{"id":28317,"date":"2025-09-16T18:30:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T18:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/?p=28317"},"modified":"2026-03-02T18:04:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T18:04:55","slug":"xmas-unwrapped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/?p=28317","title":{"rendered":"Xmas Unwrapped"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Xmas Unwrapped by Toby Smith and Unknown Fields\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/G5Miou-6Aqg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-unset-1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/ftt-ladybird-geoblogs.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-135\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size\"><strong>followthethings.com<\/strong><br><a href=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/?page_id=323\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"323\">Gifts &amp; Seasonal<\/a><br><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons has-custom-font-size is-horizontal is-content-justification-left is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-bc275726 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\" style=\"font-size:10px\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--2\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-cyan-bluish-gray-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=2014\" style=\"border-radius:5px;font-size:12px\">2014<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--3\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-black-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=unbranded\" style=\"border-radius:5px;font-size:12px\">UNBRANDED<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--4\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-vivid-red-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=santa-hat\" style=\"border-radius:5px;font-size:12px\">SANTA HAT<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--5\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-vivid-red-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=christmas-decorations\" style=\"border-radius:5px;font-size:12px\">CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--6\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-black-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=origin-CHINA\" style=\"border-radius:5px;font-size:12px\">MADE IN CHINA<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--7\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-black-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=destination-worldwide\" style=\"border-radius:5px;font-size:12px\">SOLD WORLDWIDE<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--8\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-vivid-purple-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=short-film\" style=\"border-radius:5px;font-size:12px\">SHORT FILM<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--9\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-vivid-purple-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=expedition\" style=\"border-radius:5px;font-size:12px\">EXPEDITION<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--10\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-vivid-purple-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=publication\" style=\"border-radius:5px;font-size:12px\">PUBLICATION<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--11\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-luminous-vivid-orange-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=pop-the-bubble\" style=\"border-radius:5px;font-size:12px\">POP THE BUBBLE<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--12\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-luminous-vivid-orange-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=cross-cultures\" style=\"border-radius:5px;font-size:12px\">CROSS CULTURES<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--13\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-luminous-vivid-orange-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=teach-economic-geography\" style=\"border-radius:5px;font-size:12px\">TEACH ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--14\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-red-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=join-the-dots\" style=\"border-radius:5px;font-size:12px\">JOIN  THE DOTS<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--15\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-red-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=JOIN-WITH-OTHERS\" style=\"border-radius:5px;font-size:12px\">JOIN WITH OTHERS<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--16\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-red-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=MAKE-A-DOCUMENTARY\" style=\"border-radius:5px;font-size:12px\">MAKE A FILM<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--17\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-red-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=MAKE-it-familiar\" style=\"border-radius:5px;font-size:12px\">MAKE IT FAMILIAR<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--18\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-red-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=CHOOSE-THE-RIGHT-THING\" style=\"border-radius:5px;font-size:12px\">CHOOSE THE RIGHT THING<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--19\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-red-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=juxtapose-extremes\" style=\"border-radius:5px;font-size:12px\">JUXTAPOSE EXTREMES<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--20\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-red-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=make-it-snappy\" style=\"border-radius:5px;font-size:12px\">MAKE IT SNAPPY<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--21\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-red-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=ADD-MOOD-MUSIC\" style=\"border-radius:5px;font-size:12px\">ADD MOOD MUSIC<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--22\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-red-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=MAKE-IT-AVAILABLE\" style=\"border-radius:5px;font-size:12px\">MAKE IT AVAILABLE<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#f6f0ec\">&#8220;<strong>Xmas Unwrapped<\/strong>&#8220;<br>A short film edited by Toby Smith and <em>Unknown Fields<\/em> <em>Division<\/em> with Tim Maughan.<br>Posted in YouTube, embedded above in full.<br><br>This short &#8216;Jingle Bells&#8217; Chinese Christmas factory film comes from a larger initiative to rethink architecture. According to<em> Unknown Fields Division<\/em> co-founder Liam Young, &#8216;an architect&#8217;s skills are completely wasted on making buildings&#8217;. They should be turning their attention to the outsides that are inside them: i.e. the hidden geographies of infrastructure, logistics, commodities and connected landscapes. For &#8216;follow the thingers&#8217; familiar with Geographer Doreen Massey&#8217;s concept of a &#8216;global sense of place&#8217; [see<em> <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/?p=1673\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"1673\">this example<\/a>], this extroverted sense of place may seem familiar. But there&#8217;s so much to learn from <em>Unknown Fields&#8217;<\/em> architectural experiments. First, from the thoroughly collaborative and interdisciplinary studio practice of <em>Unknown Fields Division<\/em>. Second, from the long-running postgraduate course at the <em>Architectural Association<\/em> in London where Liam Young has taken students on infrastructural &#8216;expeditions&#8217; for many years. Third, from the writers, filmmakers, data-visualisers and programmers who have accompanied these expeditions and produced its highly-professional and publicly eye-catching work. <em>Xmas Unwrapped<\/em> is one such output &#8211; a &#8216;Christmas card&#8217; &#8211; from a 2014-15 expedition called <em>A<\/em> <em>World Adrift<\/em>. We&#8217;ve asked our &#8216;Geographies of material culture&#8217; students to watch it before writing their coursework over the Christmas break. It doesn&#8217;t have a explicit message, but it&#8217;s catchy and thought-provoking. There&#8217;s observational footage of people working in a basic factory space in China making Christmas decorations and Santa hats by hand. Other people box these up, load them into a container, and the film finishes with a view from bridge of a container ship sailing out to sea, taking them to their consumer destinations. If you watch it with the sound down and the film footage is undramatic. People just work. Their tasks are repetitive. Their heads are down. They say nothing. The footage does not aim &#8211; it seems &#8211; to evoke any emotion in its audience. But turn up the volume and it&#8217;s accompanied by a choir of children singing &#8216;Jingle Bells&#8217; in Cantonese. And it&#8217;s this combination of film footage and music that provokes a reaction. It&#8217;s catchy. This film is a gentle form of trade justice activism. You could call it an appetiser. It&#8217;s trying to &#8216;pop the bubble&#8217; of Western consumption by &#8216;joining the dots&#8217; to Chinese factory production. It does not explicitly address trade injustice, exploitation, labour rights or any consumer or producer activism relating to this. The factory and logistics workers it features don&#8217;t have a voice in their representation. <em>Unknown Fields Division <\/em>isn&#8217;t making this work because they want audiences to do anything. Just to know and to reflect on the fact that its audience member&#8217;s things are made by people elsewhere in the world. This film<em> <\/em>can be used as a brief and gently provocative spark for discussions of trade (in)justice in any classroom [like another example on our site, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/?p=1605\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"1605\">Handprint<\/a><\/em>] but also &#8211; especially &#8211; around a Christmas dinner table. Because <em>Unknown Field Division<\/em>&#8216;s expeditions have so many people on them, this film is the tip of an iceberg. The most noticeable impacts it has are not on its audiences [as far we can see] but on the expedition&#8217;s students and collaborators. They produce other work that brings attention to this Christmas story, and to the wider project on architecture&#8217;s dependence on supply chain logistics. Follow the arguments below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Page reference: Ian Cook et al (2025) <em>Xmas Unwrapped<\/em>. followthethings.com\/xmas-unwrapped.shtml (last accessed &lt;insert date here&gt;)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Estimated reading time: 39 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>83 comments<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Descriptions<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-green\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>At this point in time, you\u2019ve already hung your tinsel and decorated your tree with blinking lights. Maybe there\u2019s even a glowing Santa statue on your lawn. But did you ever step back and think about where all of these holiday decorations come from (Source: MIKA27 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fohcigars.com\/forum\/topic\/113262-stuff-news-technology-the-cool-and-the-plain-weird\/page\/212\/\">link<\/a>)?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-yellow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>The source of this red, white, and green wave isn\u2019t the North Pole (Source: Mufson 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/holiday-doc-unwraps-the-less-than-festive-factories-behind-christmas\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-green\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>A factory in China is the easy answer. An entire town of factories specializing in Christmas cheer is the correct answer (Source: MIKA27 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fohcigars.com\/forum\/topic\/113262-stuff-news-technology-the-cool-and-the-plain-weird\/page\/212\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-red\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>[So b]uckle up for an expedition along the supply chain to visit the factory floors and productions lines of our fluffy red Santa hats, shiny baubles, tinsel and fake plastic trees. Merry Christmas. Ho Ho Ho (Source: van Mensfoort 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/nextnature.org\/en\/magazine\/story\/2014\/xmas-unwrapped\">link<\/a>)!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<details class=\"wp-block-details has-small-font-size is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow\"><summary>+8 comments<\/summary>\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-orange\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p><em>Unknown Fields<\/em> and Toby Smith unwrap Christmas [by] following the decoration supply chain (Source: Garry 2015, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.howwegettonext.com\/unmaking-electronics-5-videos-on-the-electronics-supply-chain\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-yellow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>&#8230; [in] a short, enlightening video (Source: Timmons &amp; Timmons 2022, np <a href=\"https:\/\/qz.com\/315693\/heres-where-all-those-cheap-santa-hats-and-plastic-snowmen-come-from\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-dark-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>This wryly festive short &#8230; takes us on a brief tour of what are known as \u2018just-in-time\u2019 factories in [Yiwu] in China, facilities that produce seasonally themed commodities for consumption in the West. Set to a children\u2019s choir belting out an insistently cheerful Cantonese rendition of \u2018Jingle Bells &#8230; (Source: Anon 2019, np <a href=\"https:\/\/aeon.co\/videos\/christmas-is-coming-and-santas-chinese-workshops-have-been-on-the-case-since-summer\">link<\/a>). <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>&#8230;&nbsp;sung by the Chinese Kids Choir &#8230; (Source: Mufson 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/holiday-doc-unwraps-the-less-than-festive-factories-behind-christmas\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-dark-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>&#8230; <em>Xmas Unwrapped<\/em> shows one stop on the supply chain of items such as candied apples, Christmas hats and other assorted seasonal trinkets with limited shelf lives &#8230; (Source: Anon 2019, np <a href=\"https:\/\/aeon.co\/videos\/christmas-is-coming-and-santas-chinese-workshops-have-been-on-the-case-since-summer\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>&#8230;&nbsp;[and]contrasts sharply with the dingy factory floors that are decidedly not part of Santa\u2019s factory (Source: Mufson 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/holiday-doc-unwraps-the-less-than-festive-factories-behind-christmas\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-yellow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>The &#8216;real&#8217; factory is located in the Chinese city of Yiwu. Instead of elves and snow, you see factory workers spraying boots red and quartering fir branches in seconds (Source: Van den Berg 2021, np).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-red\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Released as part of the larger&nbsp;<em>World Adrift<\/em>&nbsp;documentary &#8230; <em>Xmas Unwrapped<\/em> is a &#8216;satirical Xmas card&#8217; that &#8230; explores &#8230; less-than-festive factories &#8230; [and] showcases behind-the-scenes footage of workers repetitively sewing, gluing, and packaging&nbsp;Santa hats, plastic Christmas trees, and shiny ornaments (Source: Mufson 2024, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/holiday-doc-unwraps-the-less-than-festive-factories-behind-christmas\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:41px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Inspiration \/ Technique \/ Process \/ Methodology<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-magenta-yellow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Imagine you\u2019re in the middle of the Pacific ocean. Behind you is China, below you are thousands of tons of consumer goods destined for faraway ports, then stores, then maybe a spot beneath a Christmas tree. You are part of a vast economy that supplies the things we buy &#8211; a galaxy of cities, systems, and people that is largely unacknowledged and rarely seen. Unless you know where to look. Liam Young and Kate Davies, a pair of designers and researchers based in London, know where to look, and have done just that. As part of their ongoing design research studio called <em>Unknown Fields Division<\/em>, they\u2019ve been focused on parts of the world that even fewer people have ever visited: Tracing the supply chain of the global economy in reverse, documenting the complex systems and spaces that deliver electronics and other products to stores all over the world (Source: Campbell-Dollaghan 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/a-gadget-s-journey-from-inside-the-mine-to-under-the-c-1668715782\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-red\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Liam Young is an Australian-born film director and architect. Young&#8217;s work is situated within the fields of design fiction and critical design. Described by the BBC as &#8216;The man Designing our Futures&#8217;, his work explores the increasingly blurred boundaries among film, fiction, design and storytelling with the goal of prototyping and imagining the future of the city. Using speculative design, film and the visualisation of imaginary cities, he opens up conversations querying urban existence, asking provocative questions about the roles of both architecture and entertainment. Young approaches his work as an architect like a science fiction author, or futurist. Through his projects that escape traditional definitions of how an architect practices Young has caused some controversy in the architectural field and the comments section on the industry blog <em>Archinect<\/em> with his claim that &#8216;An architect&#8217;s skills are completely wasted on making buildings&#8217; (Source: Wikipedia nd, np <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Liam_Young\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-green\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Kate Davies is an artist, architect and writer. She is co-founder of the multidisciplinary group <em>LiquidFactor<\/em>y, which explores the rich hinterlands of art and architecture. She is deeply interested in how people inhabit and understand landscape, particularly those places that are extreme, hostile or remote. Her work explores contemporary notions of wilderness &#8211; drawing on modes of understanding landscape ranging from contemporary survey technologies to folklore &#8211; and operates between writing, drawing, film and photography. Kate teaches award winning design studios at two of the UK\u2019s most prestigious Architecture schools, The Architectural Association &#8230; and the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL &#8230; and regularly runs international design workshops (Source: Unknown Fields Division ndb, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unknownfieldsdivision.com\/division_leaders.html\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-yellow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p><em>Unknown Fields Division<\/em> [is] a &#8216;nomadic design research studio &#8230; that ventures out on expeditions to the ends of the earth to bear witness to alternative worlds, alien landscapes, industrial ecologies and precarious wilderness&#8217;  (Source: Rothstein 2015, np <a