Big City, Big Problems

Gestalt Principles

For this project, I struggled at the beginning to come up with an idea.  I walked around the class as everyone else was wall on their way to a strong project.  I began thinking what causes are relevant in my life.  

I have lived in Memphis since 2002.  Although Memphis is not a fancy city like New York or Chicago, it contains many of the same issues that larger cities have.  Throughout middle school and high school, I was very involved in a youth group.  Every summer, we spent a week in midtown at a church where we put on a Vacation Bible School for kids in the surrounding neighborhoods.  During this week, we would also go and do service projects, such as cleaning up trash. Because of the summers I spent in the heart of Memphis, I am well aware of the undying problems in cities.  

Since the problems that Memphis has are also in other big cities, I began trying to figure out how to turn this into a project.  After thinking about it, I realized that all of these problems are things that no one wants to take time to deal with. 

Air Pollution.  
Unemployment.
Litter. 
Homelessness.

Next came the composition.  Obviously, I needed to have a city skyline.  After searching for the perfect one, I decided to create my own.  For inspiration, I used the skylines of Los Angeles and New York.  

To show air pollution, I new I wanted to have a cloud of smog behind the buildings.  

For litter, I placed a tipped over trashcan with garbage falling out everywhere.  

Last but not least.  The homeless man.

Reference Photos

Sadly, I did not achieve all my goals that I had intended with this project.  If I were to revisit this piece, I would first start with the car and completely redesign it by making it proportional to its surroundings.  Secondly, I would use a tablet to handwrite the message on the sign.  And lastly, I would make the smog a discrete intricate pattern, possibly out of words describing what the viewer is looking at.