In this phase you will
- Investigate, generate ideas for, plan, manage, produce, and evaluate an artefact of the future
- Communicate your ideas to an audience through interpretive materials
- Reflect on your learning experiences and plan for futures
You will need
- Artmarking materials
- Student journals
- Phase 5 PowerPoint
Key vocabulary
No new vocabulary is introduced in this phase. Remember to access the glossary if needed!
Activities
Acknowledging Country
- What First Nations artists can you find (or do you know about already) who come from the Country you are on? Investigate their artworks. What stories are being told? What materials have they used? How does their artwork acknowledge, care for, and/or connect to Country? How might your artefacts also acknowledge Country?
Examples
Acknowledging Country
Check out these Indigenous artists’ reflections on climate change, or these Aboriginal artists’ recycling of ghost nets.
Warming-up
- The suggested Acknowledgement of Country also incorporates the warm-up activity Sustainable Artwork of the Day. Other suitable activities include ABC and any of the sustainability challenge warm-ups.
Examples of Artefacts of the Future
Here are some examples of different types of artefacts from past students, together with their interpretive statements (where available). To see more, check out our Student Showcase!
Defining Artefacts of the Future
- During this phase, you will develop and create your ideas into an artefact for exhibition. Your artefact should reflect how we have learned to live sustainably by 2050. Possibilities include:
- An artefact from today that is no longer used, with critical reflection and commentary on why these have been phased out and what has replaced them.
- An artefact from the future demonstrating more sustainable ways of thinking, acting, and being.
- An artistic representation of a practice, place, or concept.
- Your artefacts do not have to represent ‘new’ ideas or practices; you might engage with sustainable ways of thinking and acting that have been ignored, excluded, and/or vilified, such as First Nations knowledges of, connections to, and responsibilities for Country. Your artefacts can be anything physical or digital that can be exhibited, including found and/or altered objects. Examples include:
- A visual artwork in any medium (e.g., 2D, 3D, painting, drawing, cartoon, sculpture, craft, digital creation, arrangement)
- A text (e.g., poem, story, news report, policy, law, essay, letter, email, report, social media communication, script)
- A performance (drama, song, dance, recording, rap, spoken word, soundscapes, smellscapes)
- An invention, model, or object (e.g., garment, food, fibre, transport, energy source, technology, building, outdoor space)
- A collaboration with non-human/s (e.g., trees, air, animals, birds, insects, rivers, sun, extra-terrestrial beings)
- A combination of any of the above or anything else!
Visual artworks
A lone bird lies dead on a cliff overlooking factories pumping fumes into the air. Everything around it has dulled, and it only increases as you get closer to the buildings.
This piece is an homage to the past where animals and people choked on the toxic fumes that were released into the blackened skies.
With the prompt ‘artistic representation of a concept’, I created an artwork conveying the extinction of birds.
My finished piece shows a tree creeping up the side of the cardboard canvas with a bird’s nest perched on the branch, and feathers falling from the nest. There are a variety of feathers of all sizes and colours to be found on the canvas, contrasted on an earthy coloured backdrop. Authentic leaves are patterned over the top of the tree, connected to the tree trunk.
The large range of feather types show how the range of extinction is not limited to a few birds, and instead covers many different species. Since the year 2010 we have been a part of the 6th period of extinction, resulting in our numbers of bird species plunging downhill. I hope that in the future we have found a method to preserve and restore our many bird species, and with them our environment.
Imagining 2050
- Imagine you are the curators of the Anthropocene Museum in 2050 and consider:
- How are humans impacting the planet?
- What practices have we rejected?
- What steps have we taken in the last 25 years to heal the planet (i.e., to reduce the effects of climate change, habitat destruction, and species extinction, and to ensure social and ecological justice, inclusivity, and equity)?
- What new technologies have we embraced?
- What new physical objects and spaces have we created?
It’s uncommon to find a Christmas tree that is perfectly arranged and well colour coded. We find that there is no trend – no colour palette, or style, or hot-in-ornament that everyone wants.
It doesn’t update every year, and so evidently doesn’t fall into the hands of fast paced consumerism. Have you ever come across Christmas ornaments tossed at the side of the road, or resting eternally in landfill?
