Ed Burtynsky’s film “Manufactured Landscapes” created a shocking juxtaposition of two sides of consumerism. The majority of the film was split evenly between manufacturing and recycling/waste management. With very few words, it created a very strong emotionally charged response to the way our culture has developed into one of consumerism, where other cultures are highly affected and molded by our needs. Through this film, it becomes clear that consumer culture is dependent on China, and that, reversely, China’s current place in industry is dependent on the consumerism of 1st world countries.
The most memorably part of this movie for me was when a woman dressed in heavy clothes and a large hat was squatting a rummaging on a mound of scrap metal. After throwing many items aside, she picks up and tosses the bottom plate of an iron, which skips close to the camera. Immediately, the setting shifts to a woman in a factory. She is standing alongside a long conveyor belt, wearing the standard yellow shirt, picking up and inspecting new irons hot off the assembly line. It was at this moment that the juxtaposition became clear, and that I finally realized that our consumer culture is grossly dependent on China, from start to finish.
This movie also made me think about the concept of recycling. When I ask my roommates where their computers go when they throw them out, they have no idea that E-waste gets shipped to China, where it is broken apart by people climbing through piles of garbage. Frankly, I had no idea until this class. While recycling seems like a great alternative to waste, it still is far from a perfect system. I may even venture to say that recycling is currently an awful system, simply because it still allows us to be so horribly disconnected from our own waste, and without proper education, it convinces us to feel that by throwing an iron in a metal recycling bin magically saves the environment. Unfortunately, those underpaid, uneducated workers in China know more about the system than we do.
Lastly, I’d like to comment that this film did not make me feel bad for the workers that it highlighted. Burtynsky’s film attempted to make these manufacturing plants look like slavery, and it pointed out the children running around on piles of our waste. Quite oppositely, these things made me feel bad for consumer culture, and made me feel hopeful for those people of China working dirty jobs for low wages. This juxtaposition made it clear that the ones losing out were the consumers who are wasteful and demanding. When the world’s resources grow slimmer, and the government is forced to start putting regulations on how many irons we are allowed to buy and throw away each year, we will be the ones who struggle. Those who have learned to live with less, and to find happiness without buying a new pair of shoes, will have a much easier transition.
After watching this film on Ed Burtinsky I became really interested in what Americans do with their trash. In the film Burtinsky shows us images of E-Waste, which is all the electronic waste from computers and such that Americans send back over to China where it collects and they “recycle” it. I put recycle in quotes because yes they are melting parts down but not all of it and what they are melting down is toxic. People that are handling this waste have many health issues that outweigh the benefit of it being taken out of American territory.
I also thought about how even in Michigan we are getting paid to take Canada’s trash even though they have a lot more space for it and are using gallons of fuel hauling it here. Where is the sense in giving our trash to someone else and then accepting trash from another place? Why can people not keep their own trash and dispose of it properly?
It seems like common sense to put newspapers in the recycling bin and apple cores in the compost pile but not everyone does this. And most would think that the government would take care of their people and take care of the people trash properly. It just seems absurd to me that people would go to such lengths just to get rid of their trash and to make money off of trash.
It appears to me that people are more concerned about hiding their trash then worrying about the consequences. Or maybe its not that people do not care about the consequences but they do not wish to acknowledge them. Burtinsky here forces us to look at the problems of E-Waste and how our trash is not harmless in the least. There are many pieces in the waste that are toxic but are still melted down because there are valuable metals to be dissected out. We have the technology to take care of this in a safe manner but yet we still risk lives just so we don’t have to look at it in our backyards.
The video that was shown in lecture this week, “Manufactured Landscapes”, by Ed Burtynsky, was very interesting. It started out by panning a factory in China, which took about ten minutes because this factory was just so massive. Nobody was talking in the factory; there were just sounds from everybody working and the sounds from the machines. They focused on a few of the people working. One of which was a girl who was working like a robot. Her hands were moving so quickly that it looked like the video was in the fast motion and the task she was completing was so rigorous. She said that she could put together 400 of whatever she was making (some sort of electronic device) in a day without overtime. I wondered if her fingers got tired and hurt a lot by the end of the day or if she just got used to it after all the years she had been there and ignored the pain. I also wondered if her eyes hurt by the end of the day by focusing them on these tiny pieces of metal and plastic all day long. Trying to imagine myself in her situation, I envisioned myself going crazy after only a few hours. Doing the same meticulous task over and over again for, I imagine, more than eight hours a day for at least five days a week would surely put me over the edge. I don’t think I would feel like a human being in the end but more of a robot.
