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ASSIGNMENT: Reflection

My research investigation was to research the dirty streets of Wellington. I wanted to look at the phycological effect dirty streets have on its inhabitants and if its negative or not.

Going into the project, I knew the topic of pollution was quite a stereotypical and very saturated field to study. However, I realised that people would always talk about what the problem is and not why it is. Why do people want to litter? How does it actually affect the community as a whole? This is why I was very interested in the psychology of what happens when these conditions come up. The first set of research I attempted, was the human centred. I believe doing this subject first was imperative to understanding the underlying principals of my text based research. The reason of this, Is because I had to understand Wellingtons situation, habits and mindsets before I tackled the statistics of other countries. Like Vienna and Mexico city for example. This assignment changed the way I used critical thinking. It is actually very hard to to investigate the subject of pollution psychology while also not waffling on too much about the abundance of information, which I personally know I do too much. I learnt very valuable lessons of picking and choosing only the most vital information to forward my assignment narrative. I believe next way I would go for this assignment would to spreading word of my research. if people know that they can create a social norm just by going about their day we will slowly become a much more sustainable society.

The assignment not only changed the ways I worked, but shaped my thinking of the topic of psychology of humans and how we work. This is because the work I did, not only taught me how people are affected by pollution, but also the surroundings around them. People are greatly influenced by their surroundings, absorbing the social norms and behaviours of their fellow man. As a photographer and creator, this gives me the wonderful duty of making a community and expressing myself as much as I can. I say this is my duty, but more and more  I notice that this “social norm” of creating and making, is flowing through Wellington like Kedron Parkers Kumutoto stream. Because of this legacy of appreciation of culture and art, Wellington is looking to be a very beautiful city of the future. This creativity has become such a social norm in Wellington, that I think it will never die, only grow. We have the ancestors of this city to thank for all this as they created the building blocks of what we are today. Things like this also shapes my thinking of how we represent people with our art. Before this class, I have to admit, I had no incentive at all to add things such as Maori traditions, into my art or designs. this is because I never really understood what it was about. Now I only feel it’s necessary to honour the people that made all my work possible in the first place.

Communication for Makers was a long tiring journey with a lot of work and way too much stress. However all roads that lead to success have to pass through hard work boulevard at some point and I feel great pride when I say that this class was the real drive to pull my finger out and learn the hard way on how to research and investigate. It was a long journey but I wouldn’t drop the experience for the world.

Thanks for the term Georgiana, it was a blast.

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ASSIGNMENT: Text Based Research

Notes on “Social and environmental influences on littering behaviour

What do I want to find out?

-If the “cleanliness” of a city coincides with how well it is rated.

-Does dirty streets affect it’s inhabitants psychologically?

-“Students littered more under anonymous and dirty conditions than under non-anonymous and clean conditions”. This explains straight away, why smaller town are always cleaner than bigger cities. The smaller the population, the more non-anonymous you will be, meaning you are much less likely to not litter. This is the opposite in a large city and you know no one, so you have a much higher chance of littering.

-The results of the study add to the understanding of social behaviour by dem­onstrating that deindividuation influences minor deviant behaviour, such as littering, that individuals look to environmental cues in deciding what is normative behaviour, and that values and attitudes with respect to lit­tering are inconsistent with littering behaviour. From the perspective of someone who lived in the quite dirty city of “Hastings” for three years, it makes perfect sense. If the city has too many inhabitants that don’t take pride in where they live, then over time they will not care if they litter or pollute their home. If enough people do this, it becomes a social standard and our excess onto the streets over time will just rise more and more. This is very dangerous for a society, as the fundamental building block could crumple just because of the few delinquents that ruin it for others.

-“Litter is trash, discarded or scattered about in disorder over a socially inappropriate area. It is ugly, expensive, widespread, and dangerous”.

-“They revealed that age, sex, occupation, and residence are related to littering behaviour. Young people seem to litter the most”. Looking at the statistics I got from my “Human centred research”, I can definitely see the correlation to the fact that kids would litter more often than the average adult. This is shown that almost all the things that adults litter are cigarettes. This is fairly acceptable cause its ingrained in the social standards of smoking that people just chuck the butt on the ground. They hardly ever litter proper rubbish like wrappers, packets, cups etc. kids however are very different and don’t understand actions and consequence so they normally just chuck all their rubbish everywhere. I think one thing schools could do, to teach about the ethics of littering, is to take them to a landfill and show them it doesn’t just disappear.