href=\"https:\/\/rhizome.org\/editorial\/2015\/jul\/02\/how-see-infrastructure-guide-seven-billion-primate\/\">link<\/a>). <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<details class=\"wp-block-details has-small-font-size is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow\"><summary>+45 comments<\/summary>\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-midnight\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>[Karianne Fogelberg:] What was the motivation for these expeditions? [Liam Young:] &#8230; We were interested in telling alternative stories about the contemporary city, and we wanted to unravel the stories that are fundamental in the shaping and framing of the modern city but don\u2019t actually occur within the site plan of the city itself. Much of architecture focuses on the city as a discrete object and entity to be designed. What\u2019s on the site plan is part of the thinking of the project, and what falls off its edges vanishes. But the modern city no longer occurs on a single site. All the contingent landscapes scattered around the world are fundamental in the making and shaping of that city: the mine site where that city begins its life; the trash heap where it ends its life; the various landscapes involved in feeding the city. None of these places look urban, but they are actually either produced by the city or themselves produce the city. <em>Unknown Fields<\/em> explores the idea that landscape design has collapsed into architectural design, product design, planetary design, and that thinking on any one of those scales involves an understanding of the interconnected systems and networks or&nbsp;global supply chains through which those scales exist (Source: Fogelberg 2024, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-nomad-magazine.com\/liam-young-travel-needs-to-be-about-collective-imagining\/?srsltid=AfmBOooOXqAqwcy_0UqgKQDxfvq9fugvAJSjvhk8W_OKQSd-E1X0Y_Jr\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>[For us,] distant landscapes \u2013 the iconic and the ignored, the excavated, irradiated and the pristine \u2013 are embedded in global systems that connect them in surprising and complicated ways to our everyday lives (Source: Smith 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tobysmith.com\/project\/unknown-fields-a-world-adrift\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>These [systems] are the contours of our distributed city, stretched around the earth from the hole in the ground to the high street shelf (Source: Smith 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tobysmith.com\/project\/unknown-fields-a-world-adrift\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-red\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Our material things set in motion [this] vast, planetary-scale infrastructure. They carve holes like canyons, they move mountains, they remake our world from the scale of the pixel to the scale of the planet. Our city casts shadows that stretch far and wide (Source: Davies &amp; Young 2022, p.165-166).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-red\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>[They] form a vast network of elusive tendrils, twisting threadlike over everything around us, criss-crossing the planet, connecting the mundane to the extraordinary (Source: Davies &amp; Young 2022, p.165).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-magenta-yellow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>What we\u2019re trying to do is talk about this extraordinary, planetary-scale infrastructural system that we\u2019ve put in place that most of the world doesn\u2019t know exists &#8230; The scale and production of infrastructure required to deliver the world that we know is utterly extraordinary, but it\u2019s so big and so ubiquitous that it\u2019s kind of become invisible &#8230; This project is trying to reveal the systems behind modern living (Source: Young in Campbell-Dollaghan 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/a-gadget-s-journey-from-inside-the-mine-to-under-the-c-1668715782\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-midnight\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>By mapping and visiting the landscapes that lie in the shadows, <em>Unknown Fields <\/em>starts to think about what it means to intervene in the city. &#8230; Totally. As designers operating within sites, we need to think about new forms of design practice, but also of representation, which deal with a new conceptualization of site, moving away from the bounded idea of the site plan to an understanding of the site of,&nbsp;say, London or Los Angeles as multifarious and atomized and \u00adexisting across the entirety of the Earth (Source: Young in Fogelberg 2024, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-nomad-magazine.com\/liam-young-travel-needs-to-be-about-collective-imagining\/?srsltid=AfmBOooOXqAqwcy_0UqgKQDxfvq9fugvAJSjvhk8W_OKQSd-E1X0Y_Jr\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-orange\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>[<em>Unknown Fields<\/em>] are preoccupied by how envisioning [industrial] places and relationships can come to alter perceptions, and be generative for speculation: how understanding the entanglement of here and there can help develop new cultural relationships with climate change and the by-products of industry (Source: Portus 2018, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.demagazine.co.uk\/2018\/09\/25\/consumed\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-midnight\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>[Karianne Fogelberg:] Unknown Fields started as a research studio at \u00aduniversity, but then turned into a <em>run-and-gun film crew.<\/em> What does&nbsp;this mean, and how did this change come about? [Liam Young:] <em>Unknown Fields<\/em> began as an educational research project at the <em>Architectural Association<\/em> in London. We would bring in researchers, students, artists &#8211; people that were interested in collecting the stories of the places with us. The documentation initially involved forms of architectural research like drawings, mappings, more traditional forms of repre\u00adsentation, but as we continued down the years, the questions that we were exploring oftentimes no longer required the techniques of architects and designers, but those of investigative journalists (Source: Fogelberg 2024, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-nomad-magazine.com\/liam-young-travel-needs-to-be-about-collective-imagining\/?srsltid=AfmBOooOXqAqwcy_0UqgKQDxfvq9fugvAJSjvhk8W_OKQSd-E1X0Y_Jr\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-midnight\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>A viable model of a relevant contemporary design practice must involve some degree of travel or, at the very least, understand\u00ading of the planetary conditions in which we work. With <em>Unknown Field<\/em>s, we started making films and telling stories because it seemed the most powerful way of operating and connecting to audiences in order to represent that complexity and to present design problems and propositions (Source: Young in Fogelberg 2024, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-nomad-magazine.com\/liam-young-travel-needs-to-be-about-collective-imagining\/?srsltid=AfmBOooOXqAqwcy_0UqgKQDxfvq9fugvAJSjvhk8W_OKQSd-E1X0Y_Jr\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-red\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>We create portraits of a place that sits between documentary and fiction, a city of fragments, of drone footage and hidden camera investigations, of interviews and speculative narratives, of toxic objects, reimagined landscapes and distributed matter from distant sites. We tell stories from the constellation of elsewheres conjured into being by the city\u2019s wants and needs, fears and dreams (Source: Davies &amp; Young 2022, p.165-166).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-midnight\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>[Karianne Fogelberg:] To what degree is <em>Unknown Fields<\/em> inspired by the tradition of the site visit in architectural education? Or is it rather a departure from it? [Liam Young:] The architectural expedition has always been fundamental to the discipline. That said, these modes of travel often involved a privileged architect dropping into some place, identifying a problem and attempting to solve it by overlaying a single solution across a context that has frequently been the subject of attempts to understand it through the microcosm of a single field trip. That imposition of singular, very often Western design perspectives on foreign contexts has been part of the <em>Grand Tour<\/em> narrative of Western architects traveling to the sites of antiquity or to the Orient as a means of finding inspiration or stealing ideas, and it is systemic within the discipline even now. <em>Unknown Fields<\/em> is striving to move away from that model and instead sees travel as a mode of listening, which privileges and acknowledges the people who have spent their lives in the places we visit and tries to understand them. We go to a place not to solve its problems, but rather to listen to and collect its stories, and we then use our platform and aesthetic practice to help amplify those stories and introduce new audiences to these contexts. It is a process of mapping and revealing the complexities within which we\u2019re sitting, which are either hiding in plain sight, so commonplace that they become invisible, or are obscured behind the dominant media narrative, and of trying to create accurate images of what constitutes the present moment (Source: Fogelberg 2024, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-nomad-magazine.com\/liam-young-travel-needs-to-be-about-collective-imagining\/?srsltid=AfmBOooOXqAqwcy_0UqgKQDxfvq9fugvAJSjvhk8W_OKQSd-E1X0Y_Jr\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Each year we navigate a different global supply chain and seek to map the complex and contradictory realities of the present as a site of strange and extraordinary futures (Source: Smith 