October 2022

Idea: Fracking is bad.

Arrangement: A leaking fracking rig.

Effect: Flammable ground water.

Change: Remove all of the screws from the fracking rig. You can’t frack without screws.

Idea:

Humans should communicate with pictures and not words.

Arrangement:

The way the pictures follow each other creates a meaningful sentence.

Effect:

A thought is communicated

Change:

Rearrange the image; change the message

For this assignment, I analyzed the arrangements at a swim meet. Lots of arrangements for creating competition, winners and losers, quantifying “better” and “worse,” and creating situations for spectating and being watched.

In thinking about arrangements for my topic, I’m thinking about arrangements within the space of “rewilding” (in quotes because I still don’t know a better name for it, even though it’s tricky) with an eye toward the plant communities.

Hard arrangements:

• physical boundaries between developed land and “rewilded” land
  • creating a sense of “other”
  • creating a hierarchy of “good plants” and “bad plants”
• physical location of which plants are  near which other plants, how close they are to humans and developed land, and what used to be in that space

Soft arrangements

• again, good plants and bad plants
• “native species” and “invasive species”
• arrangements between people and plants
  • visitors
  • caretakers
  • dependencies on humans for planning, seeding, choosing which can stay and go
• arrangements between different plants
  • which are dominant
  • how are they competing with each other for resources
  • how are they interacting with each other when they recognize the same species/different species
• arrangements between plants and animals
  • predator and prey — animals preying upon plants
  • creating homes for animals and bugs
  • allowing this to happen with less human intervention

I’m sure there is a lot more that I’m not thinking about yet!

IAE Mapping:

Idea:

The swastika symbol and its similars represent hate and evil because of the Nazis.

Arrangement:

The symbol(s) is prohibited or scolded indefinitely in our global society, including in cultures that have used the swastika symbol to represent joy and positive energy for thousand years prior to the Nazi stealing it.

Effects:

Certain countries’ “common sense” seem to be prioritized over others. Cultural domination through globalization.

• At some point this week, look around you and produce a drawing (or take a picture) of a space that you feel is rich in arrangements. In a style similar to the diagram on page 33, annotate your picture or drawing with the “hard” and “soft” arrangements you can identify.

• Map an aspect of your topic to the Ideas/Arrangements/Effects framework. For instance, if you were working with zoos: an idea is that animals should be able to be observed at will by humans; an arrangement is a cage at the zoo; an effect is that animals often become distressed. Since arrangements are “a rich and frequently overlooked terrain for creating change” (32): can you identify a way you could change your identified arrangement, and how that might reflect a different idea, or have a different effect?

Idea: People use AI-Generated as a tool to create digital art

Arrangement: Set the specific AI-Generated Art Prize

Effect: People think highly of the meaning behind the art, encouraging more and more people to use it.

Updated: Set the specific definition of AI-Generated Art’s copyright, People still trying to blur the border.