Ideas in Form Part 2
14 Nov 2020The overriding themes of the week were about the excessive amounts of food I was going to be eating, diwali diyas, the firecrackers, and the resulting air pollution I would have to escape from. A quick scoll through Instagram got me thinking of data exhaust, and so on the eve of Diwali I hatched a plan.
I've outlined my thoughts in the presentation below, along with images of the physical model.
The juxtaposition between the diyas and data was immediately apparent to me, but I had to work hard to not think beyond that. I knew that the learning was in the reflections after the fact, and so rather happily I approached the activity. It's not often that I get to do something fun, and call it work! I scraped out the wax from the spent diyas, melted them in a special double boiler, and poured them out (with immense wastage) into newer diyas and candles.
There's a few things that came to mind when I was making the presentation and thinking back on the activity. I enjoyed the activity, and the process of reusing the 'waste' wax. It felt good to reuse and recycle resources to create something useful. There is a certain satisfaction in the performance, which I enjoyed. The physical effort felt nice. There was plenty to learn from the tools I used, and the method I used to melt and pour out the wax. I used tools that I found in my drawers or in the bathroom, and they aren't designed to pour out wax efficiently. The first batch I poured out was a messy process, and lots of wax either leaked or dripped out. The second time around, I was careful and delibrate in my methods, and as a result, there was minimal wastage.