Latest news with #EnvironmentalCrisis
Associated Press
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Plastic Heart by SuKang You Wins Bronze in A' Virtual Installation Awards
SuKang You's Plastic Heart Recognized for Excellence in Digital Installations Design by Prestigious A' Design Award COMO, CO, ITALY, August 7, 2025 / / -- SuKang You has been announced as a winner of the highly prestigious A' Design Award in the Virtual and Digital Art Installations Design category for the innovative work titled 'Plastic Heart.' The A' Design Award is a highly respected and well-recognized accolade in the field of digital installations design, celebrating excellence in creativity, innovation, and technical proficiency. The A' Virtual and Digital Art Installations Design Award is particularly relevant to the Digital Installations industry, as it recognizes designs that push the boundaries of what is possible in this rapidly evolving field. By showcasing the most innovative and impactful digital installations, this award serves as a benchmark for excellence and inspires professionals to continue advancing the industry through their work. Plastic Heart is a captivating public LED media art installation that visualizes the environmental crisis caused by plastic waste. The artwork takes the form of a pulsating heart constructed from colorful plastic debris, utilizing AI-generated imagery and NeRF technology to transform digital artwork into a striking 3D visualization. The immersive LED display engages audiences with a thought-provoking spectacle that highlights the consequences of excessive plastic consumption. This recognition from the A' Design Award serves as a testament to SuKang You's commitment to creating impactful and meaningful digital installations that address critical issues facing our world. By winning the Bronze A' Virtual and Digital Art Installations Design Award, Plastic Heart has the potential to inspire other designers and artists to explore the intersection of technology, art, and sustainability, driving positive change within the industry and beyond. Interested parties may learn more at: About SuKang You SuKang You is a motion graphic designer and visual artist specializing in digital media and environmental storytelling. With a background in compositing and on-air promotion (OAP), You explores the intersection of emerging technologies, such as AI and NeRF, to expand the boundaries of visual communication. As a graduate student at Hongik University, You has participated in collaborative exhibitions and received international recognition for digital media projects. Through research and creative practice, You focuses on integrating technology and design to address contemporary issues, particularly in sustainability and digital art innovation. In addition to this boilerplate information, this is what we know: SuKang You is from Republic of Korea. About SuKang You (Hongik University) SuKang You is a visual communication designer specializing in motion graphics and digital media. Currently pursuing a graduate degree at Hongik University, SuKang explores the intersection of artificial intelligence, generative design, and environmental themes in visual storytelling. With a background in broadcasting and on-air promotion (OAP), SuKang integrates innovative technologies such as Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF) and generative AI into creative projects. The Plastic Heart project, developed as part of academic research, reflects a deep concern for environmental sustainability, utilizing AI-driven techniques to visualize the impact of plastic waste on ecosystems. About Bronze A' Design Award The Bronze A' Design Award recognizes notable designs that demonstrate creativity, practicality, and professional execution in the Virtual and Digital Art Installations Design category. Winning designs are selected through a rigorous blind peer-review process, where a panel of expert judges evaluates entries based on pre-established criteria such as innovation in digital design, user interface quality, interactive experience, visual aesthetics, technological advancement, sustainability considerations, and social impact. The Bronze A' Design Award acknowledges the skill and dedication of designers who create thought-provoking and influential digital installations that have the potential to shape industry standards and contribute to the advancement of the field. About A' Design Award The A' Design Award is an international, juried design competition that has been recognizing and promoting superior products and projects across all industries since 2008. Now in its 17th year, the A' Design Award provides a global platform for designers and brands to showcase their creativity and innovation, with the ultimate aim of making the world a better place through the power of good design. Entries are blind peer-reviewed and evaluated by an influential panel of design professionals, industry experts, journalists, and academics based on pre-established criteria. By celebrating remarkable achievements and showcasing pioneering designs on an international stage, the A' Design Award inspires a global appreciation for the principles of good design, driving forward a cycle of inspiration and advancement. Interested parties may learn more about the A' Design Awards, explore jury members, view past laureates, and participate with their projects at Makpal Bayetova A' DESIGN AWARD & COMPETITION SRL +39 031 497 2900 email us here Legal Disclaimer: EIN Presswire provides this news content 'as is' without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on plastic pollution: global action is desperately needed to deal with this scourge