-A Harris survey (1970) inter­-viewed over 3000 subjects and asked them to select two or three of the most serious problems facing the community in which they lived. It’s very interesting that kids are actually more aware of the problems of pollution, as  it was mentioned most often. Adults didn’t find it as much of a threat but littered less. from this information, I think they litter less because it is less on their mind. For example, it seems that our present society is much more racist, sexist and divided in history. This is because its always on peoples minds and they always have to bring up the negatives not the positives. Statistics show that we are as equal as ever, but the media wants you think otherwise. I this this could be the same psychological effect on kids as its on the forefront of their attention. This raises the question that if we did try and brainwash children into not littering, would it backfire and the results come back negative? These would be questions we would have to keep in mind at all times going ahead.

“Good City”--“Bad City”

I wanted to see if a “good” city also coincides with a healthy  clean place to live. This is because, from my point of view, to be a good city, the conditions would have to be of the highest quality in the world. If this is correct it would support my claim that cleaner cities are psychologically “better”. I did some research the cleanest cities in the world, and I kept noticing that the Austrian city of Vienna would always pop up for one of the cleanest. With The Active Times even saying “The beautiful capital of Austria regularly makes the top ranks of the cleanest cities in the world. Its big investment into waste disposal systems has paid off. People in the city in general want to keep their environment clean and tidy, and they act like it. Local officials have initiated many green projects that keep air pollution at bay”. I knew I had found a very clean and beautiful city, but how did it compare to the world stage of “best”?

Low and behold it happened to have just been named “best city to live in” for the ninth year running. 

To be named the “best city to live in” nine times in a row, Vienna must be doing something right. So I had a look at what makes it such a liveable city and I come up with countless articles about the beautiful architecture, culture and streets. I come to realise that many of these reasons weren’t for things like brilliant healthcare, school systems and other things of the sort. Most articles always talked about the look of the city and the good feeling you get when you walk down their gorgeous streets. I was extremely surprised, but most people only like the city for looks alone. This speaks volumes on what the phycological impact clean streets and beautiful building can do for a city. I put “Vienna streets” into google images and find beautiful roads towered by old buildings, not a rubbish bag in sight. I search up “Wellington Streets” and the images I get back is quite depressing. 

https://www.quora.com/Which-is-the-cleanest-city-in-the-world

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/cleanest-cities-in-the-world-revealed-as-pollutionhit-london-does-not-make-it-into-top-50-a3794041.html

https://www.theactivetimes.com/content/cleanest-cities-world/slide-15

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/vienna-best-place-live-quality-life-mercer-survey-sarajevo-a8262976.html

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/what-life-is-like-in-vienna-2013-1?r=US&IR=T#vienna-has-a-thriving-music-and-nightlife-culture-beneath-the-subway-between-the-thaliastrasse-and-nussdorferstrasse-stations-with-famous-clubs-like-chelsea-and-the-rhiz-bar-1

vienna streets

wellington streets

https://smartech.gatech.edu/bitstream/handle/1853/29521/robinson_stuart_n_197505_phd_69598.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y

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ASSIGNMENT: Human Centred Research

Interviews with residents of Wellington:

Do you think that dirty streets have a negative psychological impact to a communities pride?

Tyler Brasell (18, Massey VCD Student)

“No, I think it’s only just 40 year old mums who really care about it. because they are the only people who give a shit, about things that no one gives a shit about.”

Daniel Betty (25, Actor)

“Yes people take pride in their own shit”

Saskia Jamieson (23, Victoria Psychology student)

“Yes, because its where they live and they see it everyday, its there home and you’ll want it to be nice. They take pride in their home. When people come into your house you don’t want people to be like” fuuuuck this is gross”. um yeah it depends if they want to live there though. If they grew up there, their whole lives they would like it better. If a new student came down they wouldn’t really care cause its only here temporary. old ppl would care most I think.”

Elice Cacace (22, Massey Communication Student)

“Yeah cause it can infect the environment too, if ppl keep dropping litter their respect for their town will decrease and it will just accumulate over time. So if people took pride and didn’t litter, it will get better not worse.”

Jess Springer (16, Yr 11, WHS)

“Im gonna say no, because you don’t own the streets and it’s not like it’s your house or anything, like its its not really your responsibility cause its just the path you take to get somewhere. Its the councils responsibility to clean it up. It doesn’t really reflect the people or you, no one would look at your town and go ew its gross, you must be a gross person.”

Tom Pohio (17, Tradey)

“Nope, because we don’t really have any pride to begin with. We don’t exactly have a community.”

