“Disposable Mine Detector”
EXPLORING HOW TO CREATE AN ECONOMIC EQUIVALENCE BETWEEN MANUFACTURING LAND MINES AND MANUFACTURING MINE DETECTORS
When art projects take place in public, and involve society outside of the white cube, the final artwork is not necessary two dimension or three-dimension. Working within the community is the most important part of the project. It is an opportunity to burrow into a social structure and to ask for its trust, a power that can effect change. This is the idea of social sculpture. The participants, who are affecting each other’s ideas of the project, may change the project’s point of view, and their way of thinking.
In my examination, I will explore THE POSSIBILITY OF CREATING AN ECONOMIC EQUIVALENCE BETWEEN PRODUCING LAND MINES AND PRODUCING MINE DETECTORS
How many people around the world die by mines each year? Most mine victims actually survive, but become maimed. This causes difficulty, of course, not only in daily life but also in finance, education and career. The higher the rate of handicapped citizens, the more difficult it is for a country to grow economically. For a nation already exhausted by war, it is difficult to manage urgent problems such as poverty and hunger. It can greatly slow down a nation’s recovery, in terms of money as well as of time.
Who actually cares if it is a land mine you’re making when you are working at an assembly factory? From a worker’s point of view, they can assemble anything, as long as they’re promised a salary to feed their family. Or a worker could be a young teenager, that doesn’t even know what they are making every day… Even a factory owner may accept the change for equivalent benefits, as well. I think only someone who cares about much bigger issues (ex. politics, power,) would prefer to produce mines.
If we could produce a land mine detector at the same cost as a land mine, and provide the same financial benefit for a company, it is theoretically possible to replace these two opposite effects of the same assembly business.
The mine clearance work is risky, labor-intensive and slow. The UN lists 70 countries affected by mines, and their experience in Afghanistan and elsewhere has shown that it takes many years to establish an effective de-mining program in a post-conflict situation. Current de-mining programs measure their progress in terms of a few square kilometers of cleared land each year.
A high tech land mine detector is too expensive for a country already financially exhausted by war. Also many of the machines are sensitive metal detectors, and their higher accuracy makes them pick up more junk. I imagine that simply transporting a tank-like high-tech machine from a developed country would be costly.
My proposed project may be one of the ways to support land mine clearing efforts . I propose to launch this business in a country actually affected by mines, where they can hire victims who need temporary jobs to support themselves. They can make some money to live. My wish for them is this will be first step to support themselves, until their nation’s economy recoveres.
My idea for a disposable (self-exploding) land mine detector is quite simple. Using a radio control Jeep toy as the system, attach a box to the body instead of the decorative part on top.
Since standard mines react to a weight of 3kg~7kg, collect stones, pieces of metal, or soil at the field to fill up the box on the Jeep up to 3~7kg.
Let the Jeep roam a minefield until it runs over a mine to be blown up.
According to a toy company, without the decorative parts, this toy costs around $5(USD) to produce each, plus the $5(USD) for batteries. Simple estimated cost is, $10~15(USD).
Compare this with the production cost of a land mine, which is $4~15(USD) each. It is close. I have noticed that the jeep toy I used to make the prototype is not designed for carrying extra weight either running slowly, I need to improve it.
Prototype
I’m hoping that my theory actually works in real world. There are so many stages of this project, and each stage needs different people to join it . I would like to involve many different professionals as collaborators. The possible professional fields I’m looking into are; Engineering: for improvement of the prototype, Economics, marketing: for calculating the realistic number for every thing, size of the factory, money, reinforce the idea how it works, International politics: NPO: who have been supporting the survivors many dimension mine-walkers: who has deep knowledge of actual minefield actual survivor: who can join me to work together local school student, or whoever interested in to join, testing, assembling, etc.
Nature of the collaboration, the project may be improved or compromised depens on the priority. I know there is a possibility that someone may find this is not a realistic idea, in the end. But it still has meaning as symbolic positive action. I would like to exhibit it as an art piece to be seen as many people as possible, whether it works or not.
