Abandoned objects in the Urban Environment

Tommy Li

The book that was never published

Student project 2010

Edinburgh Napier University

Module experiential design

Abandoned objects in the urban environment by Tommy Li is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.

to the things we love.

My purpose in the creation of this book is solely because I felt that something should be done or at least I should try and help arise social awareness because that

is the least that I can do, and without trying I am merely anything.

In this book I want to express my thoughts of how us humans can sometimes be so thoughtlessly selfish, how we can embrace one thing and then simply stop and leave them behind but in terms of objects, by doing this I hope that I can change

the world for the better one step at the time.

Purpose

How can I achieve this? I have adventured in the areas of Edinburgh, with my DLSR to look for objects that people abandoned and bring justice in their name.

I am going to talk through each item in turn, and speak in their name.

Foot ball

Football man’s best friend whenever it comes down to having something to kick around, I found this football in a non space waste land, the football seems deflated and have been left there over many years. How long can one man play the same

football before the football getting bored of it? That question I cannot explain my-self, but it also simply does not take much to kick a football over a fence and for-ever forgotten? The answer is not much. The football brings you joy and happi-

ness, and can be so easily abandoned... Football appears to be made out of leather, 50 years to decompose.

In this case, either football or an Rugby ball can also endure the same cruel fate. I found this Ruby ball in the wasteland, also deflated and left for years. Appears to

be made out of plastic, roughly 50-80 years to decompose.

Rugby ball

In the middle of nowhere I found this heap of waste construction materiel, I would imagine the timber is used to build houses, giving us shelter over our heads at

night, making us feel safe in comfort and the stones and tiles used to build walls to withhold the roof in place, and the dirt and soil as the ground to be build on. Wood 3-5 months to decompose depending on the size and thickness. Plastic bags used to carry the materials from 10-100s years to decompose. Titles and stone are raw ma-

terials therefore immortal.

Construction dump site

Bed Found in a wasteland of Edinburgh, once used to provide comfort for us to sleep on during the night, but now the bed needs some rest of his own. Most of any mattress is recyclable up to 70% can be reused and only 30% is thrown away, how-

ever in this case, the whole mattress is wasted. Bed 80-100 years to decompose.

Bed

in the wastelands I found this abandon suitcase, often called upon on whenever you are either moving or going on holiday, and after completion of task it is also often returned back into storage for example the loft but this time instead it is left

abandoned. Appears to be made out Nylon fabric, around roughly 30- 40 years to decompose.

Suitcase

Also in the wasteland I found broken and abandoned CD, many use to store com-puterise personal information such as movies, music and work files but in this

case, the CD is discarded and broken, and left behind on floor. if this CD was not broken, it could of store that information for a very long time. CD around

217 years to decompose.

CD

BARR cream soda can found on the Meadows park of Edinburgh, empty drank left on the pavement, how can anyone buy something so briefly at the price of 35pence have such a big consequences for such a small pleasurable experience? Alumini-

um tin can 80-200 years to decompose.

Soda drink

Umbrella Is used to protect us from the harsh environments such as rain snow and wind. It is a object but it is a object that is used to protect us, it is sort of like our

guardian, but now the owner has abandoned this object. In a way I feel kind of sad as how the umbrella never abandons their owner. Nylon fabric

30 - 40 years to decompose.

Umbrella

In the wastelands I found one single shoe, however every man is born with two feet’s, thus making this single shoe lonely but mostly useless. Shoes are very im-

portant things they make our feet’s comfortable as every step and leap we take forward. shoe roughly 50-80 years to decompose.

Shoes

Seems that even designer shoes can endure the same fate, partner lost, left aban-doned on a fence . Designer Shoe roughly 50-80 years to decompose.

Designer shoe

Leather boots, abandoned and left behind on power railings. I began to think, is there a reason behind this? I did some more further reach online and I found that there are few myths and legend about shoes being on power railings, it could be because of gang activity is being taken place or in other words, it is somewhere

where one can go and buy street drugs, or it could just be because of personal mis-chief and sheer fun of throwing a pair of shoes into the railing lines. Roughly for

the 50-80 years for the rubber sole to decompose and 50 years for the leather to de-compose.

Leather boots

its seem that this bicycle has been abandon for some time now, both its wheels is removed including the seat, why through? Is it because of thief? or is it because of the owner not storing the bike in a more secure location? Bicycles are great, they relate back to the time of dawn when man invented the round wheel, until Baron Davis improved the idea in the 1817 but my point is, any things even bicycles de-

serves better. Bicycles are made out of aluminium, therefore roughly 50 years to decompose.