Interview Reflection:

Reflecting back onto these interviews, it is obvious to see that their is a difference in outlook when you compare the older interviewees with the younger ones. The younger ones care much less than the older ones. It seems as though when you get older, you start taking pride in things other than yourself. Remembering Saskia’s interview, what she said about if you live in Wellington longer, you were more likely to take pride in it, makes much more sense. After a few years at Uni, i’m sure these students have taken a liking to the city and therefore would want it to be the best it could be. Things I would do next time, would get a recording device of some kind so the interviews flowed more. Unfortunately I don’t have a phone this moment in time so it didn’t work out. If I were to do another interview, I would definitely add another question on their views on what they think of the people who answered differently.

Physical Investigation

Where am I going to investigate?

I will go to Cuba street and wait on a park bench near Hotel Bristol, twice in a two day period and examine what happens and see if anyone litters. I will investigate for 30 minutes on a Wednesday and Friday morning and afternoon (9:00 am - 4:00pm). This difference in time of day will allow me to see if peoples actions change in time. Also it will allow me to see different groups using the space.

Things I’ll be looking for:

-People littering.

-What do they litter?

-Why do they litter?

-Where do they litter?

-Who’s littering?

Monday 9:00 am:

-Teen litters BK cup (9:12). 

-Teen litters gum packaging. (9:18).

-Teen litters cigarette butt.

-Teen litters Mars wrapper (9:26).

Every time someone littered, they were on the left side of the street with no bin. The people that littered were also in the age demographic of around 15-19. They were also all in a rush, so from my perspective it looks like students who are in a rush to get to class. Also rubbish is all from a form of food franchise. Maybe if we put anti littering poster in these stores people would start taking notice.

Monday 4:00 pm:

-Kid tries to put potato chip packet in bin, wind blows it down street (4:02). 

-Adult drops cigarette (4:10).

-Adult sitting down leaves energy drink by feet and walks off (4:13).

-Adult drops cigarette (4:15).

-Adult drops cigarette (4:15).

-Adult drops cigarette (4:15).

-Teen puts half of Mac Donald’s in bin, rest falls out, he leaves (4:21).

-Kid drops singular gums wrapper (4:26)

Was much busier at this time with more adults walking about. This is why there are a lot more people dropping cigarette butts everywhere. especially if they are sitting in a crowd. 

Friday 9:00 am:

-Adult drops cigarette (9:04).

-Napkin fly’s past (9:07).

-Adult drops cigarette right next to bin (9:14).

-Homeless man left his boxes on the side f the street (9:18).

-Teens smoking, all drop their cigarettes on the ground (9:22).

-Kid left apple core on bench (9:26).

I’ve noticed that a lot of the mess has been adults smoking and dropping the cigarette butts. One person even dropped their cigarette right next to the bin which I found odd cause their is a slot just for cigarettes. I think this might be one reason why people don’t chuck it in the bin, cause they are afraid that if they put it in the bin it will set ablaze. This obviously shows that we need to convey the fact that the bins have seperate holes just for cigarettes.

Friday 4:00 pm:

-Adult leaves Turkish packaging on bench (4:02).

-Teen leaves plastic bag (4:08).

-Adult drops cigarette (4:12)

-Kid leaves frozen coke (4:17).

-Kid trys to put napkin in bin but fails and it blows away (4:25).

-Someone left their shoes on the bench (4:28).

-Teen drops mandarin skin (4:30).

This time was very busy with kids and students as its after school on a friday. Because of this, there are a lot of young people littering. However, sometimes its not their fault as the design of the bins make them overfill quite fast and therefore not all rubbish will fit. The strong welly winds quickly shoot anything thats not tied down.

Reflection on Statistics of Physical Investigation:

After doing the investigation, I have come to notice that all age demographics litter the streets in their own way. Adults are quite good with general rubbish, but don’t bat an eye to chuck a cigarette on the ground. Kids are all a bit impatient, so they don’t really mind leaving their fast food rubbish everywhere. Teens are a bit of both. One good thing is, that if New Zealand does go 100% smoke free by 2025, almost half of this litter will be decreased. This only leaves us to ingraining the concept of “It’s not cool to litter” in our children head. One thing that I noticed, was that the average person would litter much more on the other side that the bins were on. This shows that the bins definitely do help. However with the bin problem, I think it’s inconvenient of them having such a small hole in the middle and thin sides. The reason of this, is that if you but a long but thin object (like a BK cup) into the bin it creates a lot of negative space within the bin and it fills up tremendously fast. I guess the small opening on the top was designed so the wellington wind wouldn’t blow out all the contents, but ironically has created the conundrum of objects falling out of it and the wind taking away the napkins that can’t be put in. Another thing that we need to raise awareness of, was to tell people that they can put cigarettes in the small hole. I myself didn’t know this until a few weeks ago and I think if everyone knew, the amount of cigarettes littered would drop considerably.

