"Surfing the Streets of Pto. Ayora" Artpiece

I am studying a course called Equality, and this is my third and last Action Project. In this unit we studied about why different things have been censored throughout the history of equality and freedom across the globe, and created a personal point of view of how and when the concept of censorship needs to be applied in different scenarios. For this Action Project we had to create an artistic piece of political propaganda based on a case study about a social issue we chose to purse. I especially enjoyed this Action Project because it permitted me to have a critical eye towards the reality of the town I live in, which further nurtured my sense of responsibility and appropriation for my town.

“Surfing the streets of Pto. Ayora”, RS.
Dip Pens  & Black Ink, 297 x 420 mm Paper

Censorship is the act of prohibiting or limiting something to meet a specific goal. This may be done by political groups, organizations, or even individuals. Even though it is generally agreed that there is a need for a general set of laws to ensure collective freedom, many nations and groups interpret the concept of censorship in many different ways.

I chose as my case study on censorship what I believe to be a specific set of issues occurring in Puerto Ayora, Galapagos, the town I live in. Firstly is the fact that all of the beaches in Santa Cruz Island are not so easily accessible. By this I mean that, in contrast to the other inhabited islands in the Galapagos, all of the beaches in Santa Cruz are within either a considerable distance or only accessible through sea-related forms of transportation. The reason for this is because buildings were built on the sea borders of Puerto Ayora, and different beaches and other accesses to the ocean were blocked. As a matter of fact, in most sections of Charles Darwin Av., the main avenue of Puerto Ayora that rides along parallel to the sea, the sight of the sea is blocked by buildings.  Therefore many if not most of the islanders have very few contact with the sea, and they have not built any sort of relationship with them.

As a second matter, there is the fact that everything inside the National Park (which constitutes 97% of Galapagos) is considered out of bounds to all inhabitants of the islands and tourists, except for certified guided trips to the National Park which are directed mostly towards tourists (pricewise). This makes it so that there is very few if not any sort of contact between the common inhabitants of Santa Cruz and the rest of Galapagos and the National Park.

I consider these issues to be both direct and indirect forms of a negative and bias censorship. It is a constitutional right for all citizens to have public access to all exists to the sea, and yet many of these exists in Puerto Ayora still remain either private or not accessible. The National Park is similarly censored for all of those who don't earn enough to purchase a tour service, which includes the great majority of the Galapagueñan population.


These issues affect the Islands in many ways. Galapagos has been crowned with the title of a patrimony to humankind, and it is imperative that every inhabitant of these islands concentrate his efforts in protecting these fragile ecosystems. And yet, it seems irrational to me that we expect these inhabitants to rise up to protect and conserve the Galapagos if they have no sort of relationship with the sea and the unique wildlife to begin with, that is, what mainly makes Galapagos such a special place. And that is, not the mention the National Park Institution itself.

“In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we have been taught” – Baba Dioum. 

I decided to approach these issues with a drawing of a surfer because I am a surfer myself and have had the chance to witness how productive this sport truly is. Among the many beautiful advantages this sport has, there is one that sticks out the most for me: Surfing creates a very strong bond between the people who practice it and the sea. This is the main reason of why I support surfing so much and promote many people, specially islanders, to practice it. However, most surfers in Santa Cruz Island find themselves with a disadvantage. Even though this island counts with various world-class waves, the waves closest to Puerto Ayora are of a much poorer quality, whereas the best waves are found deep within the National Park, and thus out of bounds. Surfers in Santa Cruz must wait patiently for just the right swell to arrive that stirs the bay Academia, where Puerto Ayora is situated, and then make their way to the not-so-easily accessible beaches. This makes surfing quite unpopular to the overall Santa Cruz population, even though it could serve as a great way to promote people to loving the ocean they live so close to and practically live off of.

In my art I decided to employ two main types of propaganda which are often called “name calling” and “plain folk”. Name calling is referred to the type of propaganda where you directly mention the competitor and you say bad things about him/her/it. In this case, I mention the National Park Institution and how they prohibit surfers and common folk from visiting the National Park. The plain folk technique involves using ordinary people to, well, sound ordinary. I drew an anonymous surfer to also include that feeling.

