Antigreen video raises questions about wasteful materials

This video, titled "Invent," is Matt Robinson and Tom Wrigglesworth's entry for HP's D&AD Students Awards contest, which awards students who present "an idea which promotes HP workstations' ability to bring to life anything the creative mind can conceive."

Tom and Matt responded with a unique design using stop-motion animation, catchy synthesized music, eight HP Deskjet D1560 inkjet printers, and a whole lotta paper to create this "aesthetic symphony."

Detractors on the Vimeo video page are shaking their fingers at the large volume of trees that were sacrificed in the making of this video, while others claim that art has no environmental conscience. HP has yet to release a statement about the video but has always been very active in reducing its products' impact on the environment.

What do you think? Leave a comment and let us know!

[mjn507]

I like it. Very clever. Just because all that ink and paper was used doesn't make it a waste.

[gildorluthien]

the accusation of sacrificing a large number of trees is ludicrous. it's a cool video, plain and simple. The fact that those guys took all that time, especially with stop motion, should make everyone just shut up about a tree and appreciate the ingenuity of the video itself. They probably only used 2 or three packs of paper anyway.

[q335r49]

i think it's kind of a bad video because it's all style and no substance. It almost makes HP look like apple, which may be what they are going for ("Think different?") It's not even that clever, it makes no argument, .... it's a terrible video. It's self-centered, navel gazing, "about it's own brilliance", and ... predictably, makes no mention of the outside world or the earth. But, hey, that describes about 98% of the population, or the population at 98% of the time, at least here in America.

[ymmartin]

While they did go through so much paper and ink, its use was for a one-time result. This isn't ongoing, persistent usage simply to repeat the results as seen in the video. Now that they have created their final piece, it has been documented and the results are available for us to share and discuss beyond the act of creation. Art by its nature can often be destructive or wasteful through the actual creative process, but once the final piece is complete there is nothing more wasted. Compare that with what we print out every day in our offices, primary for single use, like a spreadsheet to review in a meeting, and then tossed into the garbage. That's true wastefulness. Not this.

[kormiko]

Here's an idea, HP:

How about you let us print until the ink runs out and not when your printers tell us it's time to buy more ink?
I know you want us to buy ink from you until we can't afford paper anymore, but if you keep up with this business practice, we won't buy anything from you ... at all.

[FirstReflections]

Paper is one of our best, renewable resources. We should be using MORE paper, not less. These idiots who want to use hemp or synthetics or what ever other materials in order to "save trees" just don't understand anything!

Using trees, then replanting trees and then using trees again is NOT deforestation. Deforestation is what happens when you cut down a forest so that you can grow a hemp field or build a factory or create a farm or a golf course!

Let's get rid of the stupid farms and fields that produce only 5% as much usable material per square foot as a forest growing on that same land! THAT is the solution: MORE tree use. If you REALLY want to save trees, stop substituting other, far less efficient materials that have to take up land space that could be used to grow trees!

[globalhemp]

Cutting down a forest, then replanting 1-3 species of trees does not replace a "forest" as much as it produces a tree farm.

Yes, there is a happy medium. Hemp is a great resource and produces a finer quality paper than trees. However, trees are great for lumber and the marketplace will not sustain a $5 per roll of hemp toilet paper. The sensible goal should never be a "winner takes all" in the argument.

Yes, one of the most important things someone can do is make informed choices. Take furniture for example. Many of today's furniture is made of inferior medium density fiberboard (MDF) that is ground-up tree fiber held together with various glues (many of which are toxic). These pieces of furniture are not durable, if they get wet, they swell up. They also chip easily, etc.

The smart choices for furniture are: solid wood (including plywood), metal (100% recyclable), and used.

Why chop down a tree for a desk, entertainment center that lasts 3-5 years and is not recyclable? Even solid wood furniture can be burned to produce energy, etc. MDF is just crap. Its wasteful to have this crap.

[DarkHawke]

I think it's a clever video, not unlike the Eppybirds' stuff, and the fascists ought to leave it and the creators alone.