Invaluable ‘junk’. That is what I like to call it. Each year brings the memories of the last – each tree unique and special to the stories beheld by its owner. Coloured in ornaments from different occasions, different people, different places. A tree that may not be perfect – much like what is displayed in the artwork itself. Perfectly imperfect – misshaped and roughed by memories. Never to be discarded of, for the longer it grows out of season, the more value it retains. And although its physical state may simply be of plastic, or glass, paper or string, it doesn’t weather out of trend. Much like we treasure photos – for the memory is unique to us, and so will never devalue due to the confliction of the ins and outs of society and its direction.
It symbolises our retention for items that have sentimental value. It might not be the latest gadget, or ruly to the latest trend. It is truly a boast to have an item immune to our modern day consumerism.
And if we can do it with a Christmas tree, surely this principle is applicable to other items. Maybe we can hold our clothes just a little longer, or our books, our furniture – even our devices. We can prolong their value – not just logistically, but sentimentally. We don’t have to keep up with the latest – sometimes the oldest will hold the most value, with memories, tradition and stories that society’s drift can’t match.
Revisiting ideas
- Individually or in small groups, consider the ideas you generated last lesson for an artefact of the future.
- Which idea(s) do you find the most interesting/innovative?
- Which idea(s) were evaluated highly against the class/individual sustainability criteria?
- How might these ideas be developed further?
- Decide whether you will develop an existing idea further or explore a new possibility. If an idea shared by another group intrigues you, ask permission to develop this idea. More than one group can develop the same idea.
Text artefacts
Designing and producing artefacts
- Once you have agreed on an idea for an artefact, develop your thinking further to design and produce your artefact:
- Investigate:
- Consider how this artefact connects to/cares for Country
- Consider your personal connections to the artefact
- Critique the needs and opportunities identified during your imaginings as Anthropocene Museum curators
- Generate:
- Utilise further strategies from Phase 4 to generate ideas
- Visually represent how your artefact changes over time, from the past into the future
- Role play scenarios in which your artefact would be used
- Plan and manage:
- Investigate available materials, tools, and equipment, considering sustainability factors (including what will happen to the artefact after this project ends)
- Agree on individual and group roles
- Produce:
- Safely select and use appropriate materials, tools, equipment, and techniques to produce your artefact
- Evaluate:
- Evaluate your artefact against the sustainability criteria
- Adjust/adapt your artefact as appropriate
- Investigate:
Invention artefacts
What is Bioplastic?
Bioplastics are biodegradable materials that come from renewable sources and can be used to reduce the problem of plastic waste that is suffocating the planet and contaminating the environment.
Why should we care about Bioplastics?
They can help to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, support sustainability initiatives and allow manufacturers to diversify feedstocks.
How we should use bioplastics
Bioplastic sources can be used for numerous things. Some of these include bioplastic packaging, bioplastic bags, bottles, biodegradable compost bags, disposable cultery, and tableware, etc. The bioplastics materials used in the food packaging industry are good at maintaining quality.
My story
I’ve used eggshells, tapioca starch, and vinegar to create a plasticky substance. I’m thinking that this could replace biodegradable Glad Wrap and be used in packaging and many other industries.
For inspiration I looked it up online and they suggested eggshells, obviously they need to be a bit more ground.
I reckon eggshells work well for this, it’s a calcium in them that bonds them together. This is a bioplastic we know about. Maybe someday I’ll end up inventing some new ones.
How does HHO work? The electricity breaks the bond between the hydrogen molecules and the oxygen molecules are released as gasses therefor it can be used as fuel for combustion engines.
Interpreting artefacts
- Create interpretive materials to help audiences engage with your artefact. Your interpretive materials may be written, drawn, or sound-recorded and be easy to understand. Remember that interpretive materials should foster curiosity, provide guidance for looking closely and seeing critically, help audiences access information to increase understanding, and offer a more meaningful experience. Address questions like:
- What is it?
- Why is it here?
- Why should we care about it?
- What is the story or symbolism?
- How was it made?
- How should it be used?
- What can we discover by looking more carefully?