Citations:

Quizlet, "7 TYPES OF PROPAGANDA", TEEJWIN1, 2018.
https://quizlet.com/5435505/7-types-of-propaganda-techniques-flash-cards/

SWOT Analysis of GCE Lab School

From the Systems & Models course, this is my final Action Project. In this section of the course we learned mainly about I-O Psychology; what is it for? Under what circumstances is it useful and why is it an ever-growing carrier in the 21st century? We merged the apprenticeships we gained from both individual and collective psychology to understand the psychology of the workplace. I deeply enjoyed this Action Project because I had the chance of viewing my own school with a critical eye by crafting a SWOT analysis. I love my school very much, and having the opportunity to offer my point of view and having the chance to help is very gratifying. Following is a general SWOT analysis of GCE Lab School under my point of view, based on my experience with the school:

Strengths

• Action-based, passion-oriented curriculum: The way the curriculum exposes students to a real-world application fo the skills and concepts learned in the different courses, as well as how the field experience permit you to see these skills and concepts being applied already contributes to this strength.
• Sense of community where all students can contribute to: The internal and external service-related activities the school hosts and participates in, such as indoor lunch on Fridays, helping paint and decorate the school, and engaging in civic events such as 291 #enough, as well as the the small size of the school permits the students to enjoy of a sense of community among their peers & general staff.
• Healthy ambiance that favors a healing process: There are many aspects of the school that contribute to this central attribute. The school’s curriculum leads the student to the conclusion that his/her purpose lies in contributing to the betterment of the world. It guides the student towards quality relationships with their peers, teachers, family, friends, and whomever might cross their path These relationships create a healthy ambiance in and outside of the school for each student. Students learn not only to accept differences, but to benefit themselves from them. The relaxation on behalf of the school in most common classroom and homework regulations in a certain way affects students negatively, however many, if not most students who come to GCE have been sincerely affected by the irrationality and asphyxiating traditional educational system, and this “flexibility” in many ways permits the students to heal and regain their passion for learning. 

Weaknesses

• Relaxation in regulations meant for engagement/Difficulty in properly implementing the curriculum: The quality of education varies from classroom to classroom. Some of the classes I participated in were ordered, and had a set of rules to follow in class such as no eating and not using phones unless required for the following exercises, and at the same time offered a space to make open-ended questions and share work and ideas with the rest of the classmates. Homework timelines worked to help the student organize his/her time. In others, however, a little “too much” space was given. Students would end up talking about topics that were not part of the class discussion or playing games, etc. Engagement was lost along the way and students would work to simply turn their projects in before the timelines and fulfill enough of the rubric to achieve a passing grade. In other words, the “passion” aspect was lost along the way. I think all teachers should gather a set of guidelines to follow in order to effectively implement the general curriculum. The purpose of these guidelines would not be to force all teachers to follow an identical way of teaching the courses in their classes, but rather to provide the teacher with a set of tools that will help him/her have a better sense of the nature of the curriculum and will therefore help the teacher implement his own methods effectively.

Opportunities

• Partnerships: As many connections as GCE has with very valuable organizations, GCE also has the opportunity of generating partnerships with other schools that share a similar vision. This would benefit students and the school both directly by offering them the option of periodical exchanges and thus further improving their global citizenship experience, as well as indirectly by learning how other institutions apply and implement their similar visions, and therefore enriching how GCE might implement its own curriculum and vision.

Threats

• Enclosed Community: A healthy way for an organization to grow is by associating itself with other organizations with similar goals. Specially in small institutions, the same ideas tend to bounce inside the same walls time and time again, which often leads to a type of inner-circle stagnation. When new points of view are not brought into the consultation inside an organization, frequently a resistance to outer ideas begins to form and competitiveness begins to appear among its members. Generating partnerships with other organizations clearly solves this threat, given that this involves sharing apprenticeships and knowledge with other groups of people, and at the same time learning from these other groups and generating a win-win situation, where competitiveness is not part of the equation.
• Lack of Donations: Another threat that GCE might face is that they might not receive the necessary amount of profit from donations to cope with the school’s expenses. I foresee some simple solutions for this threat. One is that the school could work on their official website, given that it serves as a first impression for many donors. There could be a student’s committee in charge of constantly updating and innovating the school’s website and format. Another solution that the school might consider is to offer small yet nice & exclusive things to their donors, such as special tours around the school, or personalization such as choosing the precise section of the school they might want to donate to, or even the specific student the might like to sponsor financially. 

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Related O-I Psychology Breakthroughs:

Institute of Employment Studies (IES) in 1990 ‘From People to Profits, the HR link to the service-profit chain’ 

https://www.hrzone.com/engage/employees/history-of-employee-engagement-from-satisfaction-to-sustainability 

Psychology, “Merger, Acquisitions, Strategic Alliances.”, 2018.

http://psychology.iresearchnet.com/industrial-organizational-psychology/organizational-development/mergers-acquisitions-and-strategic-alliances/