Gone But Never Forgotten

BKJ, Never Forget (2014)

I am BKJ and I am a Chicago street artist and the topic I chose to represent artistically is gun violence in Chicago. I chose this topic because it is something I see in my life all the time and I am sick of it and I want to have my voice heard and get the message out that this needs to end. With that being said, I first had to draw my art “The Lost Ones” about gun violence. I drew a dead person in the middle of my piece with bullet holes all over him and rays of light popping out toward an object that we think of when reminded of a certain event. For example, for my allusion to the murder of Trayvon Martin, I drew Skittles and Arizona iced tea. The background of the piece is light blue to symbolize the person ascending to heaven. There is a black border with white writing recording the names and the dates of each victim to show respect. Behind the person are words that read “never forget” because I feel that we should never forget any of the people lost to gun violence every day.

Most young people nowadays do not feel any pain when death is around them because they are used to it and have seen it throughout their lives, but I feel that gun violence is one of the most serious problems, not only in my hometown of Chicago, but everywhere. People are killed every day for no legitimate reason at all, and some of those victims could be family or friends. Gun violence has created a tragic situation for families to go through. I feel that you should not only care about this topic, but you should get up and do something to stop it such as educating the youth about gangs and violence; placing a 3 month waiting period on gun purchases; and having background checks before purchasing a gun. These are only three solutions, but we are smart people and probably have better ideas bottled up in our heads--today is the day to go out and make it happen. No matter how unreal you feel your idea is just remember it can never hurt to try; you'll be surprised where your ideas will take you. If you don't already think this is a problem, then maybe you should know that over the weekend of July 4th, 2013, there were 82 shootings in the Chicago area and 16 of those resulted in death. You should also know that so far this year, there have been about 201 murders. Another thing you should know specifically about our city is that “In 2012, it had 500 murders, the most of any city in the country; Chicago has been among the top three cities with the most murders since 1985” (Drew Desilver, Pew research center. Factank,July 14 2014, Web, 10/17/14) and Chicago had about 440 murders total, last year.

The medium I chose to bring attention to this issue is sticker paper. I used markers, sticker paper, and a printer so I could mass produce my message. I plan to make an initial image on a piece of paper and then get more of my design printed and actually stick them up around the city of Chicago to get my message out to the public. Like I said, I want to get my message across and you can't do that with only a blog post that not everyone will see, so I would put these up, and hopefully more people will see my message and get the point. I mainly want my art to be displayed in the city streets of Chicago--what better place than the heart of the problem, the streets? The reason I want it in the streets is so the public can see it and they will hopefully get my message and I could spark a change, one way or another.

My piece shows ethos because I am obviously credible to speak about this topic because I have seen it a lot throughout my life and actually three of the people I mentioned in my physical art piece are people that I knew very well. My piece appeals to logos because these are true events and they are facts. They people that I mentioned in my piece were actual victims of violence. And I feel that my message is pretty logical “stop killing people.” honestly not everyone agrees with this message but nonetheless it is a very logical statement and I feel that more people should start taking this message into account. Lastly I feel that my art piece has a very strong appeal to pathos because it is a very emotional topic for one and on the other hand we almost all can relate to this topic one way or another. Most of us have gone through the pain of losing a loved one to violence and that only enhances the emotional thoughts I am trying to provoke. I am trying to not only make people think about this topic but I am also trying to make they want to get up and do something about it.

Can...t You See What You're Doing To The Earth

BKJ, World (2014)

Humans throw so much away with so little thought as to where that trash is going and how it affects us in the future. In my Design and Engineering course, we were assigned to collect samples of a product that was being wasted and assemble the samples into a visual representation of an issue. The purpose of this action project was to create something that represents and illustrates a global issue we are facing: material waste. Our waste material was aluminum, particularly aluminum cans. I learned and appreciate trial and error and I am proud of the way my partner and I worked together.
A beverage can is a metal container designed to hold a fixed portion of liquid such as carbonated soft drinks, alcoholic beverages, fruit juices, teas, herbal teas, energy drinks, etc. Beverage cans are made of aluminum (75% of worldwide production) or tin-plated steel (25% worldwide production)(Wikipedia).
Aluminum is a slippery-white metal and the second most abundant metallic element in the earth's crust. It weighs about 1/3 as much as steel, and is remarkable for its excellent corrosion resistance, durability, ability to be easily machined or cast and its volumetric mass density (density) (Wikipedia). Some of the uses for aluminum are in electrical transmission, packaging, and transportation.