Reflection on my process of Physical Investigation:

I think next time, I would set the 4:00pm time slot a bit later at night, maybe around 10:00. This is because I would be able to see how people acted while under the influence of alcohol as I’m sure it would have a big factor on people littering. For next time, I think I would choose an intersection like the one at Burger King. This is because it is more of a centred spot in Wellington and I’ll have more people to work off. I also think I learnt how to sit down and actually observe things. You see a lot of interesting things If you just sit down and observe.

Sidenote Bins:

I remembered, that many weeks ago, I was walking down Taranaki street from Courtney places “Reading Cinema” to the Cube. I ordered a drink from Mac Donald’s and drunk it quite fast. While walking down Taranaki, I kept wanting to throw away the cup, but there were no bins in sight. We walked, what felt like 500 metres before i could finally put the cup in a bin that was hidden beside a bus stop. Because of my immensely strong, godlike will, I was immune to the temptation dropping the cup. However I can easily see how people lose their patience and litter. We have to remember also, that Courtney place is Wellingtons “town” and a lot of drunk people will be walking back from here. This raises the question of why in the hell are there no rubbish bins?

I went back to investigate how many bins were down Taranaki and I found 2, which is quite surprising when you look at all the people that commute to work, school or other, every day. This raises some queries. If the Wellington city council spent more money on more bins, it would create a much cleaner and hospitable place.

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People shuffle in the streets, As the rain beats down to the ground, People walking in their own filth, Which makes them almost as dirty as their lies, We try and scrub away the filth by doing good, Trying to make up for the past, Trying to repaint our souls, But the old paint keeps bleeding through the new, And we can try and lie some more and say the jokes on you, But we all know thats not the truth, That the jokes is on me and not you, In a world ware we can turn a blind eye, Where you and I both know, Oh how much we know

By Shadrach Knight

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ASSIGNMENT: Group Feedback on My Presentation

-What are your ethics and values?

-How do you change laziness of littering?

-If you interview the homeless, will they care/want to make an effort?

-Real life photos of “human shit” on cuba street

-Will tourists care?

-Who cares about the reputation of the city?

-What is reputation important for?

-Who is making the streets dirty?

-Who is ever gonna want to scrub the streets for free when we pay taxes?

-Locals may have pride in keeping city clean but the tourists + non-locals may not care so ho do we implement this mentality?

-Regarding ethics, perhaps you might want to talk to people that run homeless/night shelters instead of approaching actual homeless.

-Should there be a consequence for littering

-Take away all human rights.

Difficult Issues that go along with dirty streets.

-Is it because of the homeless?

-Should it be the shopkeepers duty to clean the outside of there shop?

-Should it be the publics duty?

-Who should suffer for the good of all of us?

-Who is to decide who should clean the streets? 

-Who is to suffer for the good of the whole?

-Are any means justified if the desired end is achieved?

-Are our future generations entitled to a clean and green environment? Do they even have a right?

-What is environmental pollution and pollution of the air, soil and water doing to the world?

-is environmental ethics just another fancy term that is to be added into the growing dictionary of environmental words or is it going to get us some action?

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ASSIGNMENT: Question

My primary interest I want to research, is the dirty streets of Wellington. I want to look at the phycological effect dirty streets have on its inhabitants and if its negative or not. 

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ASSIGNMENT: Notes on Dirty Streets

How does a communities pride affect the dirty streets of Wellington? Why do they litter?

-Go people watching and peep at people who litter, see how close they are to bins.

-Interview people that live in the area.

-Survey the local Community to help narrow down some incentives to stop them from littering.

I want to change the dirty streets of Wellington, because it affects the way it’s citizens are perceived and whether they treat the city with pride.

-What brings out peoples pride? Events? Sports?

-What does the pride of Wellington look like to other people?

-Find community groups and people who want to help the environment.

-Find ways that discourage people from littering.

-Make a more efficient sorting system. i.e. more bins, more places, so less rubbish dumping.

-Encourage a greener and more self aware mind set.

-Why do we retain rubbish?

-Look at the ways other cities/countries reuse rubbish in a sustainable & non wasteful way?

-Photograph what happens a windy day, a shill day, a wet day.

What is a dirty street?

-Rough

-Yuck

-Out of place

-Rustle

-Old

-Much more to it.

