C2WEP-01-FEATURES

"Fast fashion educational programme with fun features."

I chose the fast fashion live brief because I believe it is very close to home meaning it is easy for me to answer the problem, which is to help the public know the consequences of fast fashion and what they can do, what they are doing wrong and what they should be doing to slow down the destruction of our planet through fast fashion.

I instantly wanted to work towards an educational programme/display that goes across the country into schools and public places to spread awareness of the huge costs of buying cheap, poor quality clothing which then results in huge water use, river pollution as well as air pollution. Delivering a strong message to young people is a challenge as you don't want to scare or intimidate them - As daunting as this subject is, I believe it is very important that my idea comes with a fun side that people can enjoy while learning vital information from C2WEP-01(Clothes To Water Education Programme 01).

The idea is simple, bring in old clothes that you dont wear, put them in the machine, the weight of the clothes will then be converted into the amount of water it uses, click the convert button and water will be donated back into areas that are affected by the fashion industry using their water supplies. I think the idea is strong and I like the idea of someone having to DO something to make it happen, so they'd PUT the clothing in and CLICK the button to see the outcome (this is vital for the success of this project as people love to click and press things to make something happen). From this sketch I realised I needed to add more excitement into it to ensure the users will be engaged and impressed by the C2WEP-01 which led me to this:

I want to use the Heath Richard's style of creating a mechanism which works on the forefront, but whats funnier and more entertaining is the work happening underneath. As you can see the clothes will fall down onto a conveyor belt which will take them up and drop them into. a squeezing mechanism which basically purifies them and turns it into water, while this is happening the mathematics can be seen being done by a robot claw device (all very possible I know). This is all well and good on paper but it is still the same C2WEP-01 in real life. I had developed the entertaining side of it but only for the adverting and marketing side of it.

This diagram is rather busy (and rough) however it still holds the same parts but many more features. As you can see there are 2 extra clothing tanks, a metal flower which is also a washing machine, water tanks and a VR set. Let me break it down.

Here we have the clothing tanks, this is where the clothes will be divided into fabrics - Right now I want to use Cotton, Polyester and either Wool or Hemp. It is important to separate the items so we can calibrate how much that specific item weights (grams) and how much that material uses water wise (Litres)

This is where the fun part comes in, although I want to use real old clothing, I think using balls that are made out of the materials and weigh the same, we can use colour coding on the balls (red = cotton so it goes into the red tank) so then people can throw them into the correct tank (cotton will be red as that is the worst for water use). I think it's important to incorporate some physical activity as it will encourage the user to get involved.

Having features of both an educational programme that someone can use collect clothes and convert it to water and having a fun play element is perfect for a school or public place as when the C2WEP-01 isn't being used, it can still be used as you could still throw the correct balls into the correct tank.

Here we have the weight conversion part where the weight of the clothing will be converted into Litres of water, here I want to have levers and buttons just like a factor would which will please the user. Numbers wont be interesting to everyone especially when they're young, which will lead me onto the next part that comes with it.

This is a stationary running pad which someone will run on it and it will change the KG's on the machine and then the machine will change it to Litres, this is a good engaging way of making people run to change something, they are learning about numbers but they have to work for it. I also want this to be used so when a demonstration of the C2WEP-01 is happening, we can set how many litres of water is used to a measurement of distance so then the public have to then run that distance to get the number back to 0. I believe this is an interesting way to educate someone on how much water is used as I don't think people will expect it and in a forever fattening society some light jogging wont go amiss.

Getting inspiration from the impressive Boomtown stage design I wanted to add aspects of nature into this factory setting as it will break up the amount of industry aesthetic, while this flower may still be made of a metal to keep with the steam punk vibe, it will be colourful and eye-catching. But it will also have another use, the hole in the middle will be a washing machine which can then be used to display washes of different materials and how many microfibres end up being leaked into the water system. By using the microfibre catching bags that are on the market we can also spread awareness of how important they are and what the damages of plastic microfibres are. This segment is to A have a more theatrical feel to the C2WEP-01 but to also add another way of displaying fast fashion damages in our households.

For the 'converter' button, I felt as though just clicking a button isn't extremely exciting, so for the educational purposes as well as problem solving, I wanted to create 'wires' that will need to be plugged into specific places, for this it would be good if it revolved around climate change and specifically the different type of ecosystems (colour/theme coded).

- Terrestrial: tundra, forests (various kinds), grasslands, and deserts (land)

- Aquatic: marine and freshwater

This will again be fun and educational so it pleases everyone really.

Here would be the last stage, the clothes have been converted into water, they are in the tanks and ready to be put through into specific water pumps around the world. This will be through the use of VR which they will have a station to put the goggles on, see the C2WEP-01 fill with water, pumping it through a pipe into a pump and then filling a river bed/buckets in another country. It would be nice to have real water in tanks and the use of kinetic energy or correct decisions can see the water rise or go down.

Trying to add a fun, physical thing here as well, I thought of swings as they could be used to create energy which then pumps the water from the tanks to the water pipe? This part is unsolved for now but I feel as though swings could work really well.

Overall I really believe in this concept, I think its really important to educate young people properly as they can influence their parents and friends alike. This is easier said than done as peoples attention spans are decreasing every generation so it is very important the C2WEP-01 is engaging, fun and exciting all while delivering clear information about fast fashion and the problems of water usage and pollution.