research video - global warming commercial

This advert features a few scenes of people going about their normal lives, when they all get distracted by the sun and they pause to look at it. Then the sun gets increasingly brighter and you, the viewer, can tell that something's not right. People then start screaming, and the world is 'destroyed'. The voiceover of the girl singing adds a more shocking aspect to the advert, which is fitting to the brief.

research video - greenpeace advert #3

This video by Greenpeace is done very comically, and it features a group of aliens debating whether they should invest in Planet Earth. They seem in disagreement with the proposal, and they state that, even though the Earth's ecosystem is worth "$33,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,004.06", humans have ruined it.

Then there is one alien who lists what is good about the Earth and how 90% of the population want to save the planet, and that they should band together to eradicate the causes of Global Warming.

This video also fits the viral aspect of the brief, as it features lots of comedy and is generally an entertaining watch.

research video - greenpeace advert #2

This advert from Greenpeace is very clever as it blends together an entire lifespan in 30 seconds. The blending is done very expertly, and this advert fits the viral specifications in the brief.

The advert details the rapid melting of the World's glaciers, and is aimed at the younger generation, telling them that the famous Uppsala Glacier in Argentina will disappear in the near future, unless we prevent the effects of Global Warming.

research video - greenpeace advert #1

This advert from Greenpeace relies heavily on shock-value. It starts off very innocently, with a mother running a bath for her child. However, when she walks off you realize that this is a metaphor for a serious topic.

The text at 0:34 roughly translates to "If climate change is not stopped, the floods will increase and sea levels rise." and the text at 0:38 translates to "What do the candidates intend to make the next generations?" This advert also has a viral aspect to it, in that it is so shocking that people would be inclined to show it to other people.

research video - global warming 101

This is a video from National Geographic, stating how humans have added too many greenhouse gases into the atmosphere which has caused global temperatures to rise, which has seen the hottest year on record being recorded in 1998, and that the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere is at it's highest in the last 420,000 years. It also says how wildlife will have to adapt to the changes of the Earth or face extinction.

Overall the video is very informative, but it doesn't have much of a viral aspect, which is key for this project.

review: an inconvenient truth

Today we watched the film 'An Inconvenient Truth', presented by Al Gore. The film is very factual, and uses statistics to enforce the severity of this situation. However, the film ends with Al Gore telling us how we can prevent this disaster, and how we already are, which makes this film both worrying and motivating.

Trailer:

Antti Laitinen - My Island

I have chosen to do my write-up on this piece from the Earth event. In the videos that accompanied the photos, "Laitinen builds his own island in the Baltic Sea by dragging two hundred sand bags into the water over a period of three months - using nothing but a spade, sand and sacks. Individually filling each of the bags with sand, the three simultaneous videos go on to show Laitinen painstakingly dragging each bag, one by one, into the sea, braving the harsh waves and conditions, until the island starts to appear over the water" [1]

The work was not originally intended to be concerning climate change, he says, “Climate change is not the main thing, but people have started to look at my work through this theme. I understand this well since climate change is currently a trendy topic”. “The will to build oneself an own independent micro-nation inhabited by a single citizen - I would consider themes such as these to be the starting point for my works, not climate change” [2]

Here are a few images of the work [3]:








Here is a video of the exhibit:


Find more videos like this on artreview.com


Sources:

[1] http://www.nettiehorn.com/It%27s%20My%20Island.htm
[2] http://www.finemb.org.uk/Public/default.aspx?contentid=181969&nodeid=35864&culture=en-GB
[3] http://www.nettiehorn.com/Exhibitions/It%27s%20My%20Island/It%27s%20My%20Island_Installation.htm