What's it worth?

My latest university project has given me a quote. The quote is 'What's it worth?' We have to interperet this and produce something/anything which we see relevant to the quote.

I started thinking about how different things are worth different amounts to different people. I tried to think of things that we don't really value or even know how to value and settled with the human body. How can you put a price on human body parts that make us who we are?

After a lot of thought and discussion (and crying my eyes out at the movie '7 Pounds' starring Will Smith) I decided to do my piece on how much organs are worth. Then my boyfriend mentioned the black market.

After a lot of research I finally made the decision to do my piece on how much human body organs are worth on the black market. And, it's surprisingly very interesting but also sad and worrying.

The black market is simply an illegal 'underground' market in which organisations buy and sell human organs to those that need them. However, this isn't just about taking a kidney from someone who is deceased, oh no no, this is about an ongoing market for taking organs from living donors, and not always by the choice of the individual. Some people in under developed countries are kidnapped, drugged and literally cut open and left to die in some cases. It is horrendous.

There's actually a village in an underdeveloped country known as 'The Kidney Village' because almost every man had sold his kidney for money to provide for their family. Can you actually believe it? It sounds crazy but goes on in literally every country in the world.

Anyway, if you care to know how much your body on the black market is worth, take a look below at a poster info graphics piece I've created on the topic. 

I hope you find it as interesting as I did learning about it.

ISTD | White Noise | 4′33″

For the ISTD awards this year I chose the brief 4′33″ (4 Minutes 33 Seconds) composed by John Cage.  4′33″ is an inspiring three-movement composition. The piece is a silent piece, which consists of three movements. The idea was that although the piece was silent, you can in fact never be silent; no matter how hard we try. We are always breathing, moving and there is always background noise. The piece purports to consist of the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is performed, although it is commonly perceived as "four minutes thirty-three seconds of silence"


I saw huge potential in this brief which is exactly why I chose it. 

Research showed me that white noise can be a very uncomfortable and eerie sound, which can also involve ghostly sounds and voices. This is exactly the reason why I chose it to include in my work. The idea behind my piece is that you read the distorted text whilst listening to the white noise. 

The piece has an extract of Don Delillo’s ‘White Noise’. The extract is of a man talking about great men who have died and how they probably did not fear death. The man and his wife then go on to argue about who should die first because they love each other so much neither of them could live without one another.

When listening to the 4 Minutes 33 Seconds whilst reading the distorted text, your mind is open to interpretation of you what you hear and read. Therefore, when each individual reads and listens, each experience will be different and unique.

All this type was produced using my typewriter featured here.