PROJECT DESCRIPTION

I AM COMPLICIT is a Social Practice art project done by students in the Anthropology department at the University of Victoria. The project was designed out of our understanding of Relational Art practice. Nicolas Bourriaud, French curator who coined the term "Relational Aesthetics' claims "the role of artworks is no longer to form imaginary and utopian realities, but to actually be ways of living and models of action within the existing real, whatever scale chosen by the artist." We sought to create a context of shared social reality that would offer a space for cultural critique, that we would might otherwise engage as students of Anthropology. We have chosen to work at a level of personal engagement by examining how we are complicit in the very systems that often define the lives of peoples with whom interact with our work as anthropologists. Anthropology as a discipline has turned its gaze inward to examine how at a disciplinary level, it has been complicit in systems of oppression. 

This project is a way of engaging that disciplinary critique through individual predicaments brought forth through collective action. The project was completed in three phases. First we held a series of conversations about what issues and ideas were important to use as students of anthropology. Second, we designed a way to explore this collective experience through individual acts. Together we produced silk screened t-shirts with the text I AM COMPLICIT and photographed ourselves wearing the shirts in places that spoke to our complicity. Third, we met as a group to discuss our individual takes on complicity throught his collective action. We have installed the T-shirts en masse in the Department of Anthropology for the week of December 4-11, 2010, with a sign that directs students at the university to our blog.

We invite our viewers to consider our project, and to post their own thoughts/engagement/actions on their reflection of how they too are complicit.

Women in the workplace in Canada on average still make lower wages than men and are confined to specific industries and sectors which often pay less as well. For example, male dominated sectors such as construction tend to pay much higher wages than highly female dominated secretarial work. As a women I am aware of these stats, but I have accepted them...why? 

Yes, I've done botox, yes, I've done cosmetic fillers, yes, I've had a peel, yes, I've had my smile altered cosmetically, yes, I've had LASIK, yes, I've augmented my body in many ways through surgery, diet and exercise. I still do.

I'm complicit in perpetuating the beauty myth. I buy into the myth completely with a strong emphasis on "buy."

Sometimes I feel trapped by how I believe I must look. I do it for me: I do it for you, but primarily I do it for me.

My morning routine isn't long or exhaustive but I can't leave home without doing it "just so."

Everyday my vanity traps me. Literally.

Yes, I'm complicit. But it's complicated.

By eating this hamburger from a fast food restaurant I am complicit in North America taking more of its share of Natural resources. Industrial farming and the high consumption of meat in the North American diet uses more energy to feed less people than if these same resources were allotted to a more vegetarian based diet. Eating of foods higher in the food chain wastes energy, contributes to green house gases and helps keep the worlds poor hungry.    

I am complicit in the food that I eat. I try not to think about the whole process that goes into my food. Even more so in the case of meat. The farming practices that feed the animals; possibly damaging the lands, genetically engineered crops. Animals, likely living out their lives in stalls, terrible conditions, being stuffed with food until slaughtered. Long distance transport contributing more to environmental degradation, and less to the local economy.  I know these things and I continue to do the same as I do.  It’s easier that way.

I am complicit in the Mcdonaldization of society. I am a part of the simplification and denigration of civilization in the name in efficiency. I allow and support the homogenization of my culture by buying in to the main industries and corporations that pioneer such alienating systems as the production line. I am allowing tradition, individuality, and development of important skills to be thrown out in favour of rationalization. I am complicit in the degradation, alienation, oversimplification of society.

I AM COMPLICIT: I AM A COMPLI$#!T

I moved to Victoria to attend the University of Victoria, and like many people my decision was based in part on the incredibly beautiful environment of Vancouver Island. I have been visiting the Island with my family since I was a kid, on summer canoeing ventures that would take us out in to the Gulf Islands and the other stunning national parks that surround the island. Always we would stay for a day or so in Victoria to visit friends, and it was during those visits that I fell in love with this town.

             One day after moving here I was down by the ocean with one of my local friends, and I suggested we be daring and go for a swim. My friend had such a shocked look on his face, and told me that he never went for a swim around Victoria because some days the raw sewage that is pumped out into the ocean makes its way back to our shores. It was then that I learned the ugly truth about Victoria.

            Victoria has been dumping raw sewage into the ocean since 1894. It is the year 2010, we are well into the 21^st century and yet our town still can’t get it together to treat our sewage. We just approved of a plan to dismantle our beloved Blue Bridge and replace it with a shiny new one at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, and yet we still have made no headway on the issue of sewage treatment.