More into the video, they showed all the workers lined up in rows on the street in front of the factory. Most of them were wearing a bright yellow jacket, and against the bright yellow buildings, they just looked like a huge colony of worker bees. The video provided subtitles for what their bosses were saying to the groups. One group in particular, “2B” I think it was, was getting yelled at because their group had done the most mistakes. They all looked so sad because you could tell they had put in a lot of time and effort into their work and there they were not getting any thanks and praise for their hard work but rather being scolded. I remember the boss saying to them, “No laughing. No talking”. These poor people are surely not being treated like human beings but rather like animals, like worker bees.
Another aspect of the video was showing huge mounds of “E-waste” that people were picking through in order to separate metals that have value and could be recycled and things that could be thrown away. This is a very dangerous job that has a lot of sharp metal and toxic materials that could harm the people very easily who were sorting through them. This was another job where a boss from outside was yelling at the workers for not working fast enough. These people also must be squatting for such long periods of time to do this. I know that if I try to squat for ten minutes, my thighs are already burning, so I simply cannot imagine doing this for hours everyday. This task is also so rigorous that I know I would go insane if I had to do this for as long as they do.
This video was great because it is one thing to hear all of the stories of the tasks people have to accomplish in factories and sorting through “E-waste” and the hardships they have to go through, it is another thing to see pictures of these things, but then it is something even more daunting and brings even more awareness to see live videos of these people doing these things.
I like the Ed Burtynsky film because he shows the full cycle of consumerism. The very beginning of the film shows how extensive the process is to make all of the items we consume with the length of the factories and the amount of workers. Then the film later comments about how what we consume has to be taken apart. This is how the film shows the life cycle of the products we consume. I think that this is an important film because it exposes people to consumerism in a different way, allowing people to see the huge expanse of what we consume. This is a good way to make people aware of themselves because it is very easy to understand the meaning of the film. The simple images make a big impact on the viewer and also attributes to the strength of the video and his point. The first scene where it is the huge expanse of the factory and no music or voice over makes the factory seem endless and helps to show his point.
I think it is important to see the life cycle of our products and what people have to go through to provide these items for us. I think that the worst part of the cycle is the end, when people are covered in grease and grime from going through E-waste. The process that has to be done with the E-waste is dangerous for the people, so much that companies would not allow Burtynsky to film the areas. It was hard for Burtynsky to even get photographs of the process because the companies do not want people to know what they do to their employees. The assembly lines are very tedious and repetitive but they are not as grueling as going through greasy chunks of metal all day. I think the main comment that Burtynsky was making was that we are a consumer nation, and we need to be more aware of how much it affects other nations.
Samantha Levy Weekly Statement 6 I really enjoyed the Manufactured Landscapes film by Ed Burtynsky. His explanation of his transition from natural landscapes to “manufactured” landscapes was fascinating because our world is making the transition as well. He finds a sort of perverted beauty in these landscapes, which I began o see as I continued to watch. My personal favorite segment of the film was when he was organizing the photo of the giant yellow factory (in China?) and all of its workers. This image, while overwhelming, was really beautiful. It does point out the extreme methods the world has had to use in order to keep up with mass-consumerism, but the seemingly endless street of buildings and crowds of people creates a complex sense of appeal. In fact, it almost made me dizzy trying to imagine the scale of the landscape. I couldn’t imagine being there in person. The film documented how the workers were organized into assigned groupings. One group was getting yelled at by its director while others were being marched around to other areas of the street. This factory seemed so regimented and organized, each employee uniformed in bright yellow to match the buildings. These militaristically run factories probably have astonishing success in production, but that only contributes to its shocking nature. It both allures me visually, and disgusts me (consumerism). Maybe one day I will visit this place… While human impact is obvious, Burtynsky exposes how we have transformed the natural environment into dizzying constructed landscapes. It has changed my outlook on what I perceived to be landscape art, and has helped me to visualize some of the changes we have made to our world. In order to fully appreciate, or rather depreciate, the impact of these places I would need to do more research or actually visit these sites, but this film has inspired me to do so. His photographs, as well as the film, will hopefully raise a curiosity in people who are unaware of these production empires (like I was) and shock them, as well as change their perspective on consumerism.