Bicycle

Hats often used to warm our very heads, in this case a child’s head. protects us from harsh environments such as wind, cold and sometimes even rain. The child’s

hat is left abandon on a wall, no longer having to protect its owner, but who is there to protect the child’s hat when he is in need of it? No one is the case. Cotton

hat roughly 10-30 years to decompose.

Child hat

The same fate is fallen upon its kind. Cotton roughly 10-30 years to decompose.

Black hat

There is similar attributes of hats and gloves, they protect us but is left behind. Per-sonally I would like presume that this glove belong to a male, and I would like to compare how different people would abandon the same kind of objects, on a small

scale. This glove is made out of cotton roughly 10-30 years to decompose.

Black gloves

Blue gloves, presumably the owner is a female, because the visual size of the hands is different two of a males shape. What I find particle about these gloves is, it actually looks like it has been left there by accident, on top of a berry bush. Did she leave the gloves on purpose? or was it a accident? It is a unusual place to be

left behind? However in the end, Those gloves are still left behind. Cotton 10-30 years to decompose.

Blue gloves

Tiny blue gloves, it seems as if the gloves is left behind by a child, the sex of its owner is unknown, but it seems as if when it comes down to abandoning and leav-ing objects behind, There is no difference in-between sex and age. Cotton 10-30

years to decompose.

Child’s gloves

One may argue that the pen is mightier than the sword and one may say a work-men is only good as his tools. What use is there when the workmen do not even

have his tools? I mean a pen is important is it not? You write down your thoughts, you create literature of your mind? Pen left abandoned on the pavement floor, Pen is plastic, and the time to decompose is unknown, but in this case the pen definite-

ly mightier than the sword when it comes decomposing in the soil.

Pen

Socks are important yes, they warm and protect our feet’s. But what I want to ask is, in the middle of the street there are socks abandon? How? Usually you wear your socks within your shoes, and this person took their shoes off and switched

socks and abandoned them? Cotton 10-30 years to decompose.

Socks

Underpants, one of the most unusual items that I found abandon on the street, peo-ple wear clothing on top of there under wears, How did this person manage to re-move them in a public space? I am puzzled, but mostly unsure how. it will take

the under pants 10-30 years to decompose.

Under pants

I find this day in practically interesting in how many things are abandoned, be-cause the day before was guy fox night, If you are not British, November the 5th is guy fox night, we have bonfires and fireworks across the country, at the start of the

month the general public can buy fireworks from general shops.

November the 6th

Back to the point, November the 6th, the day after the fireworks. In the meadows park, there are many abandoned objects in this photograph, it appears that the con-

tents of a hand bags has been emptied on the floor, Left and abandoned after the celebration, consisting of 3 bottles plastic bag, a hair comb, umbrella, and count-

less used up fireworks wrappers.

An event, such as the celebration of November the 5th should be pleasant and a fun experience, but do we really know, because of our brief joy and our enter-

tainments sake it is going to linger for the next 100 or more years because of our waste? Is it fair that we can give so little, but take so much? A typical bottle of soft drink would cost 1 pound 99 pence, and after 5-10minutes that bottles contents is consumed, we would quite reluctantly dispose and abandon the bottle, then the

bottle would be buried for 450 years before it finally becomes a part of nature once again. That 450 years is way past a humans life time by multiple times, is it really

a right thing to do? Or are we all thoughtlessly selfish?

We humans are not perfect, and we know that and that should change, and learn what is love once more, objects should be treat as well as people, infact they might

even live longer than us if they had a life. Is something so brief celebrate really worth its cost? Can we humans not love one thing forever and never abandoning

it? We are better than this, we really are and the choice is really yours.

Conclusion

In this EBook that I have written I wish I had more time because of the fact that the international postal service is down, I could not use any book publishing services, making the colour of the printed version better, and more fine in quality , some of the alignment are wrong because I am not so skilled with ado-be indesign. My most highest quality NEF raw files could not be read in adobe or Microsoft word. An-other issue I had with this piece of work is that when I host this file on the highest quality without com-pression is at 500MB which is 400 to big for that web server, so I decide to include a web version and a highest version on the DVD that I submit. English is my second language and I have dyslexia and I did not have the time necessary require for my work to be checked, as the snow has effect many of the Uni-versities staff. If there was one thing that I wanted to improve on it would have to be have more time, and have mother nature on my side.I took this piece of work quite personal, throughout this book, I wish to share my mind a little, I’m not sure if I am too passionate or I’m just merely insane. The book’s images is all taken by myself and me alone thus making this piece licensed under myself. I would also like to think that this book flows well and is visually strong. and the hosting website that I used is interactive visual pleasing.

Evaluation