I have thought long and hard about this title. This is for my second collection. It continues the theme of Beauty and the Beach… and is linked to the beach finds in the first collection Dis-Integration in so far as it illustrates what should happen to our waste.
I wanted a hyphenated title that suggested having another look and doing something about waste. My first working title for it was Re-View and then I replaced this with Re-Cycle. Neither worked for me and this judgement was reinforced by comments received from colleagues in response to my Critical Review film shared in week 9. I have played with other prefixes and second words wanting each to stand in their own right as well as have a combined meaning that could apply to my topic and suggest an alternative way as well as link and contrast with Dis-Integration (which I and others seem quite happy with).
Here are a few I thought about:
About-turn
Anti-waste
Be-ware
Co-operate
Dis-cover, -pair, -pute
En-code, -deavour, -lightenment, -rich, -vision,
Ex-ample, -it,
For-ward, e-warned, e-thought
Grate-ful
Help-ful, -less
In-controvertible, -disputable,
Light-source, -weight
Re-appraise, -assign, -cycle, -fuse, -integration, -petition,-place, -present, -process
Re-sign, -solution, -source, -turn, -visit, vision, -vue, -wind
Un-answerable, -deniable, -questionable
Titles and text used with an image can be vital for the viewer to be able to read and understand the intended meaning. Some photographers name images individually while having an overall title for the collection while other stick to numbers in a series. As explained in my post on Dis-Integration I wanted a way of naming and labelling my images that suggests the intended interpretation and in this way provides a ‘dominant’ reading (Frith and Cheng, 2006) and a strengthened meaning across the collection (Gestalt. I needed to avoid an oppositional interpretation. For example, in a worse case scenario I could inadvertently present the waste management images in a less favourable light and with a less enticing descriptor than the beach debris, which could encourage leaving debris anywhere rather than disposing of it appropriately.
An additional error to be avoided is to be patronising, condescending and/or dictatorial. I find some health messages, while they have good intentions, make you turn away and ignore them either because of the way the subject of the image is presented or the accompanying text or both (Sischy, 1991). Just visiting a GP surgery can make me angry when already feeling unwell because of the blu tacked posters insisting on things I must do or not do ‘or else’ (Ludwig, 2015; Montes-Armenteros, 2015; Williams, 2009). Teach personal health and wellbeing care in schools and at home so that people grow up well versed in the messages and know what to do and what to avoid rather than trying to impose ways of behaving once people have reached adulthood by addressing them as if they were children.
Back to Re-Integration. I do not yet know what others think of this choice and look forward to comments. For me Re calls us to attention and alerts us to something to follow that will need us to focus. Integration means to become part of something, to fit in. With Dis-Integration my point is to show that the beach debris is becoming (and to a significant extent has become) part of the natural environment. So integration can mean something bad has or is occurring as well as good. With Re-Integration my thinking takes me to the concept of Gaia, specifically the Gaia Hypothesis or Theory as it is more recently referred to: a more positive understanding that reflects science and philosophy (Lovelock, 2015). However, now somewhat criticised the Gaia Hypothesis has been useful in our questioning and understanding of our planetary system. Earth is all we have. While Gaia suggests the interactions of inorganic and organic matter intertwine and recycle to sustain the planet it is clear that human behaviours in producing inorganic matter are resulting in declines in earth’s environments and climate (i.e. carbon and water cycle changes). Self-regulation is being interfered with by humans (Aitkenhead, 2016). Deforestation, air pollution and as in my project water pollution, are all upsetting the balance or homeostasis of the earth’s ecosystems.
Producing and using items that become waste is a major issue but to my mind having ways to manage it is less harmful than leaving it anywhere. So for me Re-Integration appears to link with a cycle of taking resources within the earth to make things, then returning them to the earth in one form or another, preferably one that does limited or no harm (Vinas, 2012). As research by NASA and the study of earth system science tells us this cannot go on forever as natural resources will run out.
My second choice is Re-Solution but for me solution suggests something final and complete (more so than Re-Integration) and we are far from that at this time and this may not be fully realisable anyway. So although my intention is to encourage appropriate waste disposal and management I remain despondent about the bigger picture, looking into the the future, when in the present we continue to fight amongst ourselves rather than taking the significant steps needed to modify or change behaviours as a world-wide community in order to maximise life on earth.
References
Aitkenhead, Decca. 30 September 2016. James Lovelock: ‘Before the end of this century, robots will have taken over’. Saturday Interview. The Guardian. Modified 14 February 2018. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/30/james-lovelock-interview-by-end-of-century-robots-will-have-taken-over. [accessed 16-04-2018].
Frith, Katherine T. & Cheng, Hong. 2006. Symbolic Meanings of Advertisements in China. In Hong Chen and Kara Chan (Eds.), Advertising and Chinese Society: Impacts and Issues. Copenhagen Business School Press: Copenhagen.
Lovelock, James. 2015. A Rough Ride to the Future. London: Penguin Random House.
Ludwig, Michael, J. 2015. The Cultural Politics of Prevention: Reading Anti-Drug Public Service Announcements. Chapter 8, pp151-174 in Katherine Toland Frith, Undressing The Ad: Reading Culture in Advertising. Peter Lang: New York.
Montes-Armenteros, Chemi. 2015. Ideology in Public Service Advertisements. Chapter 7, pp131-149, in Katherine Toland Frith, Undressing The Ad: Reading Culture in Advertising. Peter Lang: New York.
NASA. Ocean and Earth System. Science Beta, Programs, Research and Analysis. Available at: https://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/oceanography/ocean-earth-system. {accessed 15-04-2018}.
Sischy, Ingrid. 1991. Good Intentions. The New Yorker (9th September 1991).
Vinas, Maria-Jose. September 18 2012. Plastic Ocean. Available at: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/fromthefield/2012/09/18/plastic-ocean/. [accessed 16-04-2018].
Williams, Matt. April 24 2009. Close-up: Does shock advertising still work? Campaign. Available at: https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/close-up-does-shock-advertising-work/900778. [accessed 17-03-2018].
Sarah Newton Photography 