Beautiful wishes or Plastic Pollution?

Shih Ting Kao (Amy)

National Geographic Traveler August / September 2018 Page 85

The idea of this remix media art project is to pull attention to the issue of "plastic pollution" caused by the lantern festival. The Pingxi district, located in New Taipei City, Taiwan, is well known for its Lantern Festival. People can release the sky lantern not only during the annual Lantern Festival time but also in the daily visit to Pinxi.

With more and more aware of our environmental issues nowadays, the environmentalist in Taiwan now trying to bring out the plastic pollution issue in the area. After people released the plastic lanterns with their beautiful wishes, it's not always land in a proper space. Sometimes the lantern will fall in the woods, sometimes into the ocean. It caused a severe environmental problem. 

I chose the image form National Geographic Travel magazine, which has an Asia ocean scene with some trees on the side. I have used colorful tissue papers to express the plastic texture. On the contrary, I added some gold and shinning lanterns that represent how beautiful wishes can end up laying in the water or hanging on the tree. To bring up people's awareness of the responsibility of protecting our environment.