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tobysmith.com\/project\/unknown-fields-a-world-adrift\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-green\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>[<em>Unknown Fields Division]<\/em> has undertaken trips to the mines of Madagascar, the Australian Outback, the new wildernesses of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, secret US military bases, the \u2018ghost cities\u2019 of China\u2019s Special Economic Zones, and the toxic lakes, refineries, and vast open-cast rare earth mines of Inner Mongolia (Source: Maughan 2015, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonicacts.com\/archive\/tim-maughan-interviews-liam-young\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>[There were] two expeditions [to China for a project called <em>A World Adrift<\/em>] (Source: Campbell-Dollaghan 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/a-gadget-s-journey-from-inside-the-mine-to-under-the-c-1668715782\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-orange\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>In August &#8230; (Source: Smith 2015, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=G5Miou-6Aqg\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-red\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>&#8230; 2014 &#8230;&nbsp;<em>Unknown Fields Division<\/em>&nbsp;&#8230; (Source: Mufson 2024, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/holiday-doc-unwraps-the-less-than-festive-factories-behind-christmas\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>&#8230; trac[ed] the shadows of the world\u2019s desires across China Seas along supply chains and cargo routes, to explore the dispersed choreographies and atomised geographies that global sea trade brings into being (Source: Smith 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tobysmith.com\/project\/unknown-fields-a-world-adrift\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-red\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>&#8230; with a&nbsp;team consisting of studio co-founder&nbsp;Liam Young&nbsp;&#8230;&nbsp;and designer&nbsp;Kate Davies (Source: Mufson 2024, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/holiday-doc-unwraps-the-less-than-festive-factories-behind-christmas\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-midnight\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Joining us on our journey were a series of collaborators and specialists from the worlds of design, technology, science, art and fiction.&nbsp;Investigative photographer&nbsp;Toby Smith, author&nbsp;Tim Maughan, data visualizer and information architect&nbsp;Sha Hwang, programmer Dan Williams and many more combined to formed a travelling studio, carrying out research visits, field reportage, rolling discussions and impromptu tutorials that are being produced in a publication and film (Source: Smith 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tobysmith.com\/project\/unknown-fields-a-world-adrift\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-red\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Toby Smith is an award-winning contemporary reportage photographer specialising in landscape, environment and energy. Since graduating with an MA Photography from LCC his time is divided between personal, editorial and contemporary works for exhibition (Source: Unknown Fields Division nd, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unknownfieldsdivision.com\/collaborators.html\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Our journey &#8230; has taken us behind the scenes of the modern world, along a cross-section of this supply chain. From source to sea, we chronicled the journey of this and that, bits and bobs and thingamajigs; via the mega ports of Shanghai and Busan our route will take in some of the biggest cargo infrastructure on earth and we rode alongside containers of stuffed toys and football scarves, remote control cars and microwaves, setting sail through the shipping lanes of the East China Sea and beyond (Source: Smith 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tobysmith.com\/project\/unknown-fields-a-world-adrift\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-red\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Tim Maughan is a British writer using both fiction and non fiction to explore issues around cities, art, class, and technology. His debut short story collection Paintwork received critical acclaim when released in 2011, and his short story Limited Edition was shortlisted for the 2012 BSFA short fiction award. He sometimes makes films, too (Source: Unknown Fields Division nd, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unknownfieldsdivision.com\/collaborators.html\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-green\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>[My] trip was organised and funded by the <em>Unknown Fields Division<\/em>, a group of architects, academics and designers at<em> the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London<\/em> (Source: Maughan 2014a, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/future\/article\/20160905-the-pilot-who-stole-a-secret-soviet-fighter-jet\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-dark-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Maughan joined the Unknown Field Division as an embedded writer . &#8230; They started the trip with seven days as guests on a huge Maersk line container ship (Source: Maughan 2015, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonicacts.com\/archive\/tim-maughan-interviews-liam-young\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-magenta-yellow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>The crew began by climbing aboard massive cargo ships bound for Chinese ports, then docked along with thousands of cargo containers (Source: Campbell-Dollaghan 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/a-gadget-s-journey-from-inside-the-mine-to-under-the-c-1668715782\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Hitching a ride on some of the world\u2019s most advanced commercial ships was, as Young tells me, mostly just a matter of asking. They contacted Maersk, the Danish company that is by far the biggest shipping corporation in the world, to ask that it allow six of their members aboard Maersk vessels arriving in Yantian, a port in Shenzhen, around the same time. After he had assured Maersk\u2019s reps that the group wasn\u2019t preparing an expose on international shipping, things fell into place quickly. Aboard six different Maersk cargo ships all destined for Shenzhen, the members of Young and Davies\u2019 expedition got a taste of life aboard the ships that are the lifeblood of the global economy. &#8230; Young describes the crew as exceptionally welcoming and eager to share the culture of the ship with the researchers. For example, the nationality of each captain ends up defining much about life on board, right down to the food served to the crew. &#8216;You have these strange drifting pockets of England, or India, or Philippines, drifting across the ocean,&#8217; Young says. Often, the crew doesn\u2019t know the cargo they\u2019re carrying -unless it\u2019s hazardous or needs refrigeration. Young\u2019s ship, for example, was carrying fish meal from South America to China, where it\u2019s used as feed in China\u2019s massive agricultural and livestock industry. &#8216;Beyond that, the crew knows nothing about what\u2019s in the containers,&#8217; he says. &#8216;They like to speculate. They like to imagine what it is they\u2019re transiting around the world.&#8217; But most of the time, they only find out if an errant container pops open (Source: Campbell-Dollaghan 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/a-gadget-s-journey-from-inside-the-mine-to-under-the-c-1668715782\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-red\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p><em>Tim Maughan:<\/em><strong> <\/strong>So what are we doing here? Why have you dragged me out onto this ship? <em>Liam Young:<\/em> We\u2019re interested in exploring behind the scenes of the contemporary city. We hang out in London and for most people an experience in London is a singular point on the map. But London is not a singular point on a map; it\u2019s this atomised set of places that\u2019s constructed by a huge array of distributed landscapes and systems. In order to understand London, in order to understand what it is as a contemporary mega-city, you\u2019ve got to ride the supply chain. You\u2019ve got to unpick and unravel the infrastructural systems and travel through the territories that we talk about as being behind the scenes of the city, the hidden or invisible landscapes that are fundamental to shaping and constructing our cultural experiences and relationships. We\u2019re in a privileged enough position to be able to go out and see them. Most people don\u2019t have access to the stuff that we get to see. Part of our role is bearing witness, bringing back stories, and re-presenting them in a way that people who don\u2019t have the opportunity to see them, can meaningfully connect to these territories. Hopefully we start to engender new kinds of cultural relationships with what these landscapes might be; because I don\u2019t know what the end game ultimately is, but I think there\u2019s something critical in revealing them (Source: Maughan 2015, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonicacts.com\/archive\/tim-maughan-interviews-liam-young\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-green\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>[Disembarking in China, the <em>Unknown Fields <\/em>team went] to the massive wholesale market where international buyers snap up everything from Christmas decorations and RC planes; then to the factories and worker dorms themselves, and then deeper into Inner Mongolia, to the villages where the rare earth elements used to build electronics are mined (Source: Campbell-Dollaghan 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/a-gadget-s-journey-from-inside-the-mine-to-under-the-c-1668715782\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-yellow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>The Chinese city of Yiwu, about 250 kilometers from Shanghai, is often referred to as China\u2019s &#8216;Christmas village&#8217; thanks to&nbsp;the massive amount of holiday-related merchandise made there. Xinhua, China\u2019s state-news agency, claims that 60% of the world\u2019s Christmas goods come from Yiwu. The products are&nbsp;often assembled by hand in primitive conditions (Source: Timmons &amp; Timmons 2022, np <a href=\"https:\/\/qz.com\/315693\/heres-where-all-those-cheap-santa-hats-and-plastic-snowmen-come-from\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-midnight\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Christmas is made in Yiwu. &#8230; That tree lighting up your lounge. Those decorations hanging from the ceiling. That novelty stocking filler you bought for your child. They\u2019re all made here (Source: Davies &amp; Young 2022, p.166).