Ocean Care through Data Embodying and Behaviour Changes

In the past few decades, marine debris and plastics have created a proliferation of hazards to marine life and humans. In order to raise awareness about these issues and support marine health, Ocean Wise, a non-profit organization, has been running Shoreline Cleanup activities with citizens since 1994. The Shoreline Cleanup activity has since spread out from the Vancouver area to most cities in Canada. During the cleanup activity, citizen volunteers collect garbage from shorelines, documenting their collection and submitting it to Ocean Wise as data for monitoring and controlling garbage around the ocean. Each year, Ocean Wise produces a report and uses it to support local policies relating to environmental protection.

Working with Ocean Wise and citizen participants, this project aims to cover not only collecting and reporting data from citizen participants but also to create changes in the behaviours of participants and increase awareness of community members about ecological issues. Through strategies of data embodying and co-speculative social/design practices, this project develops novel ways of encountering, learning, knowing, and experiencing data around marine debris and collectively builds common values toward ocean care. Through these strategies, this project will build up methods to improve the Ocean Wise Shore Cleanup model and will provide community organizers and community-engaged researchers with new tools to help transform views and habits about marine debris and ecological data.