-Wind causes it

-Wild life causes trash

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ASSIGNMENT: Week 8, Journal Tasks 1 & 2

For my assignment, I would like to investigate solutions to fix dirty and polluted streets in the city of wellington. I want to discuss the effects an “unattractive city” can have on its inhabitants and if the research comes back negative, remedy some solutions on how to solve the problem.

My primary interest I want to research, is the dirty streets of Wellington. I want to look at the phycological effect dirty streets have on its inhabitants and if its negative. 

Context of topic

-I’m not going to be focusing on the littered water but more the littered streets.

-The streets I will be thoroughly looking at, will be the “main streets” of Wellington. This means mostly, “Courtney Place” and “Cuba Street”

-As I’m working on the psychological side of the city, I would have to have quite a lot of approved and sourced information that comes with a lot of information and evidence. Because of this, I might delve a bit into “Google Scholar” however the librarian said that is not advised until final year.

-As Wellington is a vast place, when I research how I can fix the streets, I will mainly be talking about Te Aro.

Presentation:

Aims! - Questions?

! Learn how bad Wellingtons pollution problem really is compared to other countries.

? If it’s bad, then how do other cities decrease the problem? 

? If it’s good compared to other countries, why?

! If it is, it doesn’t mean it’s not a problem.

! Learn how the streets got this bad in the first place. 

? Who are these people that litter?

? Why do they litter?

? Is it because there are not enough bins?

! Maybe ask the store keepers their thoughts on this.

? What would be the ethical and professional procedures to investigate these questions.

! Learn what countries have good pollution situations.

? What classifies a country to be polluted?

! Research countries that have very bad pollution problems.

? What is the difference between Wellington and these cities?

? What is the phycology of these cities? 

? Is there a high rate of crime?

! Learn about the phycology of a city with a lot of pollution and one with bare minimum.

? What’s the difference? 

? What are the pro’s and con’s of both sides of the scale?

? How does the pollution show up in the cities?

! Learn about the main reasons cities become littered. 

? It does not happen over night so is it something in the culture?

! Learn the contrast between the “best” places to love and the most “clean” cities in the world and see the correlation.

? Are there people that would rather live in a more dirty place and feel like it has culture than a place that feels sterile and lifeless?

“How you propose answering (or gaining insight into) the question through the information leads you’ve gathered in task 1”

Ethics I need to keep in mind

-When I talk to and interview the owners of some of the stores of Cuba street, I will have to keep in mind that I am a visitor and guest and not push my mark on how deep I dig. I.e blaming them for the front of their shop being a messy piece of shit. I would rather talk them into blaming it themselves haha.

-“Hey my names Jack and i’m doing a project with Massey University on the dirty streets of Wellington and the phycological effects it has on it’s inhabitants. May I interview you?” This will be my general statement I will use when talking to anyone down Cuba or Courtney place.

-I have to remember that I am not only representing myself but the whole campus of Massey University. I have to remember the “Massey University Ethics” and abide by them very carefully even if it hinders me or annoys me. This could be a form of practice for my future. Working as a young professional, you are always coming into new companies that you will have to represent, hence learning how to  represent these easily and professionally is vital.

-When taking photos of spaces that people are walking in, either not take a photo when people are walking past and if thats not possible, only take photos of their waste down. People are just going about their day, they don’t want their photo ending up in some first years students assignment. Also it’s better not to get in a confrontation if possible.

-Article 2 of the English version of the Treaty of Waitangi guaranteed to Maori "the full exclusive and undisturbed possession of their Land and Estates Forests Fisheries and other properties which they may collectively or individually possess so long as it is their wish and desire to retain the same in their possession". The Maori version of the Treaty guaranteed "te tino rangatiratanga o o ratou wenua or ratou kainga me o ratou taonga katoa", which may be translated as "the unqualified exercise of their chieftainship over their lands over their villages and over their treasures all".

-I will be investigating the second article of the Treaty of Waitangi which about the “treasure” we all have. In detail it talks about how we should treasure our land and places we hold dear. This should be a driving force for the change of the cities streets. It is our national duty to keep it clean, tidy and healthy.

-For the ethics of researching and investigating, I should put down all sources from my findings on the bottom of my pages when finished writing. This will be the same for any books or scholarly texts read in the library. I will put down their name and index.

-If people don’t want to talk, don’t get offended, all people are different and there probably is a reason for the decision.

-Research conducted with vulnerable subject groups, such as homeless and impoverished people, demands heightened attention to ensuring that the rights of participants are protected. 

