Okay, new idea

Staying on the path of big issues, what if I did something with women's rights, or domestic abuse and assault, rape, sexual harassment, crimes against women. It is a global problem, and these are all issues that concern, well half of the world's population, perhaps a bit more than half. The event could be a gathering of sorts, women and men alike could gather and create something in remembrance or in dedication to or just to represent the women in their lives who have been affected by one of these crimes against women, and then these creations could be displayed for the day, or for a while, or if it were to become something that tours around they could be displayed all along the tour. So, while it is a gathering in order to create something for someone, giving victims of these crimes against women a voice, or some kind of representation, it would also be a displaying of how many other women have gone through this, which would not only show how huge these issues are, how many women are affected by them, but it would also allow the women who were coming to this event because they were affected themselves to not feel so alone, because a lot of times with these events women go through them alone, and they do not tell anyone out of shame, or fear, and so it is largely a lonely experience. And a lot of times, while it is not formal in anyway, being able to be around, see, even talk to women who have gone through the same traumatic experiences, can be somewhat of a therapeutic experience, allows you to realize that this is a global problem, it affects millions, and that you are not alone, allows you to move on. I think this would be positive for the community, for the women in the community, it would certainly create awareness around these topics, and I cannot see any community turning down this sort of event. I will work on the details, but I think this is good, this is good.

Brain Storm

I am playing around with ideas in my head about this final project we are doing. I would like to do something big, larger than life. I would like to address a larger-than-life issue in a creative way and create some sort of event or proposal for an event that would open people's eyes to issues. One thing about events like this is they actually have to be worth while for people to go to, you can plan the most elaborate, meaningful event but if no one participates than no one was affected by it, and it was merely a waste of time and resources for all parties. So, addressing big issues in a fun or exciting or interesting way.

My first ideas were as follows;

-global warming

-world hunger

Now I will elaborate:

-global warming - many people are skeptical this is occuring, not because of factual evidence but because of the placement of doubt by certain parties who have an interest in the continued use of fossil fuels, mainly oil. Some people I have encountered do not believe it could occur because nature is much too powerful, the world too large, to be truly changed and affected by the actions of people, its inhabitants. Many events have been done in order to show the photos of the melting ice-caps, however I feel that paints a grim picture and, quite frankly, it has been done. My event for this topic would serve to highlight the power that people actually do have in changing and affecting the environment. The power of human impact if you will. This could be demonstrated by maybe filming a scene at a beach, or some place like this where each person who walked by would simply place a rock in a small stream, or take one shovel full of sand and move it to a different location, and at the end of this, perhaps the small stream would be averted, surely disturbed, and the shovel fulls of sand would certainly create a hole in one location and a large pile in the other, depending on the traffic on the beach. I abandoned this idea because I am not sure I could get a beach to agree to this, and also because of the drought issues and such.

-world hunger - in order to create increased awareness of world hunger, I thought I could take small object, perhaps a ritz cracker, or an oreo, or a grape, and to ask a fairly large group of people to split this small piece of sustinance between them. This could be repeated with slightly larger food objects like a graham cracker or larger baked good of some kind, or watermelon slice, even something as large as a watermellon providing a massive group with just a knife and having them split it between them. The point of this activity could be one of several things, at the end of the exercize everyone could be asked to imagine if what they had in their hand was the only sustinance they were going to have for a day, a week, maybe longer. Interview could be conducted after with each person asking why they chose the size of item they did, and if they could go back would they change the size in any way and why. It could also point to which cultures took larger pieces than others if it were a multicultural group, also the sizes they took if they were told that what they took had to last them a day or a year. I think that would not only be eye opening for the participants and on-lookers, but it would also be somewhat of a social experiment, revealing the tendencies of certain cultures and just people in general in their interest of self-preservation, and perhaps how they react when they step into the shoes of someone who struggles to find enough to survive.