            I am complicit in this travesty. I, every day, add to the untold mass of raw sewage that is dumped into traditional waters of the Coast Salish. This issue is not taken seriously, not like building a shiny new bridge, and so in taking my photo I found myself unable to be serious. The fact that we are in the 21^st century and yet still are mindlessly dumping toxic waste into our environment is madness. I love Vancouver Island and all the amazing park lands that surround it, but I am afraid I must leave, because to continue being complicit in the destruction of everything that was magical about my childhood summers is, to me, insanity. I am done with insanity! Bring on sanitation!

. . . and so fat. Driving the prices down, and thus the wages of the workers down with them, we the consumers wring the necks of foreign producers. Supermarket advertisements and weekly sales bring me back, regularly. On my body it shows. I am using my purchasing power to correct the status quo. But, regardless of how I shop, organic or not, I am working against a system within a system. As Slavoj Žižek says in First as Tragedy, Then as Farce, “It is immoral to use private property in order to alleviate the horrible evils that result from the institution of private property.” I am attempting to buy my way out of moral ineptitude, and thus my purchasing/consuming exponentially parallel to my guilt. Safeway represents all aspects of this moral conundrum. Is it even possible to move my body from the glow of Safeway’s neon sign? Is this dilemma solvable?

I AM COMPLICIT                                               

Great Pacific,

Home to Orca,

The swirling oceans of the world

Are inhabited

By you

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

A stew of plastic

That floats in a slowly moving, clockwise spiral

Twice the size

Of Texas

Great Pacific

My plastic presence

In these waters of the salt-sea

Is growing each day

Revealing

I AM COMPLICIT

One of the ways I am complicit is my use of make-up. First of all, I use make up, which is a culturally ascribed condition for looking beautiful. But where I realize that make-up isn’t necessarily good is in terms of what they put in to make-up, and how they test it. I am aware that there are perhaps things in my make-up that aren’t good for me, but I’m not actually sure what they are. So in doing this write up I’ve looked up some of the common ingredients in make-up, and compare it with the eye shadow I’m holding in my picture. The website lists talc as a bad ingredient because it “...is a known carcinogen and can cause lung damage” (Livingston 2007). Talc is listed as the third ingredient in my eye shadow. Another ingredient is coal tar dye, which is blue #1, yellow #5, both of which is in my eye shadow and can cause “...severe allergic reactions, headaches, asthma attacks, fatigue, and increased risk of lymphoma and multiple myelonma”  (Livingston 2007). Bismuth Oxychloride is listed under ‘may contain’ in my eye shadow, and is a product of iron mining that can “...cause stinging and skin irritation...”(Livingston 2007). There are many more things in my makeup that is making me want to throw it out, but I want to talk about how nowhere on the box does it say that this product wasn’t tested on animals. I know I don’t go out of my way to find things that aren’t tested on animals; I just sort of assumed that most if not all places stopped animal testing. After reading what’s in my eye shadow, I think I’m actually going to be more careful from now on, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to avoid some of those chemicals.

Livingston, Kari (2007) What makes up your makeup? Know what’s on your face. AssociatedContent.com. Retrieved from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/183387/what_makes_up_your_makeup_know_whats_pg2.html?cat=69

I AM COMPLICIT. I am complicit when it comes to marketing within magazines
especially to female advances. I am aware that several companies that are
producing and paying for advertisements within these magazines that are
shown are hypocritical with there product. A key example would be the
company that owns Ace and Dove, there marketing are very different and
questionable. Another would by the marketing of medicine  because I own
the laws regarding advertisements of a medical nature and these laws are
not always followed. And yet I still go out and buy these magazines.

Sitting in a Starbucks, drinking our grande lattes, contemplating on whether or not we need gas. We chose this particular location because of our tendency to indulge in $5 lattes when we could easily get a cup of coffee at home. We would rather the "gingerbread" christmas specialty coffee rather than the simple black up of coffee which comes from a canister, a price equivalent to one grande Starbucks latte. We are complicit because we are aware of the negative consequences that Starbucks creates. We know that workers are paid a minuscule amount in comparison to how much me pay for a cup of Starbucks coffee. In addition, we are conscious of the detrimental effects it has on the environment. WE ARE COMPLICIT!

The typical B.C. student finishes a four-year program at university with an average of $27,000 in debt. I’m currently balancing 3 jobs and 5 classes and I get help from my parents, and I still can barely make it. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t stressed about making ends meet. I’m not alone in this situation, and although we all complain about this, not all of us do something about this. I am complicit in something when I don’t speak up, when I don’t use my vote, when I disappear in the background. It is easy to bitch about something; it is a completely different matter to actually do something about it. So let’s do something about it!