The film, Manufactured Landscapes, by Ed Burtynsky is one of my favorite films that I have seen that comments on consumption and effects that humans have on the environment. I think it is a very effective movie for causing people to have a reaction to the things that are going on around the world because of our consumption. There are many things that I think contribute to how successful this movie is. One thing that I believe is very effective is that when the photographs are displayed on the screen, there is silence, other than the quiet and somewhat ominous music that plays. They also appear on the screen for a long time, and this forces the viewer to take in the image and really focus on every aspect of it. Not to mention the fact that Ed Burtynsky’s photographs are extremely powerful images in themselves. They never need an explanation, and when looking at them, I found that it was amazing when I realized that the hill being shown on the screen was actually a pile of twisted metal. One specific part of the movie that I remember very vividly was the image of someone testing the heat of the irons after they had been made. The worker tosses a tested iron into a bin and when the sound from this action occurs, the scene immediately switches to a close-up of an old bed up iron. When the camera zooms out, you see that there is a huge pile of metal and broken items, and people are sifting through this trash to sort it and find things to recycle. This really made me think about the fact that the items I buy are going to go somewhere after I am done with them. This is an important thing that I think every person should think about more, and actually seeing it really makes it easier for someone to imagine. Another thought process that was provoked by this movie was the fact that China plays the most important role in the material aspects of our lives. It became apparent to me that this country is both the starting point and the finishing line. Seeing this side of the recycling industry makes me wonder if it is worth recycling our old computers. We are putting so many people’s lives at risk, and covering so many people’s porches with toxic waste, yet we are so disconnected from it that we only believe we are doing good by recycling. Every time I see this film, I cannot help but to be seriously engaged. The photographs are incredible and shocking, and this is what the world needs to see to start making more of a change.
Although the documentary “Manufactured Landscapes” was very slow paced, it was educational and ambient. At the start of the movie a Chinese factory/ industry is precisely explored. Each person has personal responsibilities and can do it at a very rapid pace. I rented the movie and had to actually watch it twice because I fell asleep half way through the first time watching it. The repetitive scenes and the ambient noises and machine sounds just lulled me into a lovely sleep. The second time I watched I prepared myself by drinking an excessive amount of black tea in order to stay awake for a highly deserving film. Although the film was ambient it was also very eerie at times. Each worker in the factory wore the same yellow uniform and were all sitting in incessant rows of tables and chairs and machines. It was overwhelming but the bright fluorescent overhead lights seemed to drown any sense of instability or overpowering feeling. Seeing each person do simple but perpetual jobs like testing out small plastic caps by spraying a small nose of water through each top was entrancing. Seeing small yet essential jobs being done really put production into perspective. While in Detroit the assembly line of Henry Ford is something most everyone learns about in elementary school, seeing it being done at such large scale in China was enlightening. Such small pieces are individually made and tested then put together to create these products that are sent overseas to be consumed by Americans at an enormous scale. In discussion the image of unbelievably enormous ships carrying crates of products from China to the United States resonated in my head while watching the movie. The trash left over by the production in the factories in surprising. Having volunteers and alternative jobs created for the sole purpose of sifting through trash to find usable pieces of metal and plastic should be a warning sign that there is a problem with our consumer society even though those effects are being seen overseas in the country that produces a great deal of our products. While we have packaging and other garbage and recycling to worry about, the rest of the world does too. Packaging needs be mineralized and more available to recycle or people need to consume less but no prosperous country is functioning in a sustainable manner and that absolutely needs to change in the near future.
The opening of the film with the seemingly never-ending track of the factory was extremely effective. I sat there wondering what this was all about and how long we would be watching the same scene pass before our eyes yet again. Throughout the film repetition is definitely used as an effective tool to implant the message about manufacturing and overconsumption.
One of the more memorable parts for me were the close up shots of individual people, performing the same task repetitively. The worked quickly with these tiny parts, fully utilizing both hands, seeing as they do this same minute task all day every day they are very experienced. This really drove the idea home that the world relies heavily on China for our goods. Not solely manufacturing but recycling as well creates work for the Chinese. The recycling seems particularly dangerous as well and it is interesting to think about how our attempts to “sustain” the environment are in turn causing more problems and forcing these people to dig through piles of “recycled” material. This goes to show that the problem is yet to be resolved, much like the examples Diamond gave in “Collapse” in relation to technology and processes attempting to solve a problem but really just creating new problems to deal with and correct instead.
