W3 endangered animals | Liqian Zhang

W3 - Endangered Animals

Project Brief:

Find a new purpose for recycled materials, and think about the relationship between things we make or design, and their impact on our planet.

To use recycled materials to create a model for the endangered animals.

Crested Ibis

When I first got this project, with a Chinese background, the first endangered animal comes up in my mind is Panda.

As I continue thinking about this assignment, I feel I should pick another endangered animal that is not well-known to people. I hope this will bring more attention to this animal.

The animal I choose is the Crested Ibis.
Crested Ibis also known as toki in Japanese. Its head is partially bare with the red skin shown, and it has a dense crest of white plumes on the nape.

Crested Ibis lived in the East Asian area. The last wild crested ibis in Jpan died in October 2003. The only remaining group was only found in Shaanxi Province in China.

One of the reasons caused the fate of Crested Ibis is because its habit of building nests near cultivated lands, which are nearby its food. The development of the forest by human caused its extinction.

Luckily, extensive captive breeding programs had been developed by Japan and China. The population of Crested Ibis had increased to around 500.

I think this assignment is connected to the extinction of the Crested Ibis. By using recycled materials to prototype can bring people's attention to the effects on our planet, and to animal habitats that our product destroyed.

PROCESS

For this assignment, I want to challenge myself to use as fewer polluted materials as possible.

First I sorted the recycled materials I've collected in the past few weeks. I have tons of cans, paper boxes, card board packaging, and some plastic materials from my grocery deliveries. I start to think, what/which part of the body can I make from these materials?

Then I start brain-storming and sketching. As I sketch down Crested Ibis, I'm thinking about what I can use to make for each of its body parts.

I looked into the materials, and I notice:

the shape of the water bottle could be a good shape for its head.
cardboard, shipping boxes, or paper packaging can be used for its mouth?
hairs on the head could be made out of paper packaging? box?
wings could be shaped with wire hangers? And covered with some shipping box?
For its wings, I think only hangers would be not realistic. so I decide to make some feathers on it. For its feather, I would like to challenge myself and also have fun :)) in the assignment. I choose to use the tones of my recycled cans for it.

Sketches by me

As I start playing with the shape of the water bottle, I noticed the color is different from its head. Some part of its head shows bare red skin out. I think about painting it red, but it's not sustainable.

In order to keep the sustainability of this project, I found this packaging paper from my food order and inserted it for the red color.

Then I move to the mouth part. With consideration of its mouth color, I dig into my recycled materials and didn't see any black cardboard.

As I struggled I ordered a bubble tea. And WOW, the cup is perfectly for making its mouth.

Regards to the body shape, I choose to use foam from recycled packaging. In order to make it look nicer and smoother, I covered it with this white plastic packaging from my grocery delivery.

Cutting paper packaging to tassel feeling for its hair..

Wire hanger for the wing's structure.
Because I don't have a piler at home. I have to use my hand to bend it in shapes. And also covered with plastic packaging to match the color of the body.

Feather part! So I started with cutting the cans apart and uses the rectangle shape. Then I trim it like a leaves, and cut in a little through the sides. Finally trim it into feather shape.

.
.
.
.
.
.
ASSEMBLYING
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

CONCLUSION

Looking back on this assignment I have to say The Endangered Animals assignment is a fun project.

First of all, I get to research and know more about endangered animals. Before my research, I thought there were plenty of Crested Ibises out there, apparently, it’s not. I was going to do Panda, thankfully I did Crested Ibis, which is 3 times less than Panda. I hope this project could get more people to know about this beautiful creature, at least people in my class.

Secondly, limited materials challenge me during the process. It is not an easy step to turn recycled materials into a prototype, especially for the wings part. I first tried to use boxes/packaging paper only. They are too soft and can’t stand well, and I’m not satisfied with the outcomes. After looking around and I find the wire hangers which can be used inside to support the wings. And because I’m trying to challenge myself to use fewer extra tools which pollute the environment. That also gives me an extra challenge. The only non-recycled material I used is tape. It’s difficult to tape everything together but I’m happy about the result.

Lastly, I’m having fun working on this project. I’m the kind of person who keeps fun shapes of containers after using them. This project helps me to calm down and look at the recycled materials I have around with. When I’m doing the research, I was shocked at how those things we design harm our environment. It makes me think about the relationship between it and our environment, how would it harm our environment? Why do we have to recycle them? And also, it helps me to think about what can I do as a designer, and how can I design to give them a new life. How could I make them useable again? When I see those materials that I couldn’t use in this project, I also think, what can we design to make them more useful, or how can we make them less polluted to our environment?

Reference

“Asian Crested Ibis.” EDGE of Existence, 15 Jan. 2018, http://www.edgeofexistence.org/species/asian-crested-ibis/.

“The Return of the Crested Ibis.” Nippon.com, 30 May 2020, https://www.nippon.com/en/features/c03908/.

“Crested Ibis.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Sept. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crested_ibis.