While facts and data have tremendous power in changing our thoughts and actions, their influence pales in comparison to that of art. Any type of media, whether a painting, video, or monument pushes our boundaries of thought because it gives us other perspectives on otherwise stale situations. For example, look at this video about what would happen if mother earth treated us the same way that we treat her – it’s not such a pretty sight. I love this video because it forces people to think differently about how they really treat the earth, and it even sub-consciously suggests things that we can do to treat her better.

In my opinion, monuments have the same potential. Albeit our guest speaker Dr. Paul Farber did not speak much of environmentally-specific monuments, the activity that we did on Friday speaks volumes about the power of these landmarks to make a statement. We all showed tremendous creativity in coming up with our own ideas for monuments, which speaks to our potential as a group to teach people about how to be more environmentally conscious in their daily lives.

At the end of class on Friday, we reflected on what we learned and what we did throughout the semester, and at least for me, everything was related through one concept – art. For me, the fictional stories had more impact than the non-fiction ones because they gave me a different perspective on environmental issues. Those stories in addition to the photographs, movies, and even video games showed me that we can change the story around environmental consciousness solely through art.

One story that particularly impacted me this semester was “Spider the Artist” by Nnedi Okorafor. It took a gruesome true story – the story of oil companies invading land in third-world countries – and revealed the hope that lies layers underneath the inconvenient truth. The spider showed compassion in caring for the woman and in the end showed commitment to her by saving her life. Works of art like this one give me hope that we can make a better world by spreading positive stories. And at the point where we can truly impact people deep-down with art, we can change the conversation about the environment.