreme weather, and more widespread poverty, disease and civil unrest. As Geographers Erle Ellis and Navin Ramankutty argue we now live in “human systems with natural ecosystems embedded within them.”. This relates heavily on the change of extreme weather, as more carbon emissions are pushed into the air, creating more air pollution. We as humans have even become accustomed to living with this natural depletion, as places like Hong Kong are filled and lived with pollution, with no or small effort to change, even for the betterment of humans. 

I have chosen this lecture topic specifically, as I want to go into the Visual Communication career path and want to convey my ideas to viewers in a thought-provoking manner. I have also chosen this as I am interested and invested in changing our state of global climate, whilst also showing others that may at first not feel impacted by the issue, to be impacted by the outcome of what can occur, through the lens of my designs. 

Before learning about the term, I was still heavily invested in the issue through pop culture, as I have grown up watching Studio Ghibli movies, where the main message is how humans can easily impact the environment in a negative but also a positive way. This message is easily discussed in the film, Princess Mononoke (see Fig.1). We can easily change the state of the environment if we considered its impacts not only for selfish reasons but to also consider the ecosystem and the creatures that we can prevent from disease and extinction. 

Ghibli Wiki fandom. (Retrieval date 2021, September 2nd). The Time of Gods and Spirits Nears its End in the Film [Image]. https://ghibli.fandom.com/wiki/Princess_Mononoke

Serres, M. (1995). The Natural Contract. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press

Unknown. (2021). The Anthropocene and Climate Change [Lecture slideshows]. UTS College. https://canvas.insearch.edu.au/courses/2523/pages/week-3-%7C-lecture-the-anthropocene-and-climate-change-and-discussion-points?module_item_id=348702

A human and technology relationship I was interested in was the rise of sleep meditation apps, as during 2020 I have received an abundance of sleep meditation apps, especially the app Calm. This could have been connected to Covid 19, as most people during that time did not receive a good night’s rest and needed a better outlet then just scrolling through Instagram. These sleep meditation apps are usually the last app people have open to their phone, as most people will have thorough internet browsing routines and look at their 5 most used apps every day, no different to the sleep meditation apps.

Most of these sleep meditation apps have a common factor of including some form of soothe calming music or nature sound and most commonly using a woman’s voice, narrating a story or telling the listener words of affirmation. These apps also include some aspect of visually appealing designs, with images of nature and cute animations, sometimes including characters to visually convey a story and/or are there as an aesthetic. All of these apps include colours of both warm and cool tones in a more muted, pastel or less contrasted colours (see Fig.1). 

These sleep meditation apps start off as a free app, however if the user had used this app frequently and wanted more content, they can opt to go for a subscription-based transaction, on a monthly or annual basis. The most popular sleep meditation apps include apps such as Calm, Headspace, Breethe, Buddhify, and more. Each of these popular apps seem to have common yet distinct feature of having a main central voice. 

Throughout all these apps they also include and feature celebrities, such as actors, musicians, even Bob Ross. This can be connected as Bob Ross is known to provide people some sort of comfort and ease while watching and listening to him explain how to paint, emerging them into another world, similar to how sleep meditation apps do. The reasoning for these soothing apps popularity, may be from the acronym A.S.M.R, which stands for autonomous sensory meridian response, where an individual can experience personal attention.

Another possible reasoning may be linked to the nostalgic feeling of childhood, as mothers would put their baby or child to sleep by humming or singing a lullaby, providing that personal attention. This may be why it had become popular during lockdowns, especially for people living alone, as they craved some sort of human connection, yet through a phone. This claim can be backed up, as more than ever bedtime stories for grown-ups are a popular feature and are becoming more socially accustomed, as it wasn’t before. 

Whilst these apps mainly feature the sleep aspect, they mostly focus on the meditation aspect more, providing words of affirmation and guidance through struggles in your daily life and mine. As currently, companies grab consumers attention by forcefully showing loud advertisements and having mindless internet scrolling every day. We have become accustomed to this forcefulness and routine, where we even resort back to the internet to provide meditation and care that we crave. 

Hess, A. (2019, July 17th). The App that Tucks Me in at Night. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/07/17/arts/calm-app-sleep-meditation.html  

Lopez, G. (2018, May 25th). ASMR, Explained: Why Millions of People are Watching YouTube Videos of Someone Whispering. Vox. https://www.vox.com/2015/7/15/8965393/asmr-video-youtube-autonomous-sensory-meridian-response

Calm. (n.d.). About [Image]. https://blog.calm.com/about​​​​​​​

The film Ready Player One, directed by Stephen Spielberg in 2018, depicts a future scenario in 2045, where most human interactions are in an online gaming platform using VR, where they can look and be anything they want. The film consistently shows both the online gaming world and the reality, showcasing how social interactions differ in the online world compared to reality. The film continuously incorporates 80’s pop culture references, such as only including 80’s music and sounds, Back to the Future, King Kong, etc., playing into the audience’s nostalgic feeling. 

This film’s future scenario showcases a plausible future, as current technology of VR is starting to become more apparent and accessible to the masses, especially with online streamers, where they use VR characters and overlap their face to hide their identity. This is already shown in Japan, as there are numerous VR gaming companies hiring talents and putting their face with VR animated characters, streaming to gain profit. 

