Author: Natalie Hayden

This Spring, Discovering the Ecological Self collaborated with the Monmouth University Climate Teach-In. Throughout the spring semester, DEcoSelf participants attended several Climate Teach In’s, where they learned about current climate crisis issues. The Teach-in, organized by Dr. Catherine Duckett, aimed to ” generate discussion about climate impacts and solutions with the goal of improving life for humans and other living things”. Using the knowledge gained from attending these events, participants brainstormed on how they could aid in mediating the climate crisis locally while educating their peers using Social Practice Art.

For their social practice artwork, the students decided to focus on creating awareness of the climate crisis by clearing out invasive vine species and beach plastics and creating a sculptural object with the resulting waste. Invasive vine species cause costly economic and ecological damage each year including crop decimation, clogging of water facilities and waterways, wildlife and human disease transmission, threats to fisheries, increased fire vulnerability, and adverse effects for ranchers and farmers. Students were able to clear out an abundant amount of invasive vines at Van Court Park, including Porcelain Berry (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata), Oriental Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus), and Multifloral Rose (Rosa multiflora).

“I remember hearing and making comments such as “We just saved this tree’s life” which left a rewarding feeling inside myself and others. It feels good to be helping nature and doing a small part of something good for our community and hopefully inspiring others to do so, or do so more often, in our community.”

– AR-218 student, Alexis Mangino

For their social practice artwork, the students decided to focus on creating awareness of the climate crisis by clearing out invasive vine species and beach plastics and creating a sculptural object with the resulting waste. Invasive vine species cause costly economic and ecological damage each year including crop decimation, clogging of water facilities and waterways, wildlife and human disease transmission, threats to fisheries, increased fire vulnerability, and adverse effects for ranchers and farmers. Students were able to clear out an abundant amount of invasive vines at Van Court Park, including Porcelain Berry (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata), Oriental Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus), and Multifloral Rose (Rosa multiflora).

At first, it was thought that the vines could be used to make a giant net, which reminded students of ways of fishing they had previously learned about during the Teach-Ins. While examining the collected vines and brainstorming what to use them for, students focussed on the threats of overfishing and the importance of sustenance fishing. Overfishing endangered ocean ecosystems and the billions of people who rely on seafood as a key source of protein. Without sustainable management, our fisheries face collapse and we face a food crisis. Although a widespread issue, many seem to dismiss the effects of overfishing, along with another detriment to our food source, ocean pollution. According to marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, “Unsustainable, unregulated fishing is a human rights disaster… and the archipelagic New York City, once surrounded by more than 40 square kilometers of wetlands and by oysters so abundant they were a navigational hazard, is now unprotected”. To aid in the stopping of ocean pollution, students collected plastics from beaches in Monmouth County, focussing on access sites- where there is a heavy concentration of plastics, especially water bottles. These were later used in the handmade traditional fish trap.

To bring attention to a climate crisis social justice issue, the students chose to use the collected invasive vines to create a traditional fish trap. Traditionally, fishing traps are made from natural materials found around people’s homes – reeds, twigs, bamboo, and palm leaf fibers. These traps are as effective as a simple fishing rod which many of the locals can also be seen using on the embankment of the river and which simply consist of a long twig, a piece of string, and a hook. Students watched videos and read articles to educate themselves about the origin and use of fish traps and learn how to weave natural materials together. The thicker branches from the Porcelain Berry plant were used as a foundation structure for the trap, and thinner Oriental Bittersweet vines were trimmed and tied to the foundation with twine. The invasive vines were crafted by students into an aesthetic, yet delicate traditional fish trap.

Using the fish trap as a metaphor, this public artwork demonstrates the consequences of the climate crisis when what’s caught in the trap is sea plastics instead of fish.

The devastating impacts of the climate crisis are already being seen in our local communities, and through their social practice work, the students are hoping to be a predecessor for change. You can also be a predecessor for change, by clicking the links below and seeing how you can act now.

Special thanks to Dr. Catherine Duckett for making this project possible.
-Dr. Catherine Duckett has planted 61 trees in her local community, private and public.
-She has created wildflower gardens at local schools.
-Runs climate teach-in lectures, teaching others about relevant issues.
-She has an example of no lawn. Homegrown natural park link.
-Native plant plants for free.
-Shades of green permaculture-free plans.

The goal of our project is to show that death is necessary to produce life.  Our idea changed many times throughout its creation. We originally intended to surround a flower with compostable materials to showcase decay giving way to life.  As we researched the nature of composting, we realized this was not the most realistic approach.  Instead, we opted to arrange stones in the outline of a human body and grow beans inside of the shape. The result was a public piece of bio art that represents deep ecology, and challenges our culture’s relationship to life and death.