-With its wealth of readily and often publicly available information about Web users’ lives, the Web has created new opportunities for conducting online research. Although digital data are easily accessible, ethical guidelines are inconsistent about how researchers should use them. Some academics claim that traditional ethical principles are sufficient and applicable to online research. However, the Web poses new challenges that compel researchers to reconsider concerns of consent, privacy and anonymity.

-For example the note before this one was taken from the internet.

http://www.howtolaw.co/understand-the-treaty-of-waitangi-392219

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Week 7, Journal Entry 2

“Discuss two things that you learned that were most surprising to you”

I didn’t read every single account, but i’m amazed about how unknowledgeable I am about New Zealand’s history. I remember learning about the treaty of waitangi, but we never learnt the bad side of our history. I have two main things that surprised me, and they both happen to be how the english treated the Maori people. The first way I was surprised how the English treated the Maori was before the signing of the treaty. This is because British immigrants seemed to go out of their way too cause disruption and frustration between the cultures. Doing such things as breaking agreements and Maori law. It was so bad that James Busby wanted to call in more British troops and even a warship just to fix the problem. It makes so much sense as to why the Maori tribes wanted to create a sort of treaty or authoritative figure to get rid of these people. The second thing I was surprised and actually pretty appalled about, was the treatment of Maori’s after the Treaty was signed. The list of things that have been dishonoured on the Maoris behalf is absolutely disgusting. This has been happening for years as well. One that really made me just annoyed, was when, in 1932 a Māori MP presented a petition with more than 30,000 signatures asking that the Treaty be made statutory. Pākehā MPs walked out of the House to prevent it from being tabled, and no action was taken. The only reason I could see they did this was the society was full of racism and hate. I’d say that we’ve changed but I did a bit more research and their are still groups too this day fighting for their rightful land. It will be interesting how I can incorporate all this history I’ve learnt into my artefact but also my design, art and photography of class.

http://stream.massey.ac.nz/pluginfile.php/2747106/mod_page/content/7/truncatedQA.pdf

http://stream.massey.ac.nz/pluginfile.php/2747106/mod_page/content/7/RemovingShackles.pdf

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Notes I learnt reading “Treaty of Waitangi: Questions and Answers” and “Mutu, 1″

-By 1800, at least 50 whalers were living in NZ this is because word got around about a new island near Antartica which would be much safer than staying on a boat. Therefore American and British whalers started coming to NZ.

-By 1820 people were starting to mingle within the maori culture, under protection of the tribe leader. Most of them were either traders or run away convicts.

-by 1840, 1,000 Māori had travelled overseas and returned to describe their experiences. 

-In 1938, Estimates of the Māori population vary between 150,000 and 200,000. This is much bigger than I thought

-From 1805, rangatira regularly took the initiative to visit the governors in Sydney and, from time to time, the British royalty in london. 

-I never knew that the British were so unlawful to the Maori natives for example when Marion du Fresne and 26 crew members were killed for knowingly shing in a tapu (restricted) area. Europeans retaliated by killing 250 Māori, thereby ignoring Māori jurisdiction as well as the laws of their own countries. European vessels often kidnapped Māori men to serve as crew members. So while many interactions with the newcomers were positive, Māori had reason to be concerned about lawless Europeans. 

-“The flag chosen by the northern leaders in 1834 was known as the Te Wakaminenga flag.” The more you know, I wonder if this the maori flag or our actual national flag.

-“Te Wakaminenga, known to the British as the Confederation of Chiefs, was the author of the Declaration of Independence” I never knew we were, this vitamin creating one of Americas most sacred documents!

-I’m joking about that last comment, just wondering if you guys read everything or not.

-I never knew how bad the British immigrants were in NZ. So bad they had to act on it all the way across the world.

-I’m very surprised with how much agriculture there was for the country in such young days. “In 1857 the Bay of Plenty, Taupo and Rotorua natives – being about 8,000 people – had upwards of 3,000 acres of land in wheat; 300 acres in potatoes, nearly 2,000 acres in maize, and upwards of 1,000 acres of kumara. They owned nearly 100 horses, 200 head of cattle, 5,000 pigs, 4 water-powered mills, 96 ploughs, as well as 43 coastal vessels averaging nearly 20 tons each” 

-I didn’t know that the Maori wanted the Treaty of Waitangi because of the British unlawfulness.

-While the Treaty gave the Crown the right to form a government here for British settlers, it did not give it rights over and above other migrant groups, nor over tangata whenua. 

-Didn’t know about how there are 4 main articles to the treaty.