With the advancement and accessibility of VR, this changes the culture of online gaming community and how humans interact to become more online socialisation, rather than physically socialisation. This effect of causation will result in lack of physical interactions, leading to a generation that would grow not knowing the warmth of physical touch and how to interact with others physically, spiralling into more mental illnesses, misunderstandings on expressing love, resulting in a birth decline. This plausibility into this future scenario is evident in Fig.1, as everyone is physically next to each other, however they are socially interacting online instead, aimlessly wondering like zombies.

Technology is the main aspect that plays into this scenario, as that is the driving force that inherently changes every aspect of the culture humans have built. The incline in technology always correlates with the decline in the environment, which can be seen in Fig.1, as the colours are dim and grey with smoke or smog surrounding the city. Throughout this film, there is a lack of the natural green colour and plants, only showcased when the two main characters meet in the physical world. This scenario is very plausible, as already certain countries, such as China, devalue their nature and continue to only create more smog and toxicity to the environment (see Fig.2). 

The film’s future scenario also plays into economy and how different politics would become, as it shows more authoritarian rule and governance, only showing positive police enforcement after a rebellion. This film also provides a clear visual representation of the economy and how the different classes live, as the main character lives in a lower incomed area with apartment housing stacked up one another, rundown buildings closer to each other and the colour scheme of brown and grey. The higher incomed class is shown with more clean and geometric lines, with colours of white and light grey evident. The film’s use of clothes highlights this, as the main character wears more baggy styles while the higher class wear more tailored clothing.

ACTION FILMS SHORTCUTS. (2019, April 19th). PARZIVAL CALLS FOR HELP IN READY PLAYER ONE[Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI-oyuJY8tU

Photoholgic. (2018). [A photograph of air pollution in Shanghai, China]. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/hdN4cmn5Q2U

For my primary research on my interviewee’s perceptions and ideas of possible, probable, and preposterous future, I have decided to interview my younger brother, as he is at the age of just turning 18 years old. I have chosen him as he will have perceptions from his teenage years, while also exploring new ideas, as he goes into adulthood. With the interview I have provided a casual communication type of method, as this topic will easily be covered in more ideas and depth, if spoken casually. 

I have begun my interview by asking my interviewee’s views on a possible future. Providing an example of what a possible future is and a date of 50 years ahead. The interviewee immediately begun describing negative outcomes, especially in our current state of being in lockdown and the possibility of having a ‘Covid 20’. He had even described more negatives of having a conflict of war and the idea of space travel used for research purposes, having inspiration of those ideas from recent billionaires, as news of their outer space companies taking off. This showcases a more plausible future, however at this moment I have not described the 3’Ps. 

I have finished this section by asking, what would we achieve in 50 years? He had spoken on the topic of racism and its forever changingness and lack of change at the same time, while also bringing up environmental issues and economy. He had already started to showcase some basic understanding of the STEEP analysis, which I have not talked about before. This introduction of the STEEP analysis will be further used in all questionings.

For the second question I have asked on my interviewee’s views on a probable future, still providing an example. This was the longest section of the interview, as my interviewee started to discuss more topics and go into depths of its consequences. An example includes his first discussion of genetic editing, such as C.R.I.S.P.R and how babies will be cosmetically changed. This has given me an insight of where he got this information from, as some are not aware at his age, realising he had taken the same subject, legal studies, as I have when I was in Year 12, even giving me a nostalgic feeling of the topic. 

Throughout this section he had provided some STEEP analysis topics, however I did have to lead the interviewee to answer less discussed topics, such as the social aspect, however, he had wanted to discuss more about technology. Further into the discussion however he had gone back to the social aspects, even discussing a sensitive topic such as gay marriage and the possibility of having it taken away, as he further explains how perceptions on this topic have changed so rapidly 50 years ago and how quickly humanity will change in the future. 

This section had discussed heavily on social perceptions and its constant changes of morality and ethics. This was also the section where the interviewee provided more engagement yet a wavering perception, saying the probability of either-or outcome.

For the third question I have asked on my interviewee’s views on a preposterous future, while still providing an example. This was the shortest section, as the interviewee was confused on what would be deemed preposterous, even though I have provided some examples and guidance, it did not lead to an interesting discussion. Some examples were even perceived as a possible scenario. This section had even led back to the probable future section and the interviewee wanting to discuss more probable future scenarios.

For the final question I have added my personal question of if the future will become utopian or dystopian. The interviewee immediately answered dystopian, as he questioned if there even was a period in history of a utopian time. Further on, even this section led back to probable future scenarios, as the interviewee wanted to discuss more technological and social topics.

In conclusion this interview had led to a 20-minute discussion, covering mainly on the topics of technology and social impacts and outcomes that can occur. This interview had even provided me an insight on my brother’s perceptions and my nostalgic feeling. 

BBC. (2019, December 30th). China jails ‘gene-edited babies’ scientist for three years. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-50944461  

BBC. (2019). He Jiankui sparked an international backlash with his experiment last year [Photograph]. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-50944461