The College of Wooster Department of Art Student Independent Study

Untitled: Dissecting how consumerism's recycling exploits Southeast Asian environment in a virtual art experience.

Developed regions, such as North America and Western Europe, have ignored their responsibilities in the waste management process. With an inadequate infrastructure that is unable to sort their own refuse thoroughly, plastic wastes are expo, ted off shore in large containers to be processed in Southeast Asian countries, and especially, China. In light of China's 2018 ban of foreign waste, Untitled interprets the overlooked reality of recycling and criticizes its environmental exploitation of developing countries in the waste product industry. Untitled also discusses the interwoven connection between the two types of plastic consumption: the excessive use of plastic as a result of consumerism leads to an unanticipated effect on the marine wildlife.

This Senior Independent Study is an interdisciplinary effort combining Art Studio and Computer Science. The Untitled world is set in an interactive Virtual Reality environment. Viewers can walk around the environment wearing the Virtual Reality headset. and can interact with its surroundings using their hands tracked by the Leap Motion technology. Behind the economic benefits and prosperity of consumerism are neglected responsibilities. Untitled is an honest attempt to face this reality. It challenges many recycling misconceptions manifested by consumer culture and offers a personal interpretation of the dystopian recycling process. The virtual world is a graphic simulation of what "environmentally friendly recycling• actually looks like behind the expendable commodities, colorful billboards, and vain advertising catchphrases.

Thanh Nguyen ‘19

Advisors: Denise Burns and Marina Mangubi

Untitled. Virtual Reality, screenshot from experience 2019.

Installation. 2019.

Process Time-lapse Video Recording. 2019.