I chose to do air pollution as my shock art, because I feel that it is often looked over. Especially since we go to school in Long Beach which is a city, and city’s produce a lot of air pollution. Often time in cities you can’t see the stars at night which I’ve noticed since moving out here and this is due to air pollution.
I hoped to communicate that even something as small at not seeing stars at night is a sign of pollution. When people usually think of pollution they think of the ocean and how polluted it is because the pollution in the ocean is more obvious. I wanted to draw attention to the impact that air pollution not only has on our environment with something as small as not being able to see stars at night, but also the impact that it has on our health and our environment.
I was lucky enough that the night I chose to photograph did not have any stars, which helped prove that air pollution is real and blocks the view of the stars. I am unsure if my point would immediately come across to someone that is just viewing the picture, because something as small as not being able to see the stars at night might go by unnoticed to some. I think the shock of it is that something as small as seeing the stars is being taken away from us because of air pollution. I think I was successful in getting my point across but in a subtle way.
I would maybe draw a picture next time instead of taking one if I were to do this again. I think the picture I took was shocking enough to get my point across, but if I were to draw a picture, I would be able to make it even more shocking and dramatic. The only reason I did not draw a picture was because I wanted to show that I could just go outside in the middle of any night and prove that air pollution exists. I also chose to take a picture over drawing one, because I am not the best artist.
It took me a while to decide what idea I was going to explore as shocking. I feel that there are plenty of shocking things that are happening in the world around us that it was difficult to decide on just one to do, and it was even hard to think of one. I would maybe try to expand on the idea of pollution more if I were to go more into shocking art.
Brielle Sunseri 