Many injustices happen here in our community and all over the world. Learning to educate ourselves on injustices so we can address them is key. We started the topic of justice off by learning about the philosophies of justice (Utilitarianism, John Rawl’s theory of Justice as Fairness, and Libertarianism), and then using this information to write our first justice monologue on our philosophy. Then, we moved on to environmental ethics where we explored different issues, including the complexity of the oil and gas industry. Here we got to watch a few documentaries (True Justice and Beyond Standing Rock) to understand the injustices of environmental racism and our country's justice system. After, this we made a second justice monologue based on our philosophy regarding environmental ethics. After all of that content, we were finally ready to start our justice project on the topic of our choosing.
JUSTICE MONOLOGUE #1:
JUSTICE MONOLOGUE #2:
UNETHICAL PRACTICES IN THE SEAFOOD INDUSTRY FINAL PRODUCT:
PROJECT DEFENSE:
What did you end up doing for your project? I decided to do a group project with my classmate Rexanne on the injustice of Unethical Practices within the Seafood Industry. We decided to create a visual piece with an artist statement for our project. With that, we have created a QR code that links an informational website about the topic, and on that website, there is a trustworthy organization you can donate to if you wish to do so. The first week Rexanne and I focused on gathering information on our issue. We collected information from a documentary and articles that we then used to help create our artist statement. We wanted to educate ourselves, so we could then educate others about this issue. We also started to write our artist statement with the information gathered. The second week Rexanne and I started the week off by doing a little community service. We went around our local river and trail to find trash for our art piece. I also worked on getting our QR code done. At the end of week two, Rexanne and I had looked through all of our trash and cleaned everything. Then, we had sorted the trash to see what we wanted to use for our art piece and what we needed to discard accordingly. In the final week, Rexanne and I focused on starting and finishing our art piece. I was the one who cut up all the trash we had gotten, while Rexanne was the one to glue and place our pieces onto the plexiglass. Once finished, we continued to work on our artist statement, revising it before printing it. During this project, I think I took on a leadership role. I feel I led Rexanne and me through our work. I was the one to make sure we stayed on task and didn't fall behind on any of the work that needed to get done before the due date. I also made sure that we both did our established roles created in our project proposal.
How did you project reflect your personal philosophy of injustice? Before the start of my project, I got introduced to Environmental Ethics. I learned many key terms and ideas on this topic. A key term that stood out to me was sustainability. It is the practice of indefinitely maintaining processes of productivity — natural or human-made — without degrading the quality of the resources used. This term is related to my topic because big fishing corporations and industries in this area are not doing their part to do things sustainably. Another idea that I resonated with was the idea of conservationism. Humans should steward land to use particular recourses and then replenish them to ensure they will continue to be around. It resonates with my project because people are taking masses of fish and not giving back. In this situation, it is hard to give back, but I do think it is possible. A start to working on this issue is to bring awareness to these injustices, and then take action.
Why was your project a just way to address your issue of injustice? How did it bring about more justice or if you were trying to raise awareness, why were the ideas/arguments/messages you were expressing through your work/writing/art more in line with justice than other ideas? My project was a just way to address this issue of injustice by giving the community a beautiful art piece that captures the importance of our topic. The art piece speaks for itself. However, the artist statement is where all the most information on our topic is. The artist's statement gives information and an understanding of the main arguments and ideas within our topic. There is a message that we are trying to convey through the information we have provided in our artist statement, but we don’t straight out say it. It is for you to determine and interpret our message. The project brought more awareness when we reached out to local businesses to see if they would consider displaying our work. When you include the community on your issue, you gain more awareness for this issue of injustice.
Did you do sufficient research and background work to pull of your project, take an informed stance or succeed in your endeavors? Explain! I say I did sufficient background research to succeed in pulling off my artist statement. Rexanne and I spent almost a whole week researching our topic and gathering important information. Coming into this project, I knew the basics of my topic, but I didn’t know much. I got the chance to collect research that helped me understand my topic and why it is such an important issue. In the end, I think I gained a deeper connection with this topic, and I got to apply that to my artist statement.
PROJECT REFLECTION:
In what ways were you successful in meeting the goals you established in your project proposal? What contributed to your successes and failures? What obstacles did you face? At the beginning of our project, my partner and I created a goal of bringing awareness. I believe we were successful in reaching this goal. Having a topic that we felt strongly about helped us create a project that we were happy with and were willing to put out into the community for all to see. The art piece with an artist statement and a QR code were all products that helped us reach our goal of spreading awareness of this injustice. We reached out to some community members to see if they would display our project, and one person agreed. Charles Shaw, the owner of the Smiley Building, allowed us to display our work in his building. We reached our goal of spreading awareness because of this. One goal we did not meet was reaching out to organizations/people involved with this issue. Ultimately, we never got the chance to do this because we ran out of time. Looking back, if we had more time, this is something that I think would've been beneficial to our research and project.
To what extent did you SHOW UP for this project? How engaged/committed/involved were you in the work? How much did you strive to create beautiful work worth doing? To what extent were you accountable to yourself and others if relevant? I believe I showed up for this project most of the time. I was engaged and committed to the work I was doing because I was interested in my topic. Since I was so interested in my injustice, it was easy to create ideas that led to a beautiful final product. I’m not saying this project was easy, but I am saying that having thoughts and an understanding of this injustice helped create this product. There were times when I was distracted, but I managed to come back to my work and finish strong. An example of me “showing up” for this project was stepping out of my comfort zone and doing something I wouldn’t normally do. My group member and I created an art piece for our final project, which I would never choose to do. I am not the creative type, but I am happy that I got to do something different. In the end, I was proud of our final product. I also had a good experience working with a not so close friend. We learned a lot about each other personally and academically throughout this project. We managed to keep ourselves and each other accountable throughout this project, allowing the distribution of work and effort.
What TWO key lessons did you learn from this project that you can apply to senior project?
Research: You can never have too much research. When it comes to a project especially, my senior project, it is important to educate myself by doing lots of research. It will come in handy when I am writing my academic paper. I will need to gather all the best information to educate others and bring awareness to my topic.
Weekly goals/checklist: I learned that managing my time can be kind of hard. Although, an easy way to help with this was by creating a weekly checklist of goals and things that my partner and I needed to finish each week. Having this checklist allows you to keep track of everything you need to finish for the week, and it helps you use your time efficiently.