Posts Tagged ‘communication’
Communicating Visions: Designing Sustainable Cities
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on June 2nd, 2010
By Rasmus Brønnum, Sustainable Cities (Denmark):
New media always transforms the way we communicate. Now, it’s not that we havn’t seen moving-pictures before, but the fact that architects have begun to produce short movies presenting how they think, work and define architectural qualities, is something new and still-to-see from a lot of firms. In this case the issue is sustainability presented in, not one, but three fast shifting projects.
Watch the new shortmovie “Designing Sustainable Cities, three aspects – three plans“ from the danish architect office Vandkunsten.
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Apple-filled Subway: Making a point
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on January 20th, 2010
Source: Treehugger
From “New York Subway Train Filled With Apples Is Emptied Onto Platform, Illustrates Food Waste (Video)” by Jaymi Heimbuch.
Every day, New York City residents waste 270,000 pounds of food. Want to know what that looks like? Here’s an unforgettable way to imagine it – fill up a subway train with the equivalent amount of apples, and release it onto the people waiting on the platform. New York’s City Harvest food bank created this commercial to illustrate the point that as thousands of pounds of food is wasted daily, thousands of residents don’t have enough to eat. City Harvest works to change that on a local level.
This year alone, the group will “rescue” and deliver more than 25 million pounds of quality food that would otherwise go to waste. The group collects food from the food industry, including restaurants, grocers, corporate cafeterias, manufacturers, and farms, and delivers it for free to nearly 600 community food programs throughout New York City using a fleet of trucks and bikes as well as volunteers on foot.
And no, 270,000 pounds of apples weren’t used to make the point. Here’s a video on how they created the video.
Read the full article by Jaymi Heimbuch.
[See the 
website for a Melbourne example of food-rescue ]
Climate change Guide: how to win hearts and minds
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on December 8th, 2009
Source: Environmental Research Web
From “Climate change: how to win hearts and minds“, by Liz Kalaugher
Despite the fact that in 2007 the scientists compiling the IPCC report were 90% certain that human activities are causing climate change, climate scepticism amongst the public is on the rise. In the US there has been a sharp decline over the last year in the percentage of the population who say there is solid evidence that global temperatures are rising, while in the UK the number of people believing that claims about the effects of climate change have been exaggerated rose from 15% to 29% between 2003 and 2008.
So how can a climate scientist best communicate their work to a sceptical audience?
With that in mind, the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED) at Columbia University has issued a guide on the psychology of climate change communication that brings together the latest social science research in the field. Although it’s a serious topic, the guide is easy to read and contains many a cartoon and case study to illustrate its points. “Gaining public support for climate change policies and encouraging environmentally responsible behaviour depends on a clear understanding of how people process information and make decisions,” says the report. “Social science research provides an essential part of this puzzle but there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to the challenges of communicating about climate change. Rather, each of the many barriers presents a new opportunity to improve the way we present information.”