Here are some interesting facts about aluminum waste from Lehighcounty:

It takes about 80-200 years for an aluminum can to biodegrade.
In 2012, 55 percent of aluminum beer and soft drink containers generated were recycled, which is about 0.7 million tons.
The largest source of aluminum in the MSW (municipal solid waste) stream is used beverage containers and other packaging containers.
There is no limit to the amount of times aluminum can be recycled.
It is estimated that over the past twenty years, we've trashed more than 11 million tons of aluminum beverage cans worth over $12 billion on today's market.
Americans throw away enough aluminum every three months to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet.

"Liquid Candy: How Softdrinks Are Harming America's Health ~ CSPI." Liquid Candy: How Softdrinks Are Harming America's Health ~ CSPI. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.

Our installation shows a model earth made almost entirely out of aluminum beverage cans, glue, strings, and a Styrofoam ball as our base. Our installation depicts a model earth with silver representing water, green and brown representing earth. The strings represents how many times the total number of aluminum cans wasted in 2012 would go around the earth. There are 5 string around our earth installation, each string represents 7385.285408 times the number of cans goes around the earth. This piece was inspired by the amount of soda cans our school wastes each year, which is roughly about 29,850 aluminum cans. On average, a person will use 597 cans of soda pop each year.

Logistics for cans used in our installation:
2 Diet coca cola cans
7 Root beer cans
4 Sprite cans
1 Coca cola cans
1 Sparking water can
* All of our materials comes from either staffs or students from GCE (Global Citizenship Experience).

Calculations:
On average each American drinks 597 cans of soda a year. The average life expectancy of an American in 2012 was about 78 years (World Bank). This means that over a lifetime, an American would drink 46566 cans of soda. In 2012, the United States population was 312,780,968 (US. News). Number of aluminum cans of soda drank in 2012: 312,780,968 x 46566 = 1.456495856e13 (14,564,958,560,000 cans).

Amount of times the number of aluminum cans went around earth calculations:
- Earth's circumference: 24,901 miles.
- Conversion to miles/space: 14,564,958,560,000 cans x 4 (height of a can) x 12 ft/5280 = 919504959.6 miles
- Number of times United States' waste of 2012 goes around the earth: 919504959.6 miles/24,901 miles (circumference of earth) = 36926.42704 times.
Recycling is an important part of a sustainable lifestyle and is a solution to this aluminum waste problem. It’s important for the future of the planet that we all live sustainably. Recycling aluminum saves an enormous amount of energy, because the aluminum is already in its metallic state. Recycling was a low-profile activity until the late 1960's when the growing use of aluminum cans brought it to the public's attention.
Here are some facts about the importance of recycling aluminum:
Tossing away an aluminum can wastes as much energy as pouring out half of that can's volume of gasoline.
Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours, this is the equivalent of a half a gallon of gasoline.
Making beverage cans from recycled aluminum cuts air pollution by about 95%.
The pollutants created in producing one ton of aluminum include 3,290 pounds of red mud, 2,900 pounds of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas), 81 pounds of air pollutants and 789 pounds of solid wastes.

GN, Can Earth (2014)

Works Cited:

"Aluminum Recycling Facts." Aluminum Recycling Facts. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.
"Aluminum, Common Wastes & Materials." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.
Aluminium. (2014, October 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02:47, October 24, 2014.
"Chemical of the Week -- Aluminum." Chemical of the Week -- Aluminum. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.
"Aluminum Statistics and Information." USGS Minerals Information: Aluminum. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.
"Liquid Candy: How Softdrinks Are Harming America's Health ~ CSPI." Liquid Candy: How Softdrinks Are Harming America's Health ~ CSPI. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.
Robert Schlesinger. "U.S. Population 2012: Nearly 313 Million People." US News. U.S.News & World Report, 30 Dec. 2011. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.
"Life Expectancy at Birth, Total (years)." Data. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.