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-orange\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Christmas consumables are produced in summer ready for wholesale, packaging and shipping to principally western markets (Source: Smith 2015, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=G5Miou-6Aqg\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-yellow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p><em>Unknown Fields Division <\/em>&#8230; traveled to Yiwu with photographer Toby Smith to see the locals at work (Source: Timmons &amp; Timmons 2022, np <a href=\"https:\/\/qz.com\/315693\/heres-where-all-those-cheap-santa-hats-and-plastic-snowmen-come-from\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-red\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>I\u2019m here with <em>Unknown Fields Division<\/em> &#8230; part of a group of students, writers and film-makers following the global supply chain back to the source of many of our consumer goods. And today, this quest has brought us to what may be the world capital of Christmas tat (Source: Maughan 2014a, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/future\/article\/20141218-the-hidden-home-of-christmas\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Getting into a massive factory making Christmas decorations in Yiwu required us to pose as British buyers, and getting there with a camera required a narrative of the need to collect material to take back to our investors, or hidden camera photography (Source: Young in Fogelberg 2024, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-nomad-magazine.com\/liam-young-travel-needs-to-be-about-collective-imagining\/?srsltid=AfmBOooOXqAqwcy_0UqgKQDxfvq9fugvAJSjvhk8W_OKQSd-E1X0Y_Jr\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-dark-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>[There,] young girls, paid per unit, feverishly glue and stich decorations to red felt Santa&#8217;s hats and tree ornaments before export to an American department store (Source: Unknown Fields Division 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=G5Miou-6Aqg\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-orange\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>I watch a girl sew white fur trim onto red felt at the rate of about two hats per minute, and as she finishes one she simply pushes it off the front of her desk where they fall, silently on an ever-icreasing pile on the floor. Upstairs is the plastic moulding room, mainly staffed by young men, stripped to the waist because of the heat. The air here is thick with fumes, the smell of chemicals and warm plastic. The men feed plastic pellets from Samsung-branded sacks into machines to be melted down, and then pressed into moulds to make toy snowmen and Father Christmases. It\u2019s repetitive, and potentially dangerous, as the workers must constantly reach inside the large presses. Many of them pass the time while they work watching Chinese TV dramas on their smartphones (Source: Maughan in Unknown Fields 2016, np).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-orange\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Databite No. 86: Tim Maughan\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/z5AGVtw3ms4?start=1722&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">(Source: Maughan in Data &amp; Society Research Institute 2016, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=z5AGVtw3ms4\">link<\/a> &#8211; finish watching at 34.59).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>As the [<em>Xmas Unwrapped<\/em>] video shows, making the world\u2019s Christmas decor is a messy, labor-intensive affair that relies more on human beings than automation. &#8216;From a health and safety perspective the exposure to harmful chemicals and solvents is disturbing,&#8217; Smith told [us]. &#8216;I also witnessed manufacturing techniques with machines that could easily be criticized from a Western vantage point.&nbsp; However the social working environment, working hours and general atmosphere of the factory was actually more pleasant than I have experienced in other manufacturing sectors&#8217; (Source: Timmons &amp; Timmons 2022, np <a href=\"https:\/\/qz.com\/315693\/heres-where-all-those-cheap-santa-hats-and-plastic-snowmen-come-from\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-red\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>&#8230; embedded photographer&nbsp;Toby Smith&nbsp;&#8230; edited the  (Source: Mufson 2024, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/holiday-doc-unwraps-the-less-than-festive-factories-behind-christmas\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-red\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p> &#8230; [and] embedded writer Tim Maughan[&#8216;s] .. text fragments were originally published on BBC Futures [see Maughan 2014a, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/future\/article\/20141218-the-hidden-home-of-christmas\">link<\/a>] (Unknown Fields 2016, np).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-orange\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>In December 2014,&nbsp;[Maughan]&nbsp;published a story in the BBC&nbsp;\u200babout his visit to the markets and factories of Yiwu, where over 60 percent of the world\u2019s Christmas decorations are made. It went viral (Source: Maughan 2014b, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/four-days-of-christmas\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-yellow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>It\u2019s not just seeing Christmas being made in August that\u2019s disorientating, but also the scale of the manual labour that\u2019s involved that surprises me. Perhaps I was naive, but if you\u2019d asked me before I visited Yiwu how Christmas decorations are made I\u2019d have guessed they were mass produced in largely automated factories. But the truth here is actually the real secret of China\u2019s manufacturing success \u2013 keeping labour costs so low that making things by hand is cheaper than using machines. I was never given a definite figure, but I\u2019m told by one of the factory managers that employees here are paid somewhere between $200 and $300 (\u00a3130 to \u00a3190) a month to work 12-hour-plus shifts, six days a week. It allows small companies like Yiwu Hangtian Arts and Crafts to get started with relatively little investment, while giving them the flexibility to adapt and change what they produce to fit their customers\u2019 needs. As we leave, we get a glimpse of boxes of Christmas decorations being loaded into a shipping container heading to the mega-port of Ningbo. There it would be transported on a container ship to\u2026 who knows where. I\u2019m told that most of the decorations are headed to the US and Europe, with Russia being a new, large, and very lucrative market. Watching Christmas being assembled by hand in front of us that day, I heard more than one person in our group remark that the holiday season will never be the same again. Perhaps they were right. It felt like we\u2019d been given just a small glimpse at China\u2019s vast manufacturing infrastructure. More importantly it felt like we were starting to understand why it existed: so that young workers in a far country can make the rest of the world our disposable, impulse-buy goods. The implications of this, for so many things from climate change to unemployment, were dizzying to comprehend. We\u2019re told that by the end of September, Christmas manufacturing will have stopped, and the factory will have switched to making Easter and Valentine\u2019s Day gifts and trinkets. After that, it\u2019s Halloween decorations for the lucrative American market. Then, by late spring, it\u2019s Christmas time again. As long as the world wants to celebrate whatever and whenever event it cares to choose, China will be there to be its ultimate party supplier (Sore: Maughan 2014a, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/future\/article\/20141218-the-hidden-home-of-christmas\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-orange\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Ahead of the main body of documentary work from the field trip we&#8217;ve released this sattirical  Xmas card [-<em>Xmas Unwrapped]<\/em>. More of a jab at Western Consumption than Chinese production (Source: Smith 2015, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=G5Miou-6Aqg\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>After having talked to Young about the trip, I was shocked by the complete lack of self-righteousness as he described what they had seen. That\u2019s maybe the most telling thing about the project &#8211; the awareness that &#8216;we\u2019re all complicit in this world that we\u2019ve create for ourselves,&#8217; as Young says. &#8216;We\u2019re trying to talk about these very nuanced and complex relationships that we\u2019re all entwined within.