The film shows both sides of consumption, production/manufacture and recycling. If anything this film paints a vivid picture of the beginning and end of a products life cycle. This forces the viewer to think about the consequences of their consumption and where their products will end up when they are done with them.
“Manufactured Landscape” by Ed Burtynsky indeed is a good film with powerful message. It showed Burtynsky’s photography works and video recordings of his trips in China and Bangladesh. He documented the stories behind the development by photograph the factories and the workingman. It is beautiful and frightening. As I taste the fruit of development, I never thought about on the other side of the world there are “working bees” operating like machines to produce the products I’m using. And as I throw away things I don’t need, electronics, recycle materials on the other side of the world there are people going through pile of garbage to search for things that are useful and valuable. Ed Burtynsky brought the dark side into the light. He photographed the landscape that’s not natural, but build by human hands. This movie helps me to think more about the cycle of the products and relationship between production and consumption. China is one of the world’s largest producers. The US has highest average per person consumption. There is a link between the two. I agree with Burtynsky’s statement in the end of the film. It’s not a simply right or wrong question. It is not for us to criticize. We need to change the way we think and the way we live.
The Ed Burtynsky film shows the cycle of consumerism. The beginning of the film was extremely interesting to me because it went through the factory of workers all acting as a machine doing these intricate jobs at lightening speed with perfect precision. The way in which it is filmed gives it this feeling because there is no music, there is not added sound, it is just pure factory, people, machine, noise from the movements, and repetition of the workers and their lives. It also shows the full process of how we make all of these items that everyone around the world consumes. It is also interesting that later in the film we see exactly how different things that we own get taken apart and get recycled which shows its entire life cycle. This film allows us to realize our effects on the land and in what we buy in a different light, and in a way in documentary way. It’s clear-cut, it’s to the point, it makes an argument that not many people can counter act because it is reality. These images are realistic and are life and there is no way I think that people can refute it. I think it is also important that the companies would not allow us to view the E-Waste because it shows exactly how horrible the act is and no one wants to show the underlying images of the grime and grease on the individuals, because then there could be someone to blame. I think this film’s main reason and purpose is to show us as consumers as people who buy, buy, buy, but have no real conscience thought as to how we exactly get our products, as long as we get them we’re content.
I was definitely drawn in by the beautiful compositions and heartbreaking scenarios shown in Ed Burtynsky’s Manufactured Landscapes. It wonderfully highlighted the parts of the consumer cycle that we do not see. As Americans we do a lot of the buying and throwing out (and maybe some recycling and selling) however it’s the manufacturing and the actual recycling processes that are the ugliest. Although it was terrible to see women and young children rummaging through e-waste as well as young workers with no future nimbly assembling small parts that will surely result in arthritis in the near future, the thing that stood out the most to me was the segment where Burtynsky’s photographs were being shown in a gallery. It seemed too ironic that all of these well-dressed men and women of obvious superior economic class and high taste were parading through the gallery. If anyone contributed to the consumerist cycle, it would be these people. In conclusion I believe that this group of high-class citizens would be the perfect audience to aim his artwork at, however I do not think that glossy photographs in a pristine gallery in a wealthy neighborhood is the proper approach. Burtynsky’s photographs are so beautiful, they almost dreamlike. Watching the video, I know that this is not an illusion. This is really what the landscape looks like and these are real people in the photographs; real people who make a living (barely) by dealing with our stuff. I think that Burtynsky has the proper intent, however I do not think these beautiful photos leave as much of an impact as the movie. The movie put the worker’s faces into context. Their stories and struggles became evident through their movements and postures, not through their posing for the camera’s lens. However I do commend Burtynsky for taking the initiative to go out and take a look as to what is really going on in the world and I admire his ability to take photographs that are not only moving but also surreal and stunning.
Seventh Weekly Statement
ReplyDeleteJim Christian
10/27/09
Ed Burtynsky’s film “Manufactured Landscapes” created a shocking juxtaposition of two sides of consumerism. The majority of the film was split evenly between manufacturing and recycling/waste management. With very few words, it created a very strong emotionally charged response to the way our culture has developed into one of consumerism, where other cultures are highly affected and molded by our needs. Through this film, it becomes clear that consumer culture is dependent on China, and that, reversely, China’s current place in industry is dependent on the consumerism of 1st world countries.