I have bought electronics that I do not need, and have replaced older products that are still usable in favour of the latest tech. Our desire for the newest and best contributes to health problems and environmental damage caused not only by the production of electronics, but also by the way much of it is recycled. Vast mountains of e-waste are shipped to countries where environmental and worker safety controls are lax, where people searching through the piles of waste for reusable materials are exposed to hazardous chemicals, where heavy metals and toxins are released into the environment from the burning of plastics...and I'm still tempted to replace my Wii with Kinect.

I feel complicity towards the meat industry and the consumption of animals
for food. Vegetarianism is something I have dabbled in on and off, going
as long as a year and half without eating meat, but it has been difficult
to make it stick. I do my best from abstaining from factory farmed and
slaughterhouse meat, and feel this is a suitable medium for my current
lifestyle. The mistreatment of animals and the destruction of the
environment for the production of meat is a definite source of guilt for
me, and the source of my complicity, which is why I chose to take my photo
at a meat shop.

Every day I live off of land and resources that do not rightfully belong to me. I am ashamed and disgusted by the part I have played in this blatant robbery and the resulting cultural genocide that has taken place because of my colonialist consumption habits. In response to my feelings, I have done nothing and for this, I am complicit.

I took my picture in the Pet Store where I purchase food for my pet
Tarantula, Sally. I am Complicit in that as the owner of this exotic pet,
I am  supporting an industry which exists for the sake of humankind's
desire to take advantage of other lifeforms for our comfort and amusement.
In doing so I am not only supporting the Exotic Pet Trade, but also other
contested practices with which this Pet Store works hand in hand (such as
Puppy Mills and irresponsible breeders) who put the lives of many animal's
at risk. Despite my awareness and this being something I feel horrible
about, I continue to act complicit by buying my crickets here. I should
not be smiling in this picture.

If you were to ask me why I celebrate Christmas, I would say because it¹s
what my family has always done.  But, I know that by involving myself, and
my children, in this Œholiday¹ I perpetuate more than a tradition.  I am
involved in everything that Christmas shouldn¹t represent: materiality,
commercialism, and secularity.  I am complicit.

My photo was intended to be a commentary on food security and sustainable
resource allocation.  Packaged food fits nicely into the pace of modern
living, but requires immense industry and supply chains. While I
frequently criticize this situation, I do very little to provide food for
myself outside of the grocery store.

We live in a bounded society.  We build walls between us, "I am the consumer, because I am not the producer".  We separate ourselves from our food production, amongst other things, and create a psychological divide, becoming unfamiliar with what sustains us.  These are relationships lost today, "I am the consumer, because you are the producer".  We are not exclusive, not one without the other.

We are complicit.  We are aware of the issues regarding water waste, yet we
find ourselves again and again enjoying long showers, sprinkling our lawn in
the summer, and putting on small loads of laundry.  We are aware that these
choices are contributing to an environmental catastrophe, and we are not
only affecting ourselves and our country, but the environment worldwide.
We are aware that North Americans use twice as much water as Europeans, and
the majority of individual waste is through household bathrooms.  We are
aware of the terrible consequences that water waste entails, yet we still
find ourselves enjoying the luxuries of clean, safe water with little regard
to how fortunate we are compared to others.  And to this, we are complicit.

Welcome to Pandora Avenue. The space that is occupied by my T-Shirt was once someone's home but due to new bylaws is just a square footage of grass. The reason my T-Shirt is empty is representative of the fact that I was absent from the debate about what rights to the Pandora Avenue the homeless in Victoria had even though I cared about the outcome. I believe that dispersal of the homeless is not the answer but support from the community is. I will no longer be complicit, I will no longer be absent.

I am complicit in the mistreatment of cocoa industry slaves in developing countries. I know that slaves are allowed to die because buying a slave simple antibiotics is more expensive than buying a new slave. And yet because non fair trade chocolate is less expensive and more convenient, I still buy it.

I am Complicit, for buying coffee from Starbucks or any other coffee shop, due to the fact that I have seen the affects of coffee fields on developing countries just to deliver us in North America Coffee to drink   

This assignment has made me realize my complicity with regard to
understanding and further acknowledging the important connection that
gender and feminist theory has within the Political Science sphere. For
example, I knew that theories of gender and feminism are contained in
discussions about international relations; but, until recently I glossed
over the theories without considering the immense impact gender has not
only on international relations, but the politics of food, development,
human rights, security, and indeed all aspects of politics.

When I buy beef, pork or chicken for dinner at the nearest grocery store, I become a part of global processes. Most of us don`t ask where and how the animals were raised, how many hormones and antibiotics were pumped into them, or whether a green forest was cut down to build an industrial farm. Most of us, myself included, just look at the price tag. What is the true cost of meat consumption in our modern society?

