Papacks | Cultural Audit
The objective of this audit was to explore fictional realities and psychological tensions within the concepts of away, risk, and time, to analyze the historical and future trajectories of disposal.
1 | Away
Where do things go when they go away? There’s this fiction that when we “throw away” something, it disappears, like a magic trick. In reality, the discarded waste goes somewhere else, and affects someone else.
Evaluation
There are other fictional realities created by humans that are similar or in contrast to this magic idea. For example, money and religion. People can’t physically see the money in a bank account, but one trust it’s there. One can’t see God but believes in them nonetheless. Not only do people believe, humans let these beliefs shape their practices, generate communities and influence political leanings. So, why do many believe non-recycled waste just goes away?
Considered Observation
Away is a fictional reality rooted in language that denotes the removal of personal responsibility.
Thought Starter
How might one reframe ‘away’ to constitute consumer responsibility in the trash disposal process?
2 | Risk
It’s embedded in human DNA to try to assess and if possible reduce risk to its minimum. Humans process fear and use it to gauge risk and reward. Since a person was born, they have been assessing risk constantly, evolving and refining this skillset as time passes. But within risk assessment, is a tension that directly influences human behaviors. The dichotomies of these tensions can be simplified to the two conflicting ideals – ‘ignorance is bliss’ and ‘peace of mind’.
Evaluation
The ‘peace of mind’ framework demonstrates the human behavior of over-assessing. A perfect case study for this is the insurance business. People don’t buy insurance plans because the risk of certain events occurring are high, but because they want the peace of mind that ‘if’ something were to happen they would be okay. The ‘ignorance is bliss’ framework demonstrates the human behavior of under-assessing. Humans tend to think that if something is not right there in front of them, it won’t harm them, and there’s even less regard for their future selves. This stems from the caveman faculties humans still use to determine risk and threats.
Considered Observation
Humans can’t fully comprehend threats that aren’t impacting them immediately.
Thought Starters
If humans can’t naturally process risk properly, how does one make the climate crisis personal?
How can one reframe climate risk so that consumers over-assess it?
3 | Time
There are two prevalent societal perceptions of time: linear and cyclical. Linear time is time that is seen sequentially, as a series of events that are leading toward something: Past, present, future. Or birth, life, death. A cyclical perception of time sees time and history as never moving forward, but always returning to the same point. The world and the human body run on a lifecycle, everything from cells to sunshine. Time here reflects a life cycle.
Evaluation
Human brains are hard-wired to think linearly which means one orients themselves in the world viewing time as a reflection of lifespans. There is tension between the perceived lifespan of an object and the life cycle within which it actually exists. Perceptions of time influence the way humans interact and assign value to objects and relationships.
Considered Observation
Humans cannot process the cyclical implications of disposal on the environment because humans do not assign value based on the lifecycle of an object, they assign value based its perceived lifespan.
Thought Starter
What could the disposal process look like if humans assigned value to their waste based on a cyclical perception time?