-I didn’t know the treaty has so many contradictions. I.e Article one and two, where its talking about “Te Tiriti o Waitangi says that the Crown recognises and upholds the paramount authority (tino rangatiratanga) of the hapū over their lands, villages and all that is precious to them (taonga).”

-Missionary interests generally depended on working with rangatira of the people among whom they lived - hence Busby and Williams wanted rangatiratanga to be given recognition by the Crown 

-During the land wars, the number of British troops deployed was the equivalent of one soldier to every three Māori men, women and children .

-I knew that Maori rights have not been honoured, but i’m surprised how many there are. The rights that Pākehā were promised under the Treaty have been honoured, but the rights that Māori were guaranteed have been largely ignored 

-I didn’t know any of these below.

-in 1932 a Māori MP presented a petition with more than 30,000 signatures asking that the Treaty be made statutory. Pākehā MPs walked out of the House to prevent it from being tabled, and no action was taken. 

-Working through the courts, even taking Treaty rights cases through the appeal processes to the Privy Council in Britain (before it was replaced by the New Zealand Supreme Court). 

-Introducing a Bill of Rights in 1894 that was ignored by parliament. 

-Initiating peaceful protest and non- violent passive resistance, for example at Parihaka in Taranaki, decades before Gandhi in India. 

-Fighting back when land was being taken by force. 

-Taking complaints about injustice to the United Nations, supporting the development of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and making presentations to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 

-There are so many historical acts that breach the treaty holy shit. Not exactly fair.

http://stream.massey.ac.nz/pluginfile.php/2747106/mod_page/content/7/truncatedQA.pdf

http://stream.massey.ac.nz/pluginfile.php/2747106/mod_page/content/7/RemovingShackles.pdf

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I don’t think at all that anyone would care if this is washed a way, nor do I think its unethical to get rid of it.

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Week 7, Journal Entry 1.5

“Write a brief reflection on what communities might see the artefact you will investigate in a different light than you - either because they use it for different purposes or because it holds particular meaning for them.  To what extent will your ways of knowing access the perspectives and knowledge of this community?”

My artefact is the dirty streets of wellington. For example the grubby nooks and crannies of Courtney place or Cuba street. There are only two communities I could ever possibly see caring about these places, this would be the shopkeepers, as it will be the place they own and work, and the homeless as it’s sadly literally their home. Talking about the shopkeepers, even though they might look at it from a different light than me, I don’t believe they would hold particular meaning in it and would much rather have it cleaned, it just so happens that they can’t be bothered cleaning it themselves. The only way I could see a shopkeeper getting mad, would be if he was very proud and didn’t accept the fact his outside shop is messy, entailing him not letting you clean. When it comes to the homeless, I’m not exactly sure what their opinion would be on the matter, as their world is so much different to mine. It might mean jack to them, but would it be so called unethical to go into where they would normally reside and jet wash it down to something looking less “homely” than it once was. In my opinion There is not enough of a reason that would ever possibly persuade me that the dirty streets  have sentimental value to someone. For this reason, I would gladly wash that grime away.

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Week 7, Journal task 1

“Review your journal entries from week 2 independent study, where we first looked at communities, or who we are creating for.  Reflect on any two of the projects that we looked at then (Le Corbusier, the Big Life Fix stories, Te Mata Aho collective, the Calypso sculpture, the Chinatown Art Brigade).  Note what communities the artists or designers were creating for  and then discuss how well they accessed knowledge specific to those communities.”

1. For my first journal entry in week two, we had to discuss all the exemplary projects and rate them for the amount of engagement each one had with its audience. My personal favourite from this exercise was Kasey Jones’ “calypso project”. In my entry, I talk about how the level of engagement the sculpture has with the community is quite remarkable. The community the sculpture was for, was the national aquarium. It was made as part of their “World Oceans Day” celebration in June and symbolised a sea turtle that was made entirely out of plastic bags and other recycled material. Kasey most definitely accessed knowledge and information from the aquarium in which she was commissioned by and hence is probably one of the main reasons she made the sculpture in the form of a sea turtle(which has one of the most common deaths relating to recycled waste). She accessed this knowledge really well, as the end product is very effective and conveys her idea of sea pollution and the deaths of countless turtles in one simple message. Kasey wanted to create a project that would engage people and would bring them into a space, to begin the conversation about the issue of plastics in the ocean. The issue with plastics, is that they would often get blown into the ocean, and sea turtles specifically will mistake them for jellyfish and injest them. The overall message is to get people to reduce the use of plastics and to be aware of how they’re disposing their waste. The aquarium even gave out free reusable bags so not only is Kasey addressing the problem, but also trying to find a way to fix it. In the end Kasey used 4’000 bags to fill out the sculpture.