Curating and presenting
- As a class, curate your artefacts and interpretive materials to create your own Anthropocene Museum. You might like to invite other classes, your families, local Traditional Owners, and/or the general community to visit your exhibition.
Reflecting
- Individually in your journals and as a class, reflect on your experiences in the Artefacts of the Future program.
- Consider your knowledge, attitudes, thoughts, and wonderings mapped during Phase 1. What has changed? What has stayed the same?
- How do you feel currently about sustainability? The environment? Futures?
- What thoughts and questions do you have?
- What actions are you going to take to help create a more sustainable future?
Congratulations on finishing the Artefacts of the Future program! We hope that you have enjoyed the program and found more sustainable ways of thinking, acting, and being. We wish you all the best in your further adventures as sustainable futurists!
Outcomes (Victorian Curriculum)
| LEARNING AREA | Strand | Levels 5 and 6 | Levels 7 and 8 | Levels 9 and 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| THE ARTS Although these descriptors are based in the Visual Arts Curriculum, they are similar to other Arts learning areas | Explore and Express Ideas Arts Practices Present and Perform Respond and Interpret | Explore arts practices as inspiration to express different ideas and beliefs (VCAVAE029) Select and apply techniques and processes (VCAVAV030) Create and display artworks that express different ideas and beliefs (VCAVAP031) Identify and describe how ideas are expressed in different artworks (VCAVAR032) | Explore arts practices as inspiration to explore and develop themes, concepts, or ideas (VCAVAE033) Experiment with different techniques and processes and develop skills in planning and designing artworks and documenting artistic practices (VCAVAV035) (VCAVAV036) Create and display artworks, describing how ideas are expressed to an audience (VCAVAP037) Analyse how artists’ ideas and viewpoints are expressed and viewed by audiences (VCAVAR038) | Explore arts practices and styles as inspiration to develop a personal style, and explore and express ideas, concepts, and themes (VCAVAE040) Conceptualise, plan, and design artworks using a range of techniques and processes (VCAVAV042)(VCAVAV043) Create, present, analyse, and evaluate displays of artwork considering how ideas can be conveyed to an audience (VCAVAP044) Analyse and interpret different artists’ forms of expression, intentions, and viewpoints (VCAVAR045) |
| SCIENCE | Science Understanding | Identify how the growth and survival of living things are affected by their environment (VCSSU075) | Recognise how interactions between organisms can be affected by human activity (VCSSU093) | Investigate how ecosystems change as a result of environmental change (VCSSU121) |
| THE HUMANITIES: Geography | Geographical Knowledge | Describe and explain interconnections within and between places, and effects of these interconnections (VCGGC087) | Identify, analyse, and explain interconnections within and between places, and changes resulting from these interconnections (VCGGC101) | Identify, analyse, and explain significant interconnections within and between places over time, and evaluate resulting changes and consequences (VCGGC129) |
| TECHNOLOGIES: Design and Technology | Technologies and Society Creating Designed Solutions | Investigate and consider possible futures (VCDSTS033)(VCDSCD038) Generate, explore, develop, communicate, and document ideas (VCDSCD039) Safely plan and produce designed solutions (VCDSCD040)(VCDSCD042) Collectively negotiate sustainability criteria for evaluating ideas (VCDSCD041) | Examine and prioritise preferred futures (VCDSTS043)(VCDSCD049) Generate, explore, develop, and test ideas, plans, and processes (VCDSCD050) Effectively and safely produce designed solutions (VCDSCD051) (VCDSCD053) Independently develop sustainability criteria for evaluating ideas and processes (VCDSCD052) | Critically analyse factors for preferred futures (VCDSTS054)(VCDSCD060) Creatively develop, modify, and communicate innovative and sophisticated ideas (VCDSCD061) Work flexibly to plan, manage, and produce designed solutions (VCDSCD062)(VCDSCD064) Evaluate ideas, processes, and solutions against comprehensive sustainability criteria (VCDSCD063) |
| CAPABILITIES: Personal and Social Capability | Social Awareness and Management | Undertake various team roles and contribute to group tasks (VCPSCSO032) | Accept responsibility as a team member and leader and support other team members (VCPSCSO041) | Evaluate own and others’ contributions and provide useful feedback to peers (VCPSCSO050) |