June 2, 2008
Animated Polar Bear in Distress Pleads With Dartmouth Students to Save Energy
Students from a digital-art class and an environmental club equipped two dorms at Dartmouth College with monitors showing real-time details of electricity use in the buildings. An animated polar bear reacts to the level of power use — and when too many students turn their TV’s on or leave their lights on, the ice cracks and the bear falls through. Watch The Chronicle’s video report below to see how the virtual bear fared on a recent afternoon. —Jeffrey R. Young
Posted on Monday June 2, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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How much electricity does it take to run and display the polar bear?
— Ms Q Jun 2, 10:43 AM #
Just silly. Unless the monitors are kept on 24/7 to remind students day and night, in which case it is annoyingly indulgent AND silly.
— C. Bartowsky Jun 2, 10:52 AM #
how clever. and drole.
— MikeyD Jun 2, 12:40 PM #
wow. this warrants a chronicle story?
— MikeyD Jun 2, 12:44 PM #
Did I mention that the president hates polar bears. and puppies, I think. he definitely hates care bears, though. what a meanie.
— Donald Jun 2, 02:07 PM #
It is not about the polar bear. I think the point was the fact that it was a student designed collaborative project and all the underlying activity that went into creating the monitoring system. “Students from a digital-art class and an environmental club equipped two dorms at Dartmouth College with monitors showing real-time details of electricity use in the buildings.”
— ESB Jun 2, 06:23 PM #
Communicating abstract notions, like energy use and its consequences, in ways that people understand is a challenge. The Dartmouth students found an engaging way to do just that and their creativity should be noted and praised.
— Doc Jun 2, 08:18 PM #
Brilliant! Connecting daily actions to their larger consequences in a simple way is a great idea. This is what the world needs!
— paul Jun 3, 06:44 AM #
I would like to have one at my house.
— Jim Jun 3, 08:43 AM #
I agree with #7 Doc—this sort of simple message may lose attraction once the novelty has worn off but it captures attention and raises awareness. It is a start and I applaud the group who designed this. Is it on youtube yet?
— Deb Jun 3, 09:13 AM #
Outstanding. I hope the digital art students collaborate with IT students and marketing students and apply the concept to wider markets. It takes money to make money and it takes energy to save energy. This is not just about environment, it is about health and economics as well. I hope to hear the concept scales up and is applied to 2 dorms to dorms in 2 states to dorms in 2 countries to dorms in 2 hemispheres. And then to federal buildings….
— Arne Jun 3, 11:44 AM #
I can see a new drinking game – do a shot every time the bear gets it. My prediction is that useage will go up as the more sophomoric devise ways to sink the bear.
— Julie Jun 3, 11:53 AM #
Correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t the whole “Polar bears are dying because man-made global warming has destroyed their natural habitat” argument been proven false? If so, then maybe the theme should be, “Argue your hypothesis intelligently and with the utmost concern for the facts or Al Gore gets it!”
— Patrick Jun 3, 12:05 PM #
Boys and girls, polar bears can swim quite well. If the ice cracks, they don’t float away to their doom. They simply swim back to shore. Stop falling for this sappy and unscientific claptrap disquised as a chapter of the Pokey Little Puppy.
— original marci Jun 3, 12:32 PM #
Bunk, Marci. Just bunk. Like just about everything else you write. They do NOT just swim off to safety and all is well. Talk about unscientific. You took the cake. And no, #13, I’ve seen no references to any such disproval. If so, the Bush administration itself certainly would have seized on it immediately, and never listed the Polar Bear with “Endangered” status. That recent listing alone I think is plenty enough evidence that this is not some problem passe.
I think this is Dartmouth project is a very good feedback mechanism, very clever. It clearly was very successful at engaging people to look at their energy use, which is not even information that any of us typically has available before us. And what’s more, to care about it. Excellent. Watching them test the impact of a single set of electronics is terrific. Without things along these lines, there is no way to see this information. So long as running this monitor, 24/7 if need be, results in lower total energy consumption, it’s a perfectly good thing. Eventually, perhaps we won’t need such monitoring – but we sure do now.
— Bunk! Jun 3, 01:48 PM #
“Shore” is frequently more ice. If it breaks up enough, the distance between shore and feeding ground becomes insurpassable. Talk about unscientific.
— (9.9) Jun 3, 02:12 PM #
Next thing you know they will let women in….oops too late. Of course the government could use the image of an Indian to chide us into not polluting but the College, which is obligated to let any Indian that is academically qualified to attend the school sans tuition, could not. Wah hoo wah! Hope the polar bears don’t feel embarassed by allowing an Ivy to use their image.
— David Holland Jun 3, 05:30 PM #
The situation is, of course, that no polar bear will ever know. They will know only if they have ice – or not. Can swim far enough – or not. Have food – or not. Dartmouth?? What’s that? This is a good thing Dartmouth students did.
— DDVA Jun 4, 04:18 PM #
1. The “polar bear argument” has technically been proven false. They’re not in serious danger of drowning due to global warming, despite Gore’s well-done computer animation.
2. The objective of the project, as several above have been keen enough to point out, is to make tangible the concept of energy use. A distressed polar bear might not be the ideal image what with the political controversy, but it works quite effectively nonetheless.
3. The displays are inherently low-energy. I have a feeling that the energy saved by making the dorm residents more mindful of their energy use is significantly greater than the amount of energy than the two displays have used. Don’t quote me, though.
— Matt Jun 4, 09:47 PM #