Farming, speciesism, local solutions.
Questioning normality is often faced with backlash, as the questioning itself is felt as a personal confrontation. The health benefits of meat and dairy has been shaped by generational layers of social constructs and maintained by marketing by industries who are focused on the bottom line.
After considering the ethical qualms around dairy consumption around a year ago, I decided to omit it completely for a while to see the effects, opting purely for a plant based diet. After having more energy and being healthier I saw no reason to change back.
My studio team began exploring and unrooting the topic of speciesism, that is the idea of humans having higher moral rights than other species. One interesting initial project idea involves manufacturing photography film, using human gelatine.
Gelatin used in food and products comes from the protein collagen, which is sourced from ears, hides, bones and skin of animals. Note, in this context, animals is referring to sentient organisms with a central nervous system other than humans.
The interesting question with this topic is whether it is a better moral choice to use human gelatin, from deceased and consenting humans. In this way, the collected protein involves no torture or unnecessary death. and uses less natural resources.
A further question to ponder is whether human gelatine could be accepted and what reaction would this be met with. It’s a morbid topic and I’m not sure how I would react using a product made from human material, or say, eating food which is substituted with human gelatine. It’s a very strange line.
If I am for the use of ethically sourced human gelatine, then by that logic should I be ok with consented cannibalism? This thought is repulsive to me. With this being the case, the progression of the argument concerning moral rights and perception of animal welfare is circled back upon itself, as my own repulsed thinking of consented cannibalism is confirmation that animal consumption is generally not given a second thought. This is especially true when the food product is not directly reminiscent of the animal of which it is made from.
After the vegan film idea passed, mostly due to the complexities of the manufacturing process, we decided upon a different approach to the problem. Rather than addressing the issue from an animal consumption and ethics point of view which can be quite confrontational, we are showing and promoting alternatives, specifically in the area of self sustainability with fruit and vegetable gardens.
Our current goal is to explore garden alternatives for urban environments, and present a proposal for an AUT community garden.
For the alternative urban gardening research, a prototype vertical garden will be constructed. Vertical gardening is just as it sounds, with the primary advantage being the extra space that can be utilised. Imagine a small garden on an office desk for example, to brighten up a workplace and provide access to healthy food anytime. The implementation of affordable tech is also going to be explored. This can be in the form of an Arduino powered automation system for measuring and acting upon PH levels, nutritional and water requirements. However before diving too deeply into this we have been getting our hands dirty learning about gardening. Curtis has managed to secure a garden bed in the CBD and resources for us to experiment and further our practical knowledge in this area.
kianamaiart
izzy806
blakekathryn
titsay
romaincrisis
stormborns
ellievsbear
germansingergirl