&#8217; Their goal isn\u2019t to shame people into not participating in modern life, but to understand the systems that enable our lifestyles and belongings &#8211; the provenance of which we rarely consider &#8211; and, maybe, find a better way (Source: Campbell-Dollaghan 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/a-gadget-s-journey-from-inside-the-mine-to-under-the-c-1668715782\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:41px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong><strong>Discussion \/ Responses<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-red\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>[<em>Unknown Fields<\/em>] share their experiences with those of us who cannot make the trip [and] &#8230; both horrify and captivate those of us back in the West, who do not have the full picture of where our goods originate (Source: Rothstein 2015, np <a href=\"https:\/\/rhizome.org\/editorial\/2015\/jul\/02\/how-see-infrastructure-guide-seven-billion-primate\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-green\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p><em>Unknown Fields Division<\/em> isn\u2019t the first group to provide this glimpse into Yiwu\u2019s Christmas manufacturing machine. An excellent [2014] China Daily photo essay showsworkers <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chinadaily.com.cn\/business\/2014-12\/08\/content_19043207_7.htm\">armed with glue guns<\/a> making snowman dioramas, for example, or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chinadaily.com.cn\/business\/2014-12\/08\/content_19043207_8.htm\">manually lining up snowflake ornaments<\/a> for flocking. A vivid, <a href=\"http:\/\/slide.news.sina.com.cn\/x\/slide_1_64237_77807.html\">disturbing photo essay<\/a> (text in Chinese) [in 2001] by&nbsp;Sina News shows how ornaments are <a href=\"http:\/\/slide.news.sina.com.cn\/x\/slide_1_64237_77807.html#p=5\">dipped in glue in a rough-looking workshop<\/a>&nbsp;then sprayed in felt. (Shanghaiist has a <a href=\"http:\/\/shanghaiist.com\/2014\/12\/09\/yiwu-red-factories-world-christmas-decor-made.php\">good translation<\/a> of some of the Sina photo text) (Source: Timmons &amp; Timmons 2022, np <a href=\"https:\/\/qz.com\/315693\/heres-where-all-those-cheap-santa-hats-and-plastic-snowmen-come-from\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-dark-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Depending on one\u2019s ideological bent, [their <em>Xmas Unwrapped<\/em> film] can be seen as a takedown of holiday wastefulness or an oddball celebration of global commerce. Far less ambiguous, however, is Smith, for whom the film is \u2018a jab at Western consumption\u2019 (Source: Anon 2019, np <a href=\"https:\/\/aeon.co\/videos\/christmas-is-coming-and-santas-chinese-workshops-have-been-on-the-case-since-summer\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-midnight\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>the chinese version of jingle bells made me laugh. ding dong dang ding dong dang. im never gunna sing it in english again now (Source: @44Blitz44 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=G5Miou-6Aqg\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<details class=\"wp-block-details has-small-font-size is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow\"><summary>+9 comments<\/summary>\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-green\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>deng-dong-deng&#8230; so catchy (Source: @Venturilife 2017, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=G5Miou-6Aqg\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-dark-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>[To Toby Smith:] Just want to point out that you used a Hong Kong Cantonese version of &#8216;Jingle Bell&#8217; as background music about sweatshops in mainland China, where the official language is Mandarin and Cantonese, or any other regional dialects, are strongly discouraged (Source: @trulahn 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=G5Miou-6Aqg\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-orange\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Brilliantly photographed and edited (Source: @howellb1 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=G5Miou-6Aqg\">link<\/a>)!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-yellow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>They may make a lot but believe me they do not make all or even most of the decorations &#8211; Many many come from Europe (Source: @CoxSoxJox 2018, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=G5Miou-6Aqg\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-orange\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>We should trade more, it is awesome! XD (Source: @ahmedhassani4308 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=G5Miou-6Aqg\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-dark-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>These images may serve as a reminder that, although Christmas is a time to share love and happiness, it is also a festivity full of marketing and advertising. Maybe now, before we buy a Christmas ornament, let&#8217;s think of the thousands of workers who make them day by day and the lousy conditions in which they do it (Source: Saavedra 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/es.gizmodo.com\/un-pueblo-en-china-fabrica-todas-las-decoraciones-navid-1673595190\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-red\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p> No matter whether Christian or not, Christmas has somehow infected the whole world (Source: G\u00f6cmener 2021, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bz-berlin.de\/archiv-artikel\/hier-wird-christian-drosten-zum-raeuchermaennchen\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>And even though she\u2019s thousands of miles away, you\u2019ll never get that image of the poor Chinese girl at the sewing out of your head after you see her make a mountain of Santa Hats (Source: MIKA27 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fohcigars.com\/forum\/topic\/113262-stuff-news-technology-the-cool-and-the-plain-weird\/page\/212\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-midnight\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>I kinda wanna barf (Source: Dawson 2014, np <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/mekaeldawson\/status\/548942911358767105\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:41px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Outcomes \/ Impacts<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>[Liam] Young has co authored the book Series <em>Unknown Fields: Tales From the Dark Side of the City<\/em>. The series consists of 6 books, each an illustrated story based on a field expedition through a remote landscape that is critical in the manufacture and production of contemporary technology. A number of the books have been serialised on the BBC, such as <em>A World Adrift: South China Seas to Inner Mongolia<\/em> which was developed as 3 articles exploring the landscapes of modern technologies and written in collaboration with author Tim Maughan. One of the stories focused around a radioactive lake discovered in the research of the book was part of the BBC&#8217;s Best of 2015 list. &#8230; With his nomadic studio <em>Unknown Fields<\/em> Young [also] exhibited <em>Unknown Fields: The Dark Side of the City<\/em> at the <em>Architectural Association<\/em> Gallery in 2016. The exhibition took the form of a road trip through a collection of fragments; of drone footage, hidden camera investigations, speculative narratives and toxic objects that formed a reimagined city the size of the entire planet. The project looks at the way that the supply chains of technology is reforming landscapes all over the world. (Source: Wikipedia nd, np <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Liam_Young\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-red\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>This piece of speculative fiction is inspired by [the] trip [to the Christmas decoration factory] (Source: Maughan 2014b, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/four-days-of-christmas\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-red\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Ming-hua takes a Santa Claus from the conveyor belt, holds its feet between thumb and forefinger, and blushes its cheeks red with two delicate taps from a paintbrush. As always, she tries to avoid its dead-eyed gaze, but before the second dab of paint it\u2019s laughing at her, hidden servos shaking is head from side to side in simulated cheer. <em>Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas Ming-hua!<\/em> She drops the Santa on the pile next to her table and they celebrate the arrival of yet another of their kind, 300 Santas <em>ho ho ho ho<\/em>-ing and vibrating as one. Two tables up the line Yanyu, who paints the pupils onto their dead eyes, is wearing a plastic mask while she works. This week it\u2019s Kermit the Frog; last week it was Pikachu. Before that, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. It stops the Santas from scanning her face and searching the social networks for her name. It means they keep fucking quiet. The masks have to be animals or cartoon characters &#8211; no real people or celebrities. Ming-hua tried it, for a while. She hid behind Spider Man\u2019s face. But it got too hot, the sweat from her brow stinging her eyes, the smell of the plastic as suffocating as the fumes from the injection-moulding machines clanking and pounding in the corner. She decided she was better off putting up with the <em>ho ho ho<\/em>-ing. The camera above her twitches as she moves, the counters on the screen tracking her progress as the Santa hits the pile, updating her daily stats like video game scores: units per minute, units per hour, units per day, Yuan earned. Time per unit, both for her and across the whole production line. They\u2019ve all been keeping an eye on that one &#8211; Mr. Han threatening them every morning that if they don\u2019t keep on target he\u2019ll replace them all with 3D printers and auto-painters.