The most memorably part of this movie for me was when a woman dressed in heavy clothes and a large hat was squatting a rummaging on a mound of scrap metal. After throwing many items aside, she picks up and tosses the bottom plate of an iron, which skips close to the camera. Immediately, the setting shifts to a woman in a factory. She is standing alongside a long conveyor belt, wearing the standard yellow shirt, picking up and inspecting new irons hot off the assembly line. It was at this moment that the juxtaposition became clear, and that I finally realized that our consumer culture is grossly dependent on China, from start to finish.
This movie also made me think about the concept of recycling. When I ask my roommates where their computers go when they throw them out, they have no idea that E-waste gets shipped to China, where it is broken apart by people climbing through piles of garbage. Frankly, I had no idea until this class. While recycling seems like a great alternative to waste, it still is far from a perfect system. I may even venture to say that recycling is currently an awful system, simply because it still allows us to be so horribly disconnected from our own waste, and without proper education, it convinces us to feel that by throwing an iron in a metal recycling bin magically saves the environment. Unfortunately, those underpaid, uneducated workers in China know more about the system than we do.
Lastly, I’d like to comment that this film did not make me feel bad for the workers that it highlighted. Burtynsky’s film attempted to make these manufacturing plants look like slavery, and it pointed out the children running around on piles of our waste. Quite oppositely, these things made me feel bad for consumer culture, and made me feel hopeful for those people of China working dirty jobs for low wages. This juxtaposition made it clear that the ones losing out were the consumers who are wasteful and demanding. When the world’s resources grow slimmer, and the government is forced to start putting regulations on how many irons we are allowed to buy and throw away each year, we will be the ones who struggle. Those who have learned to live with less, and to find happiness without buying a new pair of shoes, will have a much easier transition.
Anastassia Fulmer
ReplyDelete10/28/09
ADP 3-Joe Trumpey
GSI-Ashley Leiber
Ed Burtinsky Response
After watching this film on Ed Burtinsky I became really interested in what Americans do with their trash. In the film Burtinsky shows us images of E-Waste, which is all the electronic waste from computers and such that Americans send back over to China where it collects and they “recycle” it. I put recycle in quotes because yes they are melting parts down but not all of it and what they are melting down is toxic. People that are handling this waste have many health issues that outweigh the benefit of it being taken out of American territory.
I also thought about how even in Michigan we are getting paid to take Canada’s trash even though they have a lot more space for it and are using gallons of fuel hauling it here. Where is the sense in giving our trash to someone else and then accepting trash from another place? Why can people not keep their own trash and dispose of it properly?
It seems like common sense to put newspapers in the recycling bin and apple cores in the compost pile but not everyone does this. And most would think that the government would take care of their people and take care of the people trash properly. It just seems absurd to me that people would go to such lengths just to get rid of their trash and to make money off of trash.
It appears to me that people are more concerned about hiding their trash then worrying about the consequences. Or maybe its not that people do not care about the consequences but they do not wish to acknowledge them. Burtinsky here forces us to look at the problems of E-Waste and how our trash is not harmless in the least. There are many pieces in the waste that are toxic but are still melted down because there are valuable metals to be dissected out. We have the technology to take care of this in a safe manner but yet we still risk lives just so we don’t have to look at it in our backyards.
Response #5
ReplyDeleteThe video that was shown in lecture this week, “Manufactured Landscapes”, by Ed Burtynsky, was very interesting. It started out by panning a factory in China, which took about ten minutes because this factory was just so massive. Nobody was talking in the factory; there were just sounds from everybody working and the sounds from the machines. They focused on a few of the people working. One of which was a girl who was working like a robot. Her hands were moving so quickly that it looked like the video was in the fast motion and the task she was completing was so rigorous. She said that she could put together 400 of whatever she was making (some sort of electronic device) in a day without overtime. I wondered if her fingers got tired and hurt a lot by the end of the day or if she just got used to it after all the years she had been there and ignored the pain. I also wondered if her eyes hurt by the end of the day by focusing them on these tiny pieces of metal and plastic all day long. Trying to imagine myself in her situation, I envisioned myself going crazy after only a few hours. Doing the same meticulous task over and over again for, I imagine, more than eight hours a day for at least five days a week would surely put me over the edge. I don’t think I would feel like a human being in the end but more of a robot.
