I recently returned from a trip to El Cocal of Costa Rica and have been reflecting on the amazing experiences I encountered there while working on a design project to help improve the El Cocal community.  It made me think about my level of knowledge and understanding of my own community and what it means to be a local. How much of a tourist am I in my own town? I grew up and still live in Etobicoke, Ontario. I can confidently say that I don’t know much about my community or know of the pressing social, environmental, government and/or economic issues that we might be facing in Etobicoke.

My art piece will demonstrate the findings of questions I have about my community in contrast to El Cocal.  As a whole, the submission will be a physical environment populated with representations of my research. The research will be directed by four main themes the class discovered that were the cause of the excessive garbage within El Cocal. These topics will be contextualized in a fitting matter that represents my understanding and feeling towards my research.

This is an awareness project of what’s going on in my own backyard where the journey of learning, finding answers and where they lead – is the goal.