Ending Gun Violence

Stopping gun violence is my dream, it may not be perfect dream but it is mine. Gun violence in Chicago is a growing problem that will never stop unless each and every one of us contributes. “In 2012, it had 500 murders, the most of any city in the country; Chicago has been among the top three cities with the most murders since 1985” (Drew Desilver, Pew research center. Factank,July 14 2014, Web, 10/17/14) Chicago had about 440 murders in the year of 2013 and over the weekend of July 4th 2013 there were 82 shootings in the Chicago area and 16 of which resulted in death. I find this so sad that we take a holiday that is supposed to celebrate America and pride and instead of celebrating we murder each other. 82 is a shocking number for just one weekend but what is worst is it was on a holiday; the irony of so many murders during our most patriotic day as a country is sickening.
So far in 2014 there are 201 murders and that number is expected to increase if we as a city don't do something quickly. Three years ago, our Mayor made some promises during his Inauguration speech to make the city streets safer. Addressing the voters who had elected him, he told the crowd, “Today, more than any other time in our history, more than any other place in our country, the city of Chicago is ready for change.” Where is the change??? Specifically, our Mayor cited violence as one of the four main challenges

for all the neighbors who deserve to walk home on safer streets.” This quote was said by chicagos very own mayor Rahm Emanuel and seeing the statistics above I believe that Rahm Emanuel has done little to nothing to solve this problem. These statistics are a little sad because most of these are after Rahm was sworn in and it is scary that a man that loves Chicago and says it is a beautiful city would let this violence continue and do nothing about it

Some of the people I have known since I was a little kid are laying in a coffin because they were in the wrong neighborhood or they had on the wrong colors or someone just didn't like them. I am personally just sick of it, sick of chilling with someone one day and the next day you are at their funeral remembering what you last said to them. When a family member or close friend gets killed we feel the pain and it really hurts, so my question is, why do we kill others knowing the pain it brings? I bet that if we ask the whole population of Chicago not one of those people could give a legitimate answer. The reason I feel that way is because I don't feel there is a legit reason we should be killing our own kind. Chicago is such a beautiful city and is known for Pizza, culture, diversity, and just great places to see and that should be what chicago is known for not gangs, killings, dirty, segregation. Chicago is a city with potential to be great but as of now when you mention chicago the first topics that are brought up are gangs, violence, guns, murder. Now our bad rep could change but we have to start trying to make a change not just talk about it

I cannot guarantee that you will all agree with me but I believe that if you ever want this to stop you first have to accept that it is a serious problem. After you accept it,,the first thing I think we need to do is to lower the voting age. Older people are not the ones that have to go through these problems, they are not the ones being killed on a daily basis. Young people are being shot and killed because someone decides that they don't like that person and wants them dead. Another reason is gangs. Now-a-days people can't wear certain colors in certain neighborhoods because you could be killed for territory and color. I feel that if we start to make chicago less segregated then there will be less gangs because a lot of gangs are based on race. I also think that if older people actually talk to the youth about gangs and educate them about it instead of labeling them as a bad child and giving up on them then just maybe they won't join a gang. I also want to get more community activities in all neighborhoods in chicago and have more sports teams that anyone can do just to keep kids off the streets and out of trouble. I also think that they should be tighter gun control. There should be background checks before buying a gun and if that person has a record of being violent he/she can not buy a gun. There should also be a 3 month waiting period before you obtain your gun. A way to make sure the person that bought it keeps it, we will put a stamp on it with a number and if that person sells it and the person he sold it to is caught it will be tracked to that person and they will both be incarcerated for 8 years.