More into the video, they showed all the workers lined up in rows on the street in front of the factory. Most of them were wearing a bright yellow jacket, and against the bright yellow buildings, they just looked like a huge colony of worker bees. The video provided subtitles for what their bosses were saying to the groups. One group in particular, “2B” I think it was, was getting yelled at because their group had done the most mistakes. They all looked so sad because you could tell they had put in a lot of time and effort into their work and there they were not getting any thanks and praise for their hard work but rather being scolded. I remember the boss saying to them, “No laughing. No talking”. These poor people are surely not being treated like human beings but rather like animals, like worker bees.
Another aspect of the video was showing huge mounds of “E-waste” that people were picking through in order to separate metals that have value and could be recycled and things that could be thrown away. This is a very dangerous job that has a lot of sharp metal and toxic materials that could harm the people very easily who were sorting through them. This was another job where a boss from outside was yelling at the workers for not working fast enough. These people also must be squatting for such long periods of time to do this. I know that if I try to squat for ten minutes, my thighs are already burning, so I simply cannot imagine doing this for hours everyday. This task is also so rigorous that I know I would go insane if I had to do this for as long as they do.
This video was great because it is one thing to hear all of the stories of the tasks people have to accomplish in factories and sorting through “E-waste” and the hardships they have to go through, it is another thing to see pictures of these things, but then it is something even more daunting and brings even more awareness to see live videos of these people doing these things.
Weekly Statement 7
ReplyDeleteI like the Ed Burtynsky film because he shows the full cycle of consumerism. The very beginning of the film shows how extensive the process is to make all of the items we consume with the length of the factories and the amount of workers. Then the film later comments about how what we consume has to be taken apart. This is how the film shows the life cycle of the products we consume. I think that this is an important film because it exposes people to consumerism in a different way, allowing people to see the huge expanse of what we consume. This is a good way to make people aware of themselves because it is very easy to understand the meaning of the film. The simple images make a big impact on the viewer and also attributes to the strength of the video and his point. The first scene where it is the huge expanse of the factory and no music or voice over makes the factory seem endless and helps to show his point.
I think it is important to see the life cycle of our products and what people have to go through to provide these items for us. I think that the worst part of the cycle is the end, when people are covered in grease and grime from going through E-waste. The process that has to be done with the E-waste is dangerous for the people, so much that companies would not allow Burtynsky to film the areas. It was hard for Burtynsky to even get photographs of the process because the companies do not want people to know what they do to their employees. The assembly lines are very tedious and repetitive but they are not as grueling as going through greasy chunks of metal all day. I think the main comment that Burtynsky was making was that we are a consumer nation, and we need to be more aware of how much it affects other nations.
Samantha Levy
ReplyDeleteWeekly Statement 6
I really enjoyed the Manufactured Landscapes film by Ed Burtynsky. His explanation of his transition from natural landscapes to “manufactured” landscapes was fascinating because our world is making the transition as well. He finds a sort of perverted beauty in these landscapes, which I began o see as I continued to watch.
My personal favorite segment of the film was when he was organizing the photo of the giant yellow factory (in China?) and all of its workers. This image, while overwhelming, was really beautiful. It does point out the extreme methods the world has had to use in order to keep up with mass-consumerism, but the seemingly endless street of buildings and crowds of people creates a complex sense of appeal. In fact, it almost made me dizzy trying to imagine the scale of the landscape. I couldn’t imagine being there in person. The film documented how the workers were organized into assigned groupings. One group was getting yelled at by its director while others were being marched around to other areas of the street. This factory seemed so regimented and organized, each employee uniformed in bright yellow to match the buildings. These militaristically run factories probably have astonishing success in production, but that only contributes to its shocking nature. It both allures me visually, and disgusts me (consumerism). Maybe one day I will visit this place…
While human impact is obvious, Burtynsky exposes how we have transformed the natural environment into dizzying constructed landscapes. It has changed my outlook on what I perceived to be landscape art, and has helped me to visualize some of the changes we have made to our world. In order to fully appreciate, or rather depreciate, the impact of these places I would need to do more research or actually visit these sites, but this film has inspired me to do so. His photographs, as well as the film, will hopefully raise a curiosity in people who are unaware of these production empires (like I was) and shock them, as well as change their perspective on consumerism.
