Symbolic Camera
The main question I would like my symbolic camera to evoke is 'have you seen change?' Change specifically in relation to climate change. When deciding what should be the focus of my project, I at first thought of topics personal to me and related to my identity, such as being bi-racial and vegan. However after feedback with others in the group I became more inclined to choose a topic that could evoke a response and change within the audience. This is why I chose a topic based on climate change and solutions. I try to be as sustainable as possible and therefore it is something that I take interest in and that I would like to inspire others with.
My camera is made up of materials that I already had at home. This was to show the importance of sustainability in my project. I used a plastic container normally used for food. This was wrapped in newspaper. The reason I chose this specific page of the news paper was because it had a headline about Donald Trump accompanied by a picture of him. This is important for two reasons. One is to highlight the lack of coverage of the climate crisis and the lack of urgency. It is a good way to show how the West responds to a problem that they have made a lot of contribution towards. Another reason is that Donald Trump is famous for saying that Global Warming is not real. An old lightbulb is used to replicate the camera lense and blue tack to replicate the button used to capture an image. On the back where the screen would be on the camera, there is a picture of Native Americans, from a magazine I had about indigenous societies. This is vital in the forming of my visual project. A sub-topic I feel passionate about is how indigenous societies are affected by the consequences of climate change whilst having very little to do with the causes. An example I am familiar with is the Climate Refugees of the Carterets Islands, Papua New Guinea. Rising sea levels have meant that the families in this community were forced out of their homes into resettlement camps. They are a society that are not ecologically damaging to the environment but reap the negative consequences. My passion towards these issues is what fuelled the inspiration I had to research and apply video activism to my project.
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