Issues, Approaches, Strategy, Genre

• This work is a public piece of bio art.
• We focused on the issues of “waste,” and “systems.”  Waste because of the materials used to fertilize the beans, and systems because we are showcasing the relationship between decay and life. 
• We took the approach of deep ecology, because we are challenging our culture’s relationship to the ideas of life and death.  
• For strategy, we decided to celebrate the life that comes from death.

Relevant Artwork

Infinity Burial Project – Jae Rhim Lee

• Examines modern funerary practices & embraces natural decomposition of the body
• Uses fungi infused thread to remove toxins from within the body and soil around it, speed up decomposition, & return nutrients quicker 
• Reinforces natural cycle of life

Throughout our research, we learned some fun facts regarding repurposing waste:

• THE AVERAGE PERSON GENERATES 4.5 POUNDS OF TRASH PER DAY, OR 1.5 TONS OF SOLID WASTE PER YEAR.
• Composting can take as little as 10 minutes a week, on average.
• Composting can reduce outdoor water expenses by up to 30%
  
  

Food for thought: If the 21.5 million annual tons of food waste were composted, it could reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking over 2 million cars off the road.

Feeding Chicken food scraps are not only good for the environment, but it is very beneficial for the chicken’s nutrition as well. Certain foods are proven to help speed up egg fertilization! Watermelon and other fruits carry Vitamins and antioxidants! Corn can help boost a chicken metabolism as well as regulate their body temperature! Any greens are a great treat for our feathered friends, they are full of vitamins and minerals that will help keep happy and healthy chickens!

Food Waste

Did you know that 14.7 million tons of food waste happen in the United States? The Land Fills are overflowing, but we can all take a step forward and prevent this! So how can you help? By composting or in this case by putting those scraps to good use! We can all come together and spread this awareness on how food waste affects our environment, also affects climate change. Landfills over time will decompose and release methane emissions. A greenhouse gas that is even more potent than carbon dioxide (Deer, 2022).

Community Giving Back

Community awareness of food waste is an important step for the future. By informing the community of where their scraps actually end up after they throw them in the garbage, we can create a ripple effect for the better. By feeding natural food waste to the chickens, we are eliminating the amount of waste that ends up in landfills as a community as well as giving back to the chickens that support us.

Why you should help?

By donating your scraps, you are helping to keep your food waste out of landfills and repurposing them for a greater good. We are feeding the food waste to chickens, but you can still help in other smaller ways at home by being conscious about what you are throwing away and even giving food scraps to other animals if it is safe for them to eat.

The Helpful Hand

We decided on the name “Helpful Hand” because the hand provides a natural symbol of generosity and vulnerability that brings out the themes that we wanted to express through our art piece. The idea of the Helpful Hand was to express gratitude and celebration for the chickens and their role in the environment as well as protecting their habitat. By making the hand out of food that the chickens could eat, we are not leaving a trace on the environment because we are building the sculpture to be completely eaten and essentially giving back to the chickens without leaving a footprint.

What makes up the Helping Hand?

The foundation of the Helping Hand is chicken wire, which the chickens are already familiar with being around so it will not disturb their natural habitat. The filling within the palm is lettuce scraps with larger lettuce leaves covering the chicken wire for aesthetic purposes and the fingers were constructed from corn on the cob fixed onto the base with wooden dowels. We decided on having the hand hold a apple. A natural bowl made out of half of a honeydew melon filled with food waste collected from the community as apart of the main structure for the chickens to eat. Some of the scraps that chickens are able to eat consist of other leafy greens, fruit peels (except for citrus) and other vegetable scraps.

The Tree Mask is a public artwork demonstrating the personification of trees in reaction to deforestation. Our goal for the project was to create awareness about deforestation. On-campus there have been a number of trees removed, we wanted to educate others about the importance of trees because of the benefits that trees provide to society. Through the personification of the tree, we wanted to show the connection between humans and trees, both are living and breathing, striving to survive the waves of climate change.

Deforestation is the act of clearing land by humans for human use like grazing lands, croplands, or wood production (Deforestation). Deforestation presents a global issue in the face of global warming through the increase of greenhouse gasses from the large amounts of carbon dioxide produced from the machines or slash-and-burn method used to clear the forestland.

Eco Art students wanted to create a public artwork the dramatized and educated individuals about the concept of deforestation. From the issue of deforestation, we began looking at how trees, humans, and other living creatures interact with one another. This concept stemmed the concept of personifying the trees to have human or animal characteristics. Once the idea was established, they decided that using natural materials like leaves, tree bark, and sticks would appropriate for the structure of the face.