Madness

'Here I am reclusive because I'm different'

So The plan for my next piece of work, 'The Wonky World of Madness' is intended to highlight the incredibly unsustainable and 'mad' way the world is evolving. 

The past 100 years has seen huge advances in technology, medicine, population and use of the earths space and resources. With oil predicted to run out in 60 years what challenges does this leave us with? With Human population long ago outreaching the capacity of its most natural way of life it becomes evident the question facing our culture is that of how we live. our lifestyle.

If humans were still in the hunter-gatherer mode, Earth would have reached its capacity at about 100 million people

At the dawn of agriculture, about 8000 B.C

With world population now at

Because people in different parts of the world are consuming different amounts of those resources. Basically, if everyone on Earth lived like a middle-class American, consuming roughly 3.3 times the subsistence level of food and about 250 times the subsistence level of clean water, the Earth could only support about 2 billion people [source: McConeghy]. On the other hand, if everyone on the planet consumed only what he or she needed, 40 billion would be a feasible number [source: McConeghy]. As it is, the people living in developed countries are consuming so much that the other approximate 75 percent of the population is left with barely what they need to get by [source: McConeghy].

Our lifestyle is 

Young people: The world's population is young, like you. Under-25s make up 43% of the global population, but they make up 60% of the world's least-developed countries. Some 97 out of every 100 new births are in countries classified as less developed than yours.

Battle for resources: It is estimated that your group of the richest countries consumes double the resources used by the rest of the world. The UN estimates that if current population and consumption trends continue, by the 2030s we will need the equivalent of two Earths to support us.

The environment and issues surrounding it are therefore the most pressing issue and concern of modern society and culture. Art has always acted and has almost formed itself as cultures counter balance to reality. Created as a result of the issues we are faced with.

As an example 90% of the wealth in the US is in the hands of 400 people. There are similar stats for the UK

Here are the models i will be using in my mad world.

I bought a selection of these models at a local second hand store. They were apparently from the owner of the shops passed away friend, who worked at the BBC from the 60's to the 80's. He suggested their was a chance they were from the set of an old animation such as Trumpton or Postman Pat. Having searched the internet i have failed to work out their origin but would say the Postman Pat set is the closest example i have found.

The models are made of a rubbery plastic based material which reminds me of old dog toys. They are quintessentially english buildings. As a collection they are reflective of what a village may have been like during their suspected age.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21302065

The link these pieces have in the work, being representative of a certain time period could be interesting to make use of in the piece. At the same time there might be no relevance and they could serve as originally intended as models for the world. 

When i received the models they were not as seen in the photos. As they are made of a rubbery material I was able to melt, bend and stretch them into the positions they are in now by heating them on the radiator and with a hair dryer. I manipulated them in the way i have as the world i am trying to create is twisted and stretched in similar ways. Being drained and distorted in to strange unnatural, impossible positions. The world i am creating will raise questions about the sanity of the real world we live in. I will achieve this by including serious themes of energy usage, waste and the un sustainability of our real world in the madness.