I am participating in a system that is destructive.  The economy is a monopoly ruled by eternally expanding corporations; corporations whose inherent motivation is to reduce the bottom line and increase profits because of the structure of capitalism. The fundamental principle of capitalism is freedom; our country upholds this system and allows corporations the freedom to exploit workers all over the globe.  I have to buy clothing, food and basic amnesties to survive and corporations like Wal-Mart provide these necessities at cheap prices that students strapped for cash can afford.    I am complicit and participate in a system I have no choice but to participate in regardless of whether I agree with it.

I am complicit because I do not always vote in municipal, provincial and federal elections.

I do not always let my voice be heard in our democracy. I do not stand up for political issues important to me. I am not involved in changing the political environment which surrounds me. I chose to stand in front of a political party’s main office to call on young voters to get involved politically in their communities. Each vote can make a difference.

I know how much pollution vehicles put into the environment yet I still
drive almost everywhere I go.

Many of the grocery stores we shop at sell food imported from miles away
rather than local food. This not only creates a huge environmental
footprint in energy needed for shipping, but also puts small farmers under
strain trying to compete with the large grocery chains. Fruits and
vegetables sold in these big chains are also often genetically modified,
or sprayed with pesticides, and the workers that harvested these food
items are often exploited in order for the these chains to offer
affordable prices to the consumer.

13.5% of greenhouse emissions are transportation related, with the majority of those emissions (9.9%) being produced on roads. A year ago I bought a car, and in doing so became complicit in the not-so-slow destruction of our environment, and to the atrocities performed in the name of our oil-based economy and infrastructure.  Because I think that greenhouse emissions are irreversibly damaging our environment, I think we need to change, and I am taking responsibility and realizing that change starts with me. I am complicit.

 I chose to take my “I am complicit” shirt photos in front of the Parliament building. Roots to many problems we face in the context of this project stem from government actions and policies that govern our lives in many ways, and are complicit with allowing over development, mass-production, food degradation, to name but a few, and to be become so entrenched in the structure of developed countries. The government/business are at the top of the pyramid so to speak, but I realize I am a part of it as well. 

Indigenous students often face a dilemma when they choose to attend
University. Many must make the decision to remove themselves from their
communities in order to receive an “education” instead of staying home and
being educated by their own people. Like most individuals, Indigenous
youth want to help build and create better futures for their Nations.
Attending university is an obvious solution most Canadians would suggest.
However, we experience universities as colonial institutions, which teach
dominant Western theories and ways of doing things, and in order to
succeed we must do so within a Western paradigm. As a minority groups on
our own land within a settler society, obtaining a Western education is a
near necessity for getting well-paying jobs to support our families and
higher-positions within the employment sphere in order to support our
communities.

When we throw out our garbage and it is hauled off to a landfill far away
and out of sight it is easy to forget the negative environmental, social
and cultural effects that our consumption habits create. Being removed
from these consequences makes it easy for us to still partake and
contribute to the consumer-based culture we live in. Although I am aware
of this I still partake in this act and therefore I am complicit.

As a young woman, I feel that we are continuously bombarded with unrealistic ideals of beauty, ideals to which most of us will never live up. The beauty industry promotes a very narrow view of what beauty is; white, skinny, tall, perfect women. Most of the images we see have been retouched and manipulated in order to portray this unachievable perfection. We all know that most women do not fit this ideal, we are all different. A majority of us talk about acceptance of everyone regardless of appearance, I believe this too. I know that what the beauty industry portrays is a false ideal and I know that this ideal is so very damaging to the self-esteem of many young girls, myself included. I know that the goal of the industry is ultimately to sell more products and by creating this unobtainable ideal which we are lead to believe can only be reached through buying and buying more products, through changing ourselves, altering ourselves so that we fit this image we are  lead to believe that beauty equates happiness. I know how harmful, damaging and immoral the beauty industry is, I also think that people should be free to be themselves and that the immense pressure I feel as a woman constantly comparing myself with these ideals of perfection can be detrimental.Yet irregardless, I still buy into this ideal, I feel the pressure to conform to this ideal, I am a consumer of it all even though I think it is wrong, in this way I AM COMPLICIT

I am complicit concerning what I eat. I can't afford to eat organic nor do
I look into where my food is coming from. I don't know the difference
between fair trade and free trade. I drink beer and vodka produced via
means which probably hurt the environment. I don't care if my chicken ran
free outdoors or my beef walked in pastures. I am complicit and can't
afford to change.

Silkscreening T-shirts in the Media Lab for I AM COMPLICIT