Design School Confidential

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Job:05-11998/12412 Title:RP-Design School Con dential

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project brief

The class assignment was to choose a national

or international social issue that could be uni-

versally shared and individually articulated.

project goal

Water carries a host of connotations. Nations

hoard the riches of their rivers and reservoirs.

Irrigation canals branch across arid fi elds like

veins of economic lifeblood for millions of farm-

ers. The Nile nourishes crops with fertile soil

deposits. In 1970, the Egyptian government

dammed the river to secure more land for its bur-

geoning population. The twist of a valve brings

limitless gallons of water pouring through hos-

es, showers, and sinks. A few months of drought

turn suburban lawns a desiccated yellow. In

Africa, a child dies after only a few days without

water. An avalanche in the Rocky Mountains

buries a hiker in ice. A tsunami inundates Thai-

land with water, drowning thousands. In Hong

Kong, monsoons fl ood the streets with mud. An

oil spill in the Pacifi c poisons fi sh and dolphins.

Water rights create grudges, lawsuits, and wars.

Beyond its associations with politics, fear,

and death, water can also symbolize home and

life. Inside their mother’s womb, babies swim

and grow immersed in water. Water energizes,

relieves, cleanses, and feeds. During the sum-

mer, children run through sprinklers or fl ock to

water parks. Tourists travel from around the world

to gawk at Niagara Falls. A Christian is reborn

through the waters of baptism, and a grieving

family in India sprinkles cremated ashes on the

waters of the Ganges. The comfort, awe, and sanc-

tity of water runs alongside its tense politics and

cutthroat economics. Its changing signifi cance

and meanings continually circulate beneath soci-

ety, like the groundwater below the earth.

Brigham Young University (BYU)

Provo, Utah, USA

Water, Politics, and Hope

Class: Special Problems in Graphic Design

Level: Senior

Faculty: Linda Sullivan

Duration of Project: One Semester

12

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Job:05-11998/12412 Title:RP-Design School Con dential

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Í Refraction

Student: Jon Troutman

Our view of the world is of-

ten a divided one. Rich. Poor.

Educated. Uneducated. Fa-

miliar. Foreign. Good. Bad.

Black. White. Us. Them. We

don’t see the human race as

a singular unit with inher-

ent, internal connections.

Rather, we focus on external

signifi ers and draw distorted

conclusions and judgments—

whether subconscious or

deliberate. Our skewed view

of each other is contrary to

God’s holistic view of us.

With a more holistic perspec-

tive, we might see humanity

as an equal organism that

lives, breathes, and stretches

throughout a host of unequal

environments.

Í Come Again

Another Day

Student: Jeremy Bowen

It is intriguing that in our

culture where there is abun-

dant access to clean water,

associations with rain are

largely negative. Rain is in-

convenient and depressing—

in other words, “bad weather.”

Movies, for example, con-

stantly use rain to communi-

cate sadness, loneliness, fear,

and even death. In this piece,

I’m bringing attention to

its beautiful, positive, and

life-giving qualities.

Í Advertising for

Water, Politics and Hope

Students: Keenan Cummings

and Jon Troutman

To promote the exhibit

“Water, Politics and Hope”

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