Plastic pollution has reached the most remote and inaccessible parts of our beleaguered planet. It has been found in Greenland's ice cap, near the summit of Mount Everest, and in the deepest depths of the western Pacific Ocean. Nature programmes have sounded the alarm over a human-made crisis that has become an environmental scourge and a serious threat to our health. Yet global production of plastics is on course to triple to more than a billion tonnes a year by 2060, after increasing by more than 200 times over the past 75 years. This gloomy backdrop should inject a sense of urgency into UN-convened talks in Switzerland this week, aimed at agreeing a binding global plastics treaty. In 2022, when 173 countries committed to work towards such an accord, there was widespread relief that at last a multilateral route was to be taken towards solving a quintessentially global problem. Sadly, as delegates gather in Geneva, there are reasons to be fearful. As major oil-producing countries seek to circumvent the consequences of the green transition, the fossil fuel-based manufacture of plastics has become a key battleground. During five rounds of negotiations, over three years, a 'petrochemical bloc' led by Russia and Saudi Arabia has stalled and obstructed attempts to agree a reduction in production. And as a recent investigation by the Guardian laid bare, corporate capture of the talks has also become a significant problem. Industry lobbyists have sought to dominate and divert the debate, promoting implausible panaceas in the form of new recycling technologies and other mitigating measures. The return of Donald Trump to the White House is unlikely to improve the prospects of a truly ambitious reset. On the first day of his second term Mr Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement, signalling his contempt for multilateralism and his unflinching backing for big oil. There are already signs that in Geneva the US plans to align itself with fellow fossil-fuel producers in resisting any attempt to agree to a reduction in virgin plastic production. Given such headwinds, the scale of the crisis bears reiteration. Ahead of this week's talks, an expert review published in the Lancet described plastics as 'a grave, growing and under-recognised danger to human and planetary health'. Thanks to television series such as Blue Planet II, the grievous impact on blighted marine ecosystems is relatively widely understood. But plastic production also contributes more than 3% of annual global greenhouse emissions. Most insidiously, its ubiquitous presence in everyday life means that chemical additives and pollutants find their way into human bodies. According to the Lancet report, health-related damages globally add up to £1.1tn a year, with infants and children particularly vulnerable. Carrying on with business as usual, while seeking unlikely technological fixes, will not be good enough. A cap on global production is desperately needed, though achieving that in Geneva looks like a tall order. At last November's talks in South Korea, more than 100 countries supported legally binding reductions but negotiations collapsed without an agreement. A consensus of sorts may be found on the need to eliminate harmful chemicals from future manufacture, and phasing out single-use plastics, which account for half of the 400m tonnes produced every year. That would at least be a start. After years of obfuscation and delay, something tangible must emerge from Switzerland.
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on plastic pollution: global action is desperately needed to deal with this scourge
Plastic pollution has reached the most remote and inaccessible parts of our beleaguered planet. It has been found in Greenland's ice cap, near the summit of Mount Everest, and in the deepest depths of the western Pacific Ocean. Nature programmes have sounded the alarm over a human-made crisis that has become an environmental scourge and a serious threat to our health. Yet global production of plastics is on course to triple to more than a billion tonnes a year by 2060, after increasing by more than 200 times over the past 75 years. This gloomy backdrop should inject a sense of urgency into UN-convened talks in Switzerland this week, aimed at agreeing a binding global plastics treaty. In 2022, when 173 countries committed to work towards such an accord, there was widespread relief that at last a multilateral route was to be taken towards solving a quintessentially global problem. Sadly, as delegates gather in Geneva, there are reasons to be fearful. As major oil-producing countries seek to circumvent the consequences of the green transition, the fossil fuel-based manufacture of plastics has become a key battleground. During five rounds of negotiations, over three years, a 'petrochemical bloc' led by Russia and Saudi Arabia has stalled and obstructed attempts to agree a reduction in production. And as a recent investigation by the Guardian laid bare, corporate capture of the talks has also become a significant problem. Industry lobbyists have sought to dominate and divert the debate, promoting implausible panaceas in the form of new recycling technologies and other mitigating measures. The return of Donald Trump to the White House is unlikely to improve the prospects of a truly ambitious reset. On the first day of his second term Mr Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement, signalling his contempt for multilateralism and his unflinching backing for big oil. There are already signs that in Geneva the US plans to align itself with fellow fossil-fuel producers in resisting any attempt to agree to a reduction in virgin plastic production. Given such headwinds, the scale of the crisis bears reiteration. Ahead of this week's talks, an expert review published in the Lancet described plastics as 'a grave, growing and under-recognised danger to human and planetary health'. Thanks to television series such as Blue Planet II, the grievous impact on blighted marine ecosystems is relatively widely understood. But plastic production also contributes more than 3% of annual global greenhouse emissions. Most insidiously, its ubiquitous presence in everyday life means that chemical additives and pollutants find their way into human bodies. According to the Lancet report, health-related damages globally add up to £1.1tn a year, with infants and children particularly vulnerable. Carrying on with business as usual, while seeking unlikely technological fixes, will not be good enough. A cap on global production is desperately needed, though achieving that in Geneva looks like a tall order. At last November's talks in South Korea, more than 100 countries supported legally binding reductions but negotiations collapsed without an agreement. A consensus of sorts may be found on the need to eliminate harmful chemicals from future manufacture, and phasing out single-use plastics, which account for half of the 400m tonnes produced every year. That would at least be a start. After years of obfuscation and delay, something tangible must emerge from Switzerland.
