COLLECTION NAME:
Graduate Thesis Collection
Record
Title:
Thrift and Thriving: The links between thrift, frugality, and disposability, and how storytelling can shift environmental communication toward joy
Creator:
Miller, Marie Crawford
Subject:
Thesis (M.F.A.) -- Industrial Design
Subject:
Savannah College of Art and Design -- Department of Industrial Design
Rights:
Copyright is retained by the authors or artists of items in this collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Abstract:
“Research shows that climate change across the globe has been significantly worsened due to overconsumption practices, particularly in the United States and the Western World. This thesis focuses on the differences between thrift and frugality mindsets, and how these affect consumption behavior. While thrift is shown to negatively impact purchasing habits, frugality is shown to reduce both spending and consumption. Similarly, materialism is divided into two varieties. The first, based on image, success, and status, correlates with greater consumption, while the second, based on happiness, identity, and emotional attachment, correlates with reduced consumption and longer product life cycles. Strategically designed storytelling through short film is explored as a means of intervention within this paradigm of disposability. Because storytelling has been shown to easily engage the emotions, it may be a particularly effective tool for communicating the importance of emotional attachment to goods, which promotes greater care and durability. To shift the public focus from an emphasis on high quantities of disposable goods to the benefits of purchasing quality, emotionally durable goods, storytelling that amplifies the voices of craftspeople over mass-manufacturers is espoused. This thesis proposes that this would reduce environmental and social damage caused by the current consumption system.” –Abstract
Keywords: Amazon Effect, disposability, durability, durable craft, emotion and objects, frugality, local economies, materialism, meaningful objects, over-consumption, paradigm shift, powerful stories, quality craft, storytelling and craft, storytelling and film, thrift.
Keywords: Amazon Effect, disposability, durability, durable craft, emotion and objects, frugality, local economies, materialism, meaningful objects, over-consumption, paradigm shift, powerful stories, quality craft, storytelling and craft, storytelling and film, thrift.
Publisher:
Savannah, Georgia : Savannah College of Art and Design
Date:
2022-07
Format:
1 online resource: 1 PDF (Thesis, 207 pages, color illustrations, graphs) + 1 mp4 film (Studio component, approximately 6 min., sound, color)