6________
WEdNEschy, M archi 15, 2002
A&E
TllE ClACkAMAS P rînt
Mural focuses on information overload
Students
express their
concerns about
technological
pollution by
painting a mural
of Oregon’s fish.
DAISY BAIN
A&E Editor
Art students, members of Phi
Theta Kappa and several high
school students recruited from
Skills Day designed and painted
a mural to represent a growing
environmental problem in the
United States, and specifically in
our local river, the Willamette.
“Most people don’t know how
to discard of their equipment,”
said Dave Anderson, adviser of
Phi Theta Kappa and a painting
instructor. An average family dis
cards its computer every other
year, he said. Since they don't
know what to do with them, they
end up in landfills. Harmful
chemicals secrete into down
stream waters, creating a tremen
dous amount of waste and pollu
tion in our rivers. Because of the
overflow of technological waste
the Willamette River now con
tains, it has been declared a Su
per Fund site.
Eighty computer monitors
screwed to the wall in the Pauling
Art Gallery provide the perfect
backdrop to the mural, titled
“Don’t Drink the Downstream
Water.” The mural deals issues
of pollution due to discarded
computers, which contain harm
ful molecules such as chromium,
cadmium, lead, mercury and
PCB’s.
Michael Amato, vice president
of Phi Theta Kappa, the college’s
honor society, initiated the idea
to do something representing
technology pollution. Anderson-
and Amato brainstormed to come
up with the idea that would fo
cus attention on the poisoning of
fish habitat by computer waste.
Free Geek, a non-profit orga
nization that recycles used tech
nology and provides computers,
education and access to the
Internet, donated all the monitors
for the group mural.
It costs on average $5 a computer
to remove all the harmful chemi
cals properly. Free Geek will re
cycle it for just a few hours of com
munity service. The Community
Technology Center and Thrift Store
is located at 1731 SE 10th Avenue.
More information is available about
Free Geek on their website,
www.Freegeek.org.
“The idea was to introduce
people to the issues,” said Amato.
"They look at them (computers) as
just throw-away.”
“Millions and millions of moni
tors are being discarded,” said
Anderson.
Left to right: Matt Lauzon, Cate Breman, Zach Anderson, Shelby
Haggard and Nichole Trone work together to paint a mural of
Oregon's fish life on the front of old computer monitors.
PHOTOS BY MIKE POLLOCK / Clackamas Print
Above: Nichole Trone puts the final touches on a marlin's eye at
the top of the mural. After the art display is over, the wall of
computer monitors will be taken apart and recycled.
Above: Michael Amato squeezes under a ladder to put on some
more detail.
Below: Shelby Haggard traces out another fish with the help of a
fish wildlife book.
■BBM
middle of the school. The mural is meant to remind us about
environmental issues at home in the Northwest and abroad.