Exploring Calotropis gigantea’s Potential as a Cost-effective Ameliorant in Clay Pit Rehabilitation, Episode 6: Future Applications
The Quarry Life Award was a research competition held by a cement company, ostensibly to greenwash its mining activities. We participated in this competition, by studying the ameliorative potential of the giant milkweed, Calotropis gigantea, in the desolate post-mined quarry, filming the project's progress along the way. In this episode, we interview Dr. Yekti Asih Purwestri and Dr. Tri Rini Nuringtyas on the potential applications for C. gigantea beyond those researched by Lelly and Retno.
Production notes
Something I'll note is that there are obvious production deficiencies in this series. From noisy visuals in low-light scenes (such as the interviews) to equally noisy sound, these videos were made under time constraints, and, frankly, before I'd developed any ability to master sound. Originally, I planned on re-releasing them with some of these issues fixed, but ultimately decided to leave them in the capsule whence they came. As much as anything, they show what we were doing at that time, and we can accept the faults that come with that picture.
Unrelated to the quality of the content, I'd also like to acknowledge that I have qualms about our role in the aforementioned greenwashing. By participating in the competition (and ultimately winning it, meaning this footage appeared in promotional materials and a news reel), we contributed to it. Nevertheless, I believe the first three episodes, in particular, speak for themselves in presenting the research site as it is, and Lelly's comments on the "barren" landscape should make it clear that we weren't attempting to present the quarry in a positive light—in fact, I think we present it quite honestly. Because of the security restrictions, I wouldn't have been able to shoot what I did, and the videos we have of the site are still worthwhile in that context. They show active mining sites up-close, as well was what happens after the area has been mined. While other projects focused on emphasising the biodiversity of the quarry, ours was concerned with rehabilitating it, but all the same it was for a competition, and that's the gist of it.
Finally, I'd like to thank the staff who helped us with this project, some of whom you can see in the video and went uncredited. They were courteous and helpful throughout, and I'm appreciative of their patience and kindness while I played my small part in the project.
Credits
A PROJECT BY
Siti Nurleily Marliana
Retno Prayudyaningsih
DOCUMENTATION
Joaquim Baeta
INTERVIEWED WERE
Dr. Yekti Asih Purwestri
Dr. Tri Rini Nuringtyas
INTERVIEWED BY
Joaquim Baeta
DIRECTED, SHOT, AND EDITED BY
Joaquim Baeta
IMAGES COURTESY OF
Dr. Yekti Asih Purwestri
Samuel Wong
storebukkebruse
MUSIC
"Malachite" by Andy G. Cohen; https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Andy_G_Cohen/Through_The_Lens/Andy_G_Cohen_-_Malachite; CC BY 4.0
License & Attribution
By Joaquim Baeta, Siti Nurleily Marliana, and Retno Prayudyaningsih. This video and the files associated with it are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. You are free to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon them in any medium or format, provided you give appropriate credit to Joaquim Baeta, Siti Nurleily Marliana, and Retno Prayudyaningsih, indicate any changes, and redistribute any derivative work under the same (or equivalent) license.
Example attribution: "Exploring Calotropis gigantea’s Potential as a Cost-effective Ameliorant in Clay Pit Rehabilitation, Episode 6: Future Applications" by Joaquim Baeta, Siti Nurleily Marliana, and Retno Prayudyaningsih, https://scenoptica.com/documentary/exploring-calotropis-giganteas-potential-as-a-cost-effective-ameliorant-in-clay-pit-rehabilitation-future-applications.html, CC BY-SA.