The people that make the decisions are often the type of people that don't really know anything about the topic or have never experienced it. So my question is, why should older people decide our fate and make decisions that could affect our life more than they know if most of them have never went through what we go through. Most of the adults that vote have gone through what we have but it really doesn’t matter what the voters say because the end decisions falls upon the people that put in the laws and they have probably lived great, safe lives. They take our suggestions into consideration but if they have never lived our lives then they can have no empathy for what we say and basically make a blind decision based on what they “think” goes on

The Comfortable Distance

 

BKJ, Bike Sketch (2014)

This project is my second project for the Design And Engineering course. The purpose of this project was to design a bike to fit a certain user’s needs. At the very start of this project we got a persona sheet which explained the user’s needs, how far this person travels, and where they live in Chicago. We learned about many types of bikes like electric, cargo, Divvy, etc. and also how all of those bikes work and what's unique about them. I was personally proud of our initial design because I feel that we took everything into consideration when designing for Travis and I feel that we really fit his needs. The purpose of this assignment was to design a bike for a persona that was assigned to us. The assigned persona came with needs that you had to meet and certain obstacles your persona had to overcome. Then we had to take all that into consideration and design a bike for that persona.

When we first started designing our bike we looked up parts on the internet but then we learned that we don't have to do something that has already been done. We also learned that it doesn’t really matter how the frame is set up as long as it still has the components to make up a bike. Another important thing I learned is that handlebars can make the bike more aerodynamic. An example would be the drop down handlebars which would make you sit in a crouching position and make you more aerodynamic. When designing the bike for our assigned person we had to make the bike fast, comfortable, and stable for the ride. My partner interviewed Anne and she said “I need to be able to ride fast, comfortable, and stable when I’m riding.” which is basically exactly what our persona needed. Our targeted user is a 17 year old high school student named Travis. Travis lives on the third story in the South Side of Chicago. His day includes carrying a bike up and down three flights of stairs and traveling 10 miles to school and back on a bike. With that being said we knew that he had to have a bike that was fast, aerodynamic, and light.

The bike that we came up with is great because it is ultra light which makes it easy to carry. That is important because our persona lives on the 3rd floor and has to carry his bike down the stairs every day. Our bike is also extremely easy to lock because it has a retractable lock that is built into the frame. The lock is five feet long so it is easy to wrap around the whole bike so people can't even steal individual parts. Our bike has built in shocks under the seat and by the front to make the ride even more comfortable. Another reason the ride is comfortable is because we added a memory foam seat that is still slim enough to be aerodynamic.

Our bike holds some unique benefits. Our bike is a road bike with shocks, a storage compartment, and a built-in, retractable lock. The shocks combined with the road bike type frame induce a very comfortable ride while keeping it aerodynamic. The carbon frame and wheels make it extremely light and easy to carry up and down three flights of stairs at the end of a long ride. The retractable lock makes it extremely easy to lock up anywhere. For more comfort we added a bag to the frame that is slim but can still hold everything our persona needs for school. Travis should believe in this design because it is made to be easy to carry up and down three flights of stairs, is aerodynamic to fly against the wind, and is easy to lock up when he gets to school. The road bike type frame allows him to travel at high speeds. On top of all that he doesn't have to carry a book bag on his back anymore, he can just store it in the compartment attached to the frame.

We did run into some obstacles while designing the bike such as, we had to make the bike light and fast. To fix the speed part we wanted to make the bike electric but when we were on FE we learned that electric bikes are very heavy so we quickly ruled that out. Another thing that made the process harder is that we wanted to add drop down handles. However, one of the considerations was that the bike had to be comfortable and those type of handlebars force you to sit in a crouching position, which is not very comfortable at all.The estimated time that it would take our persona to get to school from his house is about 56 minutes to an hour. Travis is travelling 10 mph 4.47 meters per second. The Comfortable Distance Tire’s diameter is 31 inches. The circumference is 97.34 inches around. The Comfortable Distance’s wheel will rotate 6501.46 times from Travis’s house to his school.

 

BKJ, Bike Terrain (2014)