Alexis Newton
ReplyDeleteWeekly Statement #6
The film, Manufactured Landscapes, by Ed Burtynsky is one of my favorite films that I have seen that comments on consumption and effects that humans have on the environment. I think it is a very effective movie for causing people to have a reaction to the things that are going on around the world because of our consumption. There are many things that I think contribute to how successful this movie is.
One thing that I believe is very effective is that when the photographs are displayed on the screen, there is silence, other than the quiet and somewhat ominous music that plays. They also appear on the screen for a long time, and this forces the viewer to take in the image and really focus on every aspect of it. Not to mention the fact that Ed Burtynsky’s photographs are extremely powerful images in themselves. They never need an explanation, and when looking at them, I found that it was amazing when I realized that the hill being shown on the screen was actually a pile of twisted metal.
One specific part of the movie that I remember very vividly was the image of someone testing the heat of the irons after they had been made. The worker tosses a tested iron into a bin and when the sound from this action occurs, the scene immediately switches to a close-up of an old bed up iron. When the camera zooms out, you see that there is a huge pile of metal and broken items, and people are sifting through this trash to sort it and find things to recycle. This really made me think about the fact that the items I buy are going to go somewhere after I am done with them. This is an important thing that I think every person should think about more, and actually seeing it really makes it easier for someone to imagine.
Another thought process that was provoked by this movie was the fact that China plays the most important role in the material aspects of our lives. It became apparent to me that this country is both the starting point and the finishing line. Seeing this side of the recycling industry makes me wonder if it is worth recycling our old computers. We are putting so many people’s lives at risk, and covering so many people’s porches with toxic waste, yet we are so disconnected from it that we only believe we are doing good by recycling.
Every time I see this film, I cannot help but to be seriously engaged. The photographs are incredible and shocking, and this is what the world needs to see to start making more of a change.
Response Six: Manufactured Landscapes
ReplyDeleteAlthough the documentary “Manufactured Landscapes” was very slow paced, it was educational and ambient. At the start of the movie a Chinese factory/ industry is precisely explored. Each person has personal responsibilities and can do it at a very rapid pace. I rented the movie and had to actually watch it twice because I fell asleep half way through the first time watching it. The repetitive scenes and the ambient noises and machine sounds just lulled me into a lovely sleep. The second time I watched I prepared myself by drinking an excessive amount of black tea in order to stay awake for a highly deserving film. Although the film was ambient it was also very eerie at times. Each worker in the factory wore the same yellow uniform and were all sitting in incessant rows of tables and chairs and machines. It was overwhelming but the bright fluorescent overhead lights seemed to drown any sense of instability or overpowering feeling.
Seeing each person do simple but perpetual jobs like testing out small plastic caps by spraying a small nose of water through each top was entrancing. Seeing small yet essential jobs being done really put production into perspective. While in Detroit the assembly line of Henry Ford is something most everyone learns about in elementary school, seeing it being done at such large scale in China was enlightening. Such small pieces are individually made and tested then put together to create these products that are sent overseas to be consumed by Americans at an enormous scale. In discussion the image of unbelievably enormous ships carrying crates of products from China to the United States resonated in my head while watching the movie. The trash left over by the production in the factories in surprising. Having volunteers and alternative jobs created for the sole purpose of sifting through trash to find usable pieces of metal and plastic should be a warning sign that there is a problem with our consumer society even though those effects are being seen overseas in the country that produces a great deal of our products. While we have packaging and other garbage and recycling to worry about, the rest of the world does too. Packaging needs be mineralized and more available to recycle or people need to consume less but no prosperous country is functioning in a sustainable manner and that absolutely needs to change in the near future.
Weekly Response 5
ReplyDeleteLaurel Twist
“Manufactured Landscapes”
By: Edward Burtynsky
The opening of the film with the seemingly never-ending track of the factory was extremely effective. I sat there wondering what this was all about and how long we would be watching the same scene pass before our eyes yet again. Throughout the film repetition is definitely used as an effective tool to implant the message about manufacturing and overconsumption.