2. The second piece I chose to reflect on, was “Emma’s Wristband” from “The Big Life”. The designer for this is a computer scientist called Haiyan Zhang. The community Zhang is working with in this piece is far more personal that the more general project of Kasey Jones and therefore she gathers information in different ways. The community Zhang is designing for is obviously mainly Emma, but she always have to keep in the back of her mind that if the design is good enough, she could mass market this concept to help hundreds more people that struggle with Parkinson’s. The main way Zhang accessed knowledge specific to the parkinson community was working intensely with Emma. She got to know her well and this helped her understand both the physical and phycological side of the condition. her second form of research was done on the field, talking to professionals and independent research. Coming from a science background, this helped her with the more academic side of Parkinson’s. Zhang final way she interacted with the community to extract information, was when she held a focus group full of Parkinson’s sufferers. This Added to how Zhang perceived the illness and gave even more personal insight into how this affects people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?embed=no&v=wbinQpfAEnM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=munVsXsqqSc&feature=youtu.be

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City Lights cobbled streets I always love this time Darkened Roads walking the fog playing at my feet silent Cold mists of rain greet me welcoming me this is my place Distant ships approaching dark grey monoliths drifting on the black waters a wonder for human eyes Sirens sound I know I am not alone the peace shattered by a distant cry the night conceals all Tragedy and Contentment players in the evening act the noise draws nigh time to move on out into the Fog Out into the Night 

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Week 6, Journal entry 3

“Pretend that you want to change a 'vacant' building in Wellington.  Brainstorm how you might investigate”

Mindmap of my investigatorial ideas:

https://coggle.it/diagram/WvT8ja9n8ssuDsCv/t/change-a-vacant-building-in-wellington

Conclusion:

I have discovered why it can sometimes take so long for anything to happen in New Zealand. Just through the exercise of mind mapping you slowly discover that you soon, seem to start wanting to ethically have a solution for every group. this however will take a much longer process of polls and probably generate more anarchy. This is just my opinion, but i am sorta a against the whole “public vote on the decision” mindset. It is very empowering but very insufficient time wise. Instead I would rather go head on and do the “eyeball could never have been created by committee” argument. I think If we have all legal right to do so, we should create a design with our vision and ethics in mind. There will be people that will blast you down for creating and “ugly structure” but quite possibly, change makes them uncomfortable. My final thought is if i were ever given this task, I would stand to my vision and not let people shift it.

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Week 6, journal entry 2

“Define 'rasquache'.  Although the term is specific to a culture very distant from New Zealand, can something similar to rasquache be found here?  What would/does it look like?”

From my first impressions, I think the term “rasquache” was made by people in the upper echelons of society to degrade and bully people that were less lucky as they are. It was a way for the rich to make fun of their culture. After reading the article, I’m still very confused to what it was actually trying to say. I was much more interested by the gentrification segment at the start than the segment on “rasquache” culture. Because of this I just can’t understand what i’m meant get out of this as a photographer and investigator.  This is an example of the piece that i just can’t get into my puny head. “One might say that rasquache is an ethos of social reproduction characteristic of barrio life. Setting aside for now a discussion of how rasquache has been commodified in various ways, it is readily apparent that for the primarily Chicana/Latina inhabitants of Boyle Heights who are most vulnerable to the consequences of the gentrification, the tasks of social reproduction can be accomplished only through the embrace of concrete social practices undertaken with an ethos of rasquachismo. Whether unpaid or underpaid, such women perform the lion’s share of cooking, cleaning, and caring for a broad swath of Angelenos.” This would be the fact that i’m just not educated enough to understand half the words. I would try and get my way out of the situation but i wouldn’t want to look inconsiderate towards the culture. However I think the underlying message about this is being like rasquache culture and creating art with the community, but honestly no clue. I’m not sure its very appropriate to say rasquache culture has some similarities here, just because I haven’t experienced much culture myself and our countries are completely different. The difference between any city in NZ and the vast LA is almost inconceivable and being a country boy myself i don’t think, at this moment in time, I can really grasp the concept of gentrification and super high and low classes. I could obviously say that Maori culture have similarities, but I would be pulling half of the info out of my ass and being pretty racist. So in my opinion, I don’t have any knowledge in my brain that would suggest that we have any similarities, but thats just me.

http://www.abladeofgrass.org/fertile-ground/artwashing-social-practice-social-reproduction/

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