“Disposable Mine Detector”
EXPLORING HOW TO CREATE AN ECONOMIC EQUIVALENCE BETWEEN MANUFACTURING LAND MINES AND MANUFACTURING MINE DETECTORS
When art projects take place in public, and involve society outside of the white cube, the final artwork is not necessary two dimension or three-dimension. Working within the community is the most important part of the project. It is an opportunity to burrow into a social structure and to ask for its trust, a power that can effect change. This is the idea of social sculpture. The participants, who are affecting each other’s ideas of the project, may change the project’s point of view, and their way of thinking.
In my examination, I will explore THE POSSIBILITY OF CREATING AN ECONOMIC EQUIVALENCE BETWEEN PRODUCING LAND MINES AND PRODUCING MINE DETECTORS
How many people around the world die by mines each year? Most mine victims actually survive, but become maimed. This causes difficulty, of course, not only in daily life but also in finance, education and career. The higher the rate of handicapped citizens, the more difficult it is for a country to grow economically. For a nation already exhausted by war, it is difficult to manage urgent problems such as poverty and hunger. It can greatly slow down a nation’s recovery, in terms of money as well as of time.
Who actually cares if it is a land mine you’re making when you are working at an assembly factory? From a worker’s point of view, they can assemble anything, as long as they’re promised a salary to feed their family. Or a worker could be a young teenager, that doesn’t even know what they are making every day… Even a factory owner may accept the change for equivalent benefits, as well. I think only someone who cares about much bigger issues (ex. politics, power,) would prefer to produce mines.
If we could produce a land mine detector at the same cost as a land mine, and provide the same financial benefit for a company, it is theoretically possible to replace these two opposite effects of the same assembly business.
The mine clearance work is risky, labor-intensive and slow. The UN lists 70 countries affected by mines, and their experience in Afghanistan and elsewhere has shown that it takes many years to establish an effective de-mining program in a post-conflict situation. Current de-mining programs measure their progress in terms of a few square kilometers of cleared land each year.
A high tech land mine detector is too expensive for a country already financially exhausted by war. Also many of the machines are sensitive metal detectors, and their higher accuracy makes them pick up more junk. I imagine that simply transporting a tank-like high-tech machine from a developed country would be costly.
My proposed project may be one of the ways to support land mine clearing efforts . I propose to launch this business in a country actually affected by mines, where they can hire victims who need temporary jobs to support themselves. They can make some money to live. My wish for them is this will be first step to support themselves, until their nation’s economy recoveres.
My idea for a disposable (self-exploding) land mine detector is quite simple. Using a radio control Jeep toy as the system, attach a box to the body instead of the decorative part on top.
Since standard mines react to a weight of 3kg~7kg, collect stones, pieces of metal, or soil at the field to fill up the box on the Jeep up to 3~7kg.
Let the Jeep roam a minefield until it runs over a mine to be blown up.
According to a toy company, without the decorative parts, this toy costs around $5(USD) to produce each, plus the $5(USD) for batteries. Simple estimated cost is, $10~15(USD).
Compare this with the production cost of a land mine, which is $4~15(USD) each. It is close. I have noticed that the jeep toy I used to make the prototype is not designed for carrying extra weight either running slowly, I need to improve it.
Prototype
I’m hoping that my theory actually works in real world. There are so many stages of this project, and each stage needs different people to join it . I would like to involve many different professionals as collaborators. The possible professional fields I’m looking into are; Engineering: for improvement of the prototype, Economics, marketing: for calculating the realistic number for every thing, size of the factory, money, reinforce the idea how it works, International politics: NPO: who have been supporting the survivors many dimension mine-walkers: who has deep knowledge of actual minefield actual survivor: who can join me to work together local school student, or whoever interested in to join, testing, assembling, etc.
Nature of the collaboration, the project may be improved or compromised depens on the priority. I know there is a possibility that someone may find this is not a realistic idea, in the end. But it still has meaning as symbolic positive action. I would like to exhibit it as an art piece to be seen as many people as possible, whether it works or not.