&nbsp;At break Yanya always tells her it\u2019s bullshit, that there\u2019s no way he can find printers or bots faster than them, plus he\u2019s too tight to pay for upgrades. All Ming-hua knows is that she needs this job, so she doesn\u2019t let herself stop and think about it for too long &#8230; (Source: Maughan 2014b, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/four-days-of-christmas\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-yellow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Richard John Seymour[&#8216;s] &#8230; 2016 BAFTA-nominated short film <em>Consumed <\/em>looks at the landscapes, mines, factories and shipyards that make up production in China.&nbsp;Seymour studied at the Architectural Association under the tutorage of Liam Young and Kate Davies, who run a speculative design studio at the school called <em>Unknown Fields Division<\/em>. &#8230; It was on one of [their] fieldtrips that Seymour filmed the material for <em>Consumed. <\/em>Seymour began filming the factories and mines that they visited in Inner Mongolia and China primarily as a form of documentation. But Seymour amassed enough footage to make a film, which in collaboration with Young and Davies he then turned into <em>Consumed<\/em> (Source: Portus 2018, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.demagazine.co.uk\/2018\/09\/25\/consumed\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<details class=\"wp-block-details has-small-font-size is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow\"><summary>+5 comments<\/summary>\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-midnight\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-vimeo wp-block-embed-vimeo wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Consumed\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/531187688?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">(Source: Seymour 2017, np <a href=\"https:\/\/richardjohnseymour.com\/consumed\">link<\/a> &#8211; Christmas decoration sequence from 5.35 to 8.58).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-yellow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>A departure point for Seymour when thinking about the China trip was the work of photographer Edward Burtynsky [see our page on a film about his work <a href=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/?p=7709\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"7709\">here<\/a>], whose photography aims to achieve a similar \u2018drawing to attention\u2019 as <em>Consumed <\/em>and <em>Unknown Field Divisions<\/em> work<em>.<\/em> There is a similar sense of an \u2018architectural scale\u2019 in Seymour and Burtynsky\u2019s work too. Seymour\u2019s shots of endless shipping containers parallel Burtynsky\u2019s images of industrial sprawl. Although in Burtynsky and Seymour\u2019s work the intention is to point to the impact of these landscapes and places, they are portrayed in such a way that they take on an odd beauty. There is a friction here between the desire to depict the consequences of development and consumerism and the portrayal of industrial and polluted landscapes, which leads to sense of an almost industrial sublime. <em>Consumed <\/em>manages to avoid remaining entirely in this mode however through the character of Chen Li Ming, who we hear describing his life working in the factory, over the repetitive din of machines.&nbsp; Chen Li Ming explains how he has worked in the factory for 11 years, and that his hands are his livelihood; the factories in China have not caught up with the automation in countries like South Korea. He speaks of how hard life in the factory is, but he also talks of how proud he is of the work he does. As he speaks the scale of production becomes clear as the camera pans rooms full of gold, silver, red and green Christmas baubles, and closes in on a worker sewing a beard onto a Santa\u2019s bare face.&nbsp; It is October, and Chen explains that it is the busiest time of the year as the factory prepares goods for the Western Holidays (Source: Portus 2018, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.demagazine.co.uk\/2018\/09\/25\/consumed\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-midnight\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>I feel good about the worth of my work. When I see the work of my hands in the city, in the shops, I feel proud (Source: Chen Li Ming in Seymour 2017, 16.22 &#8211; 16.35 <a href=\"https:\/\/richardjohnseymour.com\/consumed\">link<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-yellow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Despite the scenes with Chen Li Ming appearing as a straight forward character profile one would expect in documentary film, Chen is fictitious and was built through interviews Seymour conducted with different factory workers. This was a result of being unable to get a decent sit down interview and the difficulty of trying to talk to people whilst they worked. But it was also due to the fact that Seymour\u2019s interviewees were often being overlooked by their bosses, meaning they rarely divulged the reality of their workplace. But Seymour feels, &#8216;it was one of those situations where fiction became more true than fact&#8217;. The stitching together of different stories and thoughts from different people in the factory creates a rounder depiction, and a better insight into life working in a Chinese factory  (Source: Portus 2018, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.demagazine.co.uk\/2018\/09\/25\/consumed\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-yellow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p><em>Consumed<\/em> takes the fiction-truer-than-fact approach throughout. It is a meshwork of narratives and disparate scenes, coming together to form a vision we would not otherwise see or be able to quite conceive. It does this in part by exposing the phantasmagoria of commodities and the stories behind their magical apparition. We see the dirty process of mineral extraction that sits behind the superficial cleanliness of our phones screens, and the labour that goes into festive ornamentation. Through Chen Li Ming it also reveals the life of a factory worker in a factory, as well challenging perceptions of what that may be like. &#8230;  It can be seen to achieve &#8230; the role of artworks for thinking ecologically: they enable a questioning and disrupting of a known reality, through exposing one\u2019s complicity in ecological conditions.&nbsp; Yet <em>Consumed <\/em>also suffers in a way that film, photography and art that takes the brave move of trying to portray the complexity of supply chains, environmental damage and vast industrial landscapes often do. Despite the horror of what is being portrayed, a strange majesty is evoked. There is a closing of distance in one sense, but an opening in another (Source: Portus 2018, np <a href=\"https:\/\/www.demagazine.co.uk\/2018\/09\/25\/consumed\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:41px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background has-normal-font-size\" style=\"background-color:#f8f2ee\">Page compiled by Ian Cook et al (last updated September 2025).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">@44Blitz44 (2014) Comment on Toby Smith (2014) Xmas Unwrapped by Toby Smith and Unknown Fields. <em>YouTube.com<\/em> 7 December (<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/G5Miou-6Aqg?si=doGCV5ABnqt9FKPm\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/G5Miou-6Aqg?si=doGCV5ABnqt9FKPm<\/a> last accessed 15 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">@ahmedhassani4308 (2014) Comment on Toby Smith (2014) Xmas Unwrapped by Toby Smith and Unknown Fields. <em>YouTube.com<\/em> 7 December (<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/G5Miou-6Aqg?si=doGCV5ABnqt9FKPm\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/G5Miou-6Aqg?si=doGCV5ABnqt9FKPm<\/a> last accessed 15 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">@CoxSoxJox (2018) Comment on Toby Smith (2014) Xmas Unwrapped by Toby Smith and Unknown Fields. <em>YouTube.com<\/em> 7 December (<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/G5Miou-6Aqg?si=doGCV5ABnqt9FKPm\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/G5Miou-6Aqg?si=doGCV5ABnqt9FKPm<\/a> last accessed 15 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">@howellb1 (2014) Comment on Toby Smith (2014) Xmas Unwrapped by Toby Smith and Unknown Fields. <em>YouTube.com<\/em> 7 December (<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/G5Miou-6Aqg?si=doGCV5ABnqt9FKPm\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/G5Miou-6Aqg?si=doGCV5ABnqt9FKPm<\/a> last accessed 15 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<details class=\"wp-block-details has-small-font-size is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow\"><summary>+21 sources<\/summary>\n<p>@trulahn (2014) Comment on Toby Smith (2014) Xmas Unwrapped by Toby Smith and Unknown Fields. <em>YouTube.com<\/em> 7 December (<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/G5Miou-6Aqg?si=doGCV5ABnqt9FKPm\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/G5Miou-6Aqg?si=doGCV5ABnqt9FKPm<\/a> last accessed 15 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">@Venturilife (2017) Comment on Toby Smith (2014) Xmas Unwrapped by Toby Smith and Unknown Fields. <em>YouTube.com<\/em> 7 December (<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/G5Miou-6Aqg?si=doGCV5ABnqt9FKPm\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/G5Miou-6Aqg?si=doGCV5ABnqt9FKPm<\/a> last accessed 15 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Anon (2019) Christmas is coming and Santa\u2019s Chinese workshops have been on the case since summer. <em>Aeon<\/em> (<a href=\"https:\/\/aeon.co\/videos\/christmas-is-coming-and-santas-chinese-workshops-have-been-on-the-case-since-summer\">https:\/\/aeon.co\/videos\/christmas-is-coming-and-santas-chinese-workshops-have-been-on-the-case-since-summer<\/a> last accessed 15 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan (2014) Tracking a Gadget\u2019s Journey From the Mine to Beneath the Christmas Tree. <em>Gizmodo<\/em> 10 December (<a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/a-gadget-s-journey-from-inside-the-mine-to-under-the-c-1668715782\">https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/a-gadget-s-journey-from-inside-the-mine-to-under-the-c-1668715782<\/a> last accessed 16 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Data &amp; Society Research Institute (2016) Databite No. 86: Tim Maughan. <em>YouTube.com<\/em> 22 July (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=z5AGVtw3ms4\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=z5AGVtw3ms4<\/a> last accessed 15 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Kate Davies &amp; Liam Young (2022) Tales from the dark side of the city. in Rosalea Monacella &amp;&nbsp;Bridget Keane (eds) <em>Designing landscape architectural education<\/em>: <em>studio ecologies for unpredictable futures. <\/em>London: Routledge, p165-178<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Mekael Dawson (2014 )I kinda wanna barf&#8230; <em>twotter.com<\/em> 27 December (<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/mekaeldawson\/status\/548942911358767105\">https:\/\/x.com\/mekaeldawson\/status\/548942911358767105<\/a> last accessed 15 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Karianne Fogelberg (2024) Travel needs to be about collective imagining: Liam Young. <em>Nomad<\/em> 16 (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-nomad-magazine.com\/liam-young-travel-needs-to-be-about-collective-imagining\/?srsltid=AfmBOooOXqAqwcy_0UqgKQDxfvq9fugvAJSjvhk8W_OKQSd-E1X0Y_Jr\">https:\/\/www.the-nomad-magazine.com\/liam-young-travel-needs-to-be-about-collective-imagining\/?srsltid=AfmBOooOXqAqwcy_0UqgKQDxfvq9fugvAJSjvhk8W_OKQSd-E1X0Y_Jr<\/a> last accessed 16 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Hugh Garry (2015) Postcards from a supply chain: the global electronics supply chain in 5 videos. <em>How we get to next<\/em> 29 January (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.howwegettonext.com\/unmaking-electronics-5-videos-on-the-electronics-supply-chain\/\">https:\/\/www.howwegettonext.com\/unmaking-electronics-5-videos-on-the-electronics-supply-chain\/<\/a> last accessed 15 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Bettina G\u00f6cmener (2021) Hier wird Christian Drosten zum R\u00e4ucherm\u00e4nnchen. <em>B Z der stimme berlins<\/em> 21 November (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bz-berlin.de\/archiv-artikel\/hier-wird-christian-drosten-zum-raeuchermaennchen\">https:\/\/www.bz-berlin.de\/archiv-artikel\/hier-wird-christian-drosten-zum-raeuchermaennchen<\/a> last accessed 15 September 2025 &#8211; translated from German by Google Translate)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Tim Maughan (2014a) Yiwu: The Chinese city where Christmas is made and sold. <em>BBC Future<\/em> 18 December (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/future\/article\/20141218-the-hidden-home-of-christmas\">https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/future\/article\/20141218-the-hidden-home-of-christmas<\/a> last accessed 14 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Tim Maughan (2014b) Four Days of Christmas. <em>Four Days of Christma<\/em>s. <em>Vice<\/em> 24 December (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/four-days-of-christmas\/\">https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/four-days-of-christmas\/<\/a> last accessed 15 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Tim Maughan (2015) The Shadow Cast by the Luminous Screen that We Hold in our Hands Stretches Across the Planet<br>\u2013 An interview with Liam Young by Tim Maughan. <em>Sonic Arts<\/em> 27 October (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonicacts.com\/archive\/tim-maughan-interviews-liam-young\">https:\/\/www.sonicacts.com\/archive\/tim-maughan-interviews-liam-young<\/a> last accessed 15 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">MIKA27 (2014) A Single Chinese Town Makes Most Of The World&#8217;s Christmas Decorations. <em>Friends of el Habano <\/em> 22 December (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fohcigars.com\/forum\/topic\/113262-stuff-news-technology-the-cool-and-the-plain-weird\/page\/212\/\">https:\/\/www.fohcigars.com\/forum\/topic\/113262-stuff-news-technology-the-cool-and-the-plain-weird\/page\/212\/<\/a> last accessed 15 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Beckett Mufson (2014) Holiday Doc Unwraps the Less-Than-Festive Factories Behind Christmas. <em>Vice <\/em>22 December (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/holiday-doc-unwraps-the-less-than-festive-factories-behind-christmas\/\">https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/holiday-doc-unwraps-the-less-than-festive-factories-behind-christmas\/<\/a> last accessed 16 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Adam Rothstein (2015) How to See Infrastructure: A Guide for Seven Billion Primates. <em>Rhizome <\/em>7 February (<a href=\"https:\/\/rhizome.org\/editorial\/2015\/jul\/02\/how-see-infrastructure-guide-seven-billion-primate\/\">https:\/\/rhizome.org\/editorial\/2015\/jul\/02\/how-see-infrastructure-guide-seven-billion-primate\/<\/a> last accessed 16 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Yare Saavadra (2014) Un pueblo chino fabrica el 60% de las decoraciones navide\u00f1as del mundo. <em>Gizmodo.com<\/em> 21 December (<a href=\"https:\/\/es.gizmodo.com\/un-pueblo-en-china-fabrica-todas-las-decoraciones-navid-1673595190\">https:\/\/es.gizmodo.com\/un-pueblo-en-china-fabrica-todas-las-decoraciones-navid-1673595190<\/a> last accessed 15 September 2025 &#8211; translated from Spanish by Google Translate)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Richard John Seymour (2017) Consumed. <em>richardjohnseymour.com <\/em>(<a href=\"https:\/\/richardjohnseymour.com\/consumed\">https:\/\/richardjohnseymour.com\/consumed<\/a> last accessed 16 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Toby Smith (2014) Unknown Fields &#8211; Worlds Adrift. <em>tobsysmith.com <\/em>(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tobysmith.com\/project\/unknown-fields-a-world-adrift\/\">https:\/\/www.tobysmith.com\/project\/unknown-fields-a-world-adrift\/<\/a> last accessed 15 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Toby Smith (2015) Xmas Unwrapped! <em>tobysmith.com<\/em> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tobysmith.com\/project\/xmas-unwrapped\/\">https:\/\/www.tobysmith.com\/project\/xmas-unwrapped\/<\/a> last accessed 15 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Heather Timmons &amp; Heather Timmons (2022) Here\u2019s where all those cheap Santa hats and plastic snowmen come from. <em>uartz <\/em> 21 July (<a href=\"https:\/\/qz.com\/315693\/heres-where-all-those-cheap-santa-hats-and-plastic-snowmen-come-from\">https:\/\/qz.com\/315693\/heres-where-all-those-cheap-santa-hats-and-plastic-snowmen-come-from<\/a> last accessed 15 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Unknown Fields (2016) <em>A world adrift: tales from the dark side of the city.<\/em> London: Architectural Association<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Christine Van den Berg (2021) Einmal um die Weihnachtswelt E wie Engel, K wie Konsum: Anhand des Alphabets blickt eine Ausstellung auf das Fest. <em>Der Tagesspiegel<\/em> 24 November <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Koert van Mensfoort (2014) Xmas Unwrapped. <em>Next nature<\/em> 24 December (<a href=\"https:\/\/nextnature.org\/en\/magazine\/story\/2014\/xmas-unwrapped\">https:\/\/nextnature.org\/en\/magazine\/story\/2014\/xmas-unwrapped<\/a> last accessed 15 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unknown Fields Division (2014) SUMMER 2014_A WORLD ADRIFT Part 02. <em>Unknown Fields Division <\/em> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.unknownfieldsdivision.com\/summer2014china-aworldadriftpart02.html#4\">https:\/\/www.unknownfieldsdivision.com\/summer2014china-aworldadriftpart02.html#4<\/a> last accessed 15 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unknown Fields Division (nd) Collaborators. <em>Unknown Fields Division <\/em> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.unknownfieldsdivision.com\/collaborators.html\">https:\/\/www.unknownfieldsdivision.com\/collaborators.html<\/a> last accessed 16 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unknown Fields Division (nd) Division leaders. <em>Unknown Fields Division <\/em> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.unknownfieldsdivision.com\/division_leaders.html\">https:\/\/www.unknownfieldsdivision.com\/division_leaders.html<\/a> last accessed 16 September 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wikipedia (nd) Liam Young. <em>Wikipedia<\/em> (<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Liam_Young\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Liam_Young<\/a> last accessed 16 September 2025)<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:21px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<details class=\"wp-block-details has-small-font-size is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow\"><summary>Image credit<\/summary>\n<p><strong>Speaking icon:<\/strong> Speaking (https:\/\/thenounproject.com\/icon\/speaking-5549886\/) by M Faisal from Noun Project (CC BY 3.0) Modified August 2024<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div><p id=\"pvc_stats_28317\" class=\"pvc_stats all  \" data-element-id=\"28317\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon medium\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg 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Seasonal &#8220;Xmas Unwrapped&#8220;A short film edited by Toby Smith and Unknown Fields Division with Tim Maughan.Posted in YouTube, embedded above in full. This short &#8216;Jingle Bells&#8217; Chinese Christmas factory film comes from a larger initiative to rethink architecture. 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