Willem de Koonig's "Attic"

The artwork chosen for analysis is Willem de Koonig's "Attic", which is hung in the Modern Arts section of the Metropolitan Museum of the Arts in New York City.

Imitating Nature's Design

I'd always appreciated nature, but not been aware of its many intricate designs and how they can save the world. After reading this article, I imagined the numerous functions of various organisms and the lengths they must go in order to survive. I absolutely agreed with Janine Benyus that humans are moving in great spans to live in a more 'futuristic' and technologically advanced world, where everything is fired up and ready to go in a jiff. What Janine proposed was simply to move in a slower pace and allow the world to breathe for nature is not capable of keeping up at our speed. While nodding at this proposal, I was concerned for the one belief I'd always carried about people, which is that they are generally impatient. However, as Janine said, perhaps when things look really bad, humans will finally cool their fire. I feel that right now, human-beings are starting to feel helpless, in a way that it's too late for the damage is already done.

In the article, she gives some examples of greater sustainability inspired by some of nature's finest works. This article was an eye-opener for me as a designer and a human-being to see what nature has to offer. As good designers, we must be tree-huggers at some level. It is our responsibility to use the schemes that drive the material world (marketing) to the world that needs peoples' attentions most in order to save it. Otherwise, we are only helping to damage it.