The population of people on Earth has been growing at an exponential rate, especially after new medial advances causing a rise in life expectancy and a fall in infant mortality rates. In many countries, the population density has become so high; the land available in those countries can no longer support the amount of people living there, let alone be able to bury their dead. Burying the dead in dense cities has become either impossible or very expensive. We can see various ways different cultures have tried to solve this problem, such as cremation and sky burials in Asia, as well as ossuaries and catacombs in Europe.

Issues involving space or the lack of it are becoming increasingly important in our current day and age. Many of these problems are being solved by compacting living spaces and building progressively taller buildings. A great example of a culture attempting to adapt to these new situations can be seen in Japan. Most families living in Japan (especially in a city like Tokyo) are forced into tiny apartment buildings. Japan also has the infamous Capsule Hotel, which is a hotel with tiny cubicles that fit only one bed that a person would rent out for a night. I have just recently noticed that it strongly resembles a catacomb, but for the living.

China has also been trying to control population rates, by instilling the One Child Policy, in which a family is only allowed to have one child, and are required to receive permission by the government to have an additional child, and are also taxed for it. The parents are then sterilized, or the government forces abortions if they get pregnant a third time.

With human life taking over earth’s available land, we are finding it increasingly challenging to find places to put human remains. Burying the dead is also significantly more costly than other methods, such as cremation, promession, and resomation; all of which, takes the remains of loved ones, and reduces it to its most basic matter. A cost for a burial in New York City would be around $6500, while cremation costs around $780.

Aside from being expensive and taking up more space, burials are more environmentally harmful than other new alternatives such as resomation and promession. Toxic chemicals used for embalming could leak into the earth, the ground water, and other water sources. The making of caskets also uses up our natural resources. Many people prefer to use rare woods such as mahogany for caskets and subsequently reduce our natural resources and kill off our ever-decreasing forests. Promession and resomation on the other hand uses economically friendly processes that do not emit any harmful chemicals into the environment. With the resulting ashes from these alternatives, relatives and loved ones also have the choice to spread the ashes of the deceased, bury it, or keep it close by, in their homes.

Seating

For all societies and communities, there seems to be a need to have and distinguish its leader. The most global means of showing ones leadership within the community or empire appears to be a throne or crown. I have chosen to pinpoint some thrones made in various countries and times that have become quite famous throughout time. Though not similar in shape, size or form, they all share a need to stand out from all other forms of seating through being richly adorned with jewels, or in a shape that demands power.

Lights

Since the beginning of time, light has been available to humans, from natural light such as the sun, fire and bioluminescent creatures to artificial light, like the light bulb, lasers and light through various chemical reactions.
My timeline on lights focuses on light as a source of entertainment. For centuries, humans have used light, whether natural or artificial, for purposes other than necessity. I chose to show the various different forms we have changed light in order to serve our need for personal, or mass entertainment

Passed/Past

For my passed/past time line, I chose to focus on how different cultures throughout the past dealt with space issues that occur when disposing of human remains. Through my research I have found various new and old forms of commemorating passed loved ones without the classic burial and tombstone. From this time line, I have discovered that different ways of disposing bodies were first developed in order to solve the issues of space and inability of a burial but has now evolved to solve environmental issues through new technologies and scientific insights.