SouthSands Industries is a company dedicated to finding solutions for better uses of our world’s resources. Our R&D Lab has been working in new technologies to help us understand the effect our waste has had in the environment, and ways to overturn catastrophic events.
As part of our “Deconstruct to rebuild” initiative, we have come to terms with the fact that waste is and will remain in our beaches and oceans unless we take drastic action. To know exactly what needs to be done, we have studied the fauna that could be more directly impacted by human waste, and vice versa. The first animal we are going to focus on is the Hermit Crab. Why? Because it has been seen using food containers, like soda cans, as their shelter. This crustacean species has a soft underbelly that needs to be protected by external means, that is why they use shells as protection, and they move from one shell to another as they grow.
We are determined to find out if the litter has had any impact in Hermit Crabs’ livelihood, and also, we want to know if they have had any effect in the dispersion of waste. For that, we put our top scientists, under the supervision of Dr. Fernanda Alexander, to develop means to better study these little critters. That is how we got the Nature Integration Nanotech Modules, or NIN Modules for short. These vehicles come in the shape of an actual Hermit Crab and are able to shrink to their size, it is remotely operated and can harbor up to 6 guests. Being inclusive is of utmost importance, so we have designed our vehicles to be able to accommodate people with disabilities that use wheelchairs without the need of transferring out of them. We are also able to adjust lighting and sound for people with visual and auditory sensibilities.
That being said, four teams of designers have each come up with different versions of NIN Modules to compete in the TIDAL Challenge, in which they use the modules to race through the beach, picking up trash in their way, and see who makes it back to the lab with the most amount of waste collected before the tide rises. Pick your favorite team, get in the Module and have a “shell” of a time!
Writer/Director: Emmanuel Luevano
Concept Art: Carlos Nava
Graphic Design: Lourdes Tejada
Voice Talent: Jordan Lujan