Virtual Reality Art Submitted By the Public as a Path to Social Justice and Humanity

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This paper contains a review of the literature that inspired and informed my final Master's art project for Applied Ethics, as well as an explanation and analysis of the art project itself. The review of literature begins with a lens into modern development, and how a history of colonization and exploitation to support development have led to modern systems of oppression and dehumanization. To explain these ideas, the literature then explores concepts of colonization through education, as well as the connection between oppression and the material values of development. Concepts of oppression and dehumanization are analyzed to understand oppressor and oppressed, and ideas of humanity are explained to make sense of what it means to de-humanize. The Culture of Silence is presented as an explanation for reenforced societal conformity, and creativity presented as an avenue for breaking silence and opening spaces for change. An analysis is also provided regarding the work of artists and art activists that challenge norms and form critical new spaces, as well as an example of how sex offenders within the prison system is still a gap in activism and art activism. Throughout the literature review, I use the criminal justice system, and in particular sex offenders, as an example of a system of structural oppression and dehumanization. This example demonstrates the connection between oppression and material values, and modern society's perpetual dehumanization of the body and mind of those portrayed as "criminal". The literature review ends with an analysis of the project born from these ideas, and its mission to create space for transformation toward a greater level of social justice.