Mass Moca Trip
Our Global Studies trip marked my first experience at Mass Moca. The main event was our private showing of “The Plastic Bag Store” which was super astonishing. The Plastic Bag Store consisted of typical everyday items produced with upcycled single use plastics. I believe that The Plastic Bag Store was effective in sharing the realities of single use plastic and its harmful effects, yet the UN "Visual Feature I Beat Plastic Pollution" article for example states facts more clearly. For example the article stated how “In the early 2000s, the amount of plastic waste we generated rose more in a single decade than it had in the previous 40 years.” The Plastic Bag Store had more visual explanations, in comparison to the article. I believe that this installation art piece was effective for many reasons. For example, this showing was not only visual, one was allowed to touch the props and pick them up, leaving room for interacting with the art. The installation consisted of three main rooms, the first room where the actual store was, a second room revealed once you walked through the freezer doors of the store, and lastly a mini museum of “the most valued customer”. This installation moved you, physically and emotionally. I believe because of these interactive aspects this art piece can speak to a wide variety of ages, with subtle hints to our real everyday manufactured products. For example “Bitz” filled with plastic water bottle caps imitating Ritz crackers and “Plastizona” imitating Arizona Tea. These real life similarities were pretty hysterical, but when you take a step back to think you can see the satirical side, and the way our world has evolved with the mass production of single use plastic.
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In addition to The Plastic Bag Store, one of my favorite art exhibits was a dark room filled entirely with glow in the dark activated doodles, drawings, words and phrases. This piece really stood out to me because it led to a lot of self reflection, and realizations while reading some troubling topics. I feel that this specifically relates to our Global Studies skill of “Thinking critically and creatively, including adopting a multiperspective approach that recognizes the different dimensions and angles of an issue” because the artist(s) had to use this skill in order to create this piece effectively. Additionally I feel that as viewers of this art installation one must use this skill of having a multiperspective approach or mentality to get the most out of this piece and what it has to offer. Overall I truly enjoyed my experience at Mass Moca, and look forward to going again in the future when new pieces and installations are installed!