One of the more memorable parts for me were the close up shots of individual people, performing the same task repetitively. The worked quickly with these tiny parts, fully utilizing both hands, seeing as they do this same minute task all day every day they are very experienced. This really drove the idea home that the world relies heavily on China for our goods. Not solely manufacturing but recycling as well creates work for the Chinese. The recycling seems particularly dangerous as well and it is interesting to think about how our attempts to “sustain” the environment are in turn causing more problems and forcing these people to dig through piles of “recycled” material. This goes to show that the problem is yet to be resolved, much like the examples Diamond gave in “Collapse” in relation to technology and processes attempting to solve a problem but really just creating new problems to deal with and correct instead.
The film shows both sides of consumption, production/manufacture and recycling. If anything this film paints a vivid picture of the beginning and end of a products life cycle. This forces the viewer to think about the consequences of their consumption and where their products will end up when they are done with them.
“Manufactured Landscape” by Ed Burtynsky indeed is a good film with powerful message. It showed Burtynsky’s photography works and video recordings of his trips in China and Bangladesh. He documented the stories behind the development by photograph the factories and the workingman. It is beautiful and frightening.
ReplyDeleteAs I taste the fruit of development, I never thought about on the other side of the world there are “working bees” operating like machines to produce the products I’m using. And as I throw away things I don’t need, electronics, recycle materials on the other side of the world there are people going through pile of garbage to search for things that are useful and valuable.
Ed Burtynsky brought the dark side into the light. He photographed the landscape that’s not natural, but build by human hands. This movie helps me to think more about the cycle of the products and relationship between production and consumption. China is one of the world’s largest producers. The US has highest average per person consumption. There is a link between the two.
I agree with Burtynsky’s statement in the end of the film. It’s not a simply right or wrong question. It is not for us to criticize. We need to change the way we think and the way we live.
Erica Wagner
ReplyDeleteAdp 3
Statement #5
The Ed Burtynsky film shows the cycle of consumerism. The beginning of the film was extremely interesting to me because it went through the factory of workers all acting as a machine doing these intricate jobs at lightening speed with perfect precision. The way in which it is filmed gives it this feeling because there is no music, there is not added sound, it is just pure factory, people, machine, noise from the movements, and repetition of the workers and their lives. It also shows the full process of how we make all of these items that everyone around the world consumes. It is also interesting that later in the film we see exactly how different things that we own get taken apart and get recycled which shows its entire life cycle. This film allows us to realize our effects on the land and in what we buy in a different light, and in a way in documentary way. It’s clear-cut, it’s to the point, it makes an argument that not many people can counter act because it is reality. These images are realistic and are life and there is no way I think that people can refute it. I think it is also important that the companies would not allow us to view the E-Waste because it shows exactly how horrible the act is and no one wants to show the underlying images of the grime and grease on the individuals, because then there could be someone to blame. I think this film’s main reason and purpose is to show us as consumers as people who buy, buy, buy, but have no real conscience thought as to how we exactly get our products, as long as we get them we’re content.
Kyla Suchy
ReplyDeleteWeekly Statement: Week 6
I was definitely drawn in by the beautiful compositions and heartbreaking scenarios shown in Ed Burtynsky’s Manufactured Landscapes. It wonderfully highlighted the parts of the consumer cycle that we do not see. As Americans we do a lot of the buying and throwing out (and maybe some recycling and selling) however it’s the manufacturing and the actual recycling processes that are the ugliest. Although it was terrible to see women and young children rummaging through e-waste as well as young workers with no future nimbly assembling small parts that will surely result in arthritis in the near future, the thing that stood out the most to me was the segment where Burtynsky’s photographs were being shown in a gallery.
It seemed too ironic that all of these well-dressed men and women of obvious superior economic class and high taste were parading through the gallery. If anyone contributed to the consumerist cycle, it would be these people. In conclusion I believe that this group of high-class citizens would be the perfect audience to aim his artwork at, however I do not think that glossy photographs in a pristine gallery in a wealthy neighborhood is the proper approach. Burtynsky’s photographs are so beautiful, they almost dreamlike. Watching the video, I know that this is not an illusion. This is really what the landscape looks like and these are real people in the photographs; real people who make a living (barely) by dealing with our stuff. I think that Burtynsky has the proper intent, however I do not think these beautiful photos leave as much of an impact as the movie. The movie put the worker’s faces into context. Their stories and struggles became evident through their movements and postures, not through their posing for the camera’s lens. However I do commend Burtynsky for taking the initiative to go out and take a look as to what is really going on in the world and I admire his ability to take photographs that are not only moving but also surreal and stunning.