This week at work there was a presentation on the sustainability efforts and Microplastics. I was able to share a cool experience I had in Greenland about a woman who lived at the dorm while I was there who was working toward her PhD. She and her team were using microscopy to determine if the substances they were making were dissolving the plastic and from there I suppose you could develop environmentally-friendly packaging.

But recently that got me thinking about my project, initially my project was proposed as something to document the affects of climate change through my photography/imaging techniques. While in Greenland I took two plant-based subjects and photographed them four times through four different imaging techniques to get the artwork. After the fact and some thinking, the project is developing around the need of survival and the juxtaposition of aesthetics and art. But after this recent presentation and the woman who lived at the dorm sharing what she was doing, it gave me insight as to what climate change is doing to the environment of Greenland NOW rather than in the past or future. That the effects of pollution (and climate change) is impairing our need for survival.

This got me thinking about how other parts of the world survive. Greenland is very much a hunting culture (for both land and sea) so what about plant-based cultures and habitats, what are their needs for survival and how is pollution, microplastics and/or petroleum affecting their communities?

I am excited for how this development of the project will lead. Foraging is definitely a huge aspect of the need for survival and am wondering how other communities translate the organic byproducts into other parts of their society.