The San Jose State student art magazine Meatspace displayed all the pages from its Spring 2022 issue titled “Consumerism and You” in the SJSU Student Union Ballroom on Friday for Earth Day week.
Debbie Andres, SJSU Office of Sustainability senior utilities and sustainability lead, said the office sponsored this issue as part of the series of events organized for SJSU’s Earth month celebration.
The Meatspace art exhibit follows the annual Earth Day Resource Fair on SJSU Tower Lawn on Wednesday and various events organized at the SJSU Community Garden, according to the SJSU office of sustainability’s event calendar.
“Not everyone responds to a report [about the environment] but someone might respond to a short story, or a painting, or a sculpture,” Andres said. “I'm really pleased with what [Meatspace] did.”
Rebecca Lee, SJSU english senior and Meatspace editor-in-chief, said the magazine was launched in 2020, during the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The magazine’s title, Meatspace, is old slang used to describe the “real” world as opposed to cyberspace, Lee said.
“We make one every semester and ask the students to come and meet with us,” Lee said.
She said deciding to create a printed magazine was a good way for students to have their “work out in the world,” and “help artists meet each other.”
She said that the artists collaborated together, exchanged ideas and gave each other feedback.
“We try to make sure that artists see work from mediums that aren't their own,” Lee said.
She added that she loves seeing art students create pieces they love outside of their classes.
Creative writing junior Courtney Caldwell is one of the artists who contributed to the magazine.
“I think helping artists create the art they want with as many tools in their tool belt is a great thing,” Caldwell said. “It felt like we were all peers, even between board and collaborators.”
She said seeing people walking around the Student Union Ballroom and pausing to read through her written piece was “amazing.”
Graphic design sophomore Cali Tran said she came to the Meatspace event after attending the previous Earth Day events organized by SJSU.
“It was really interesting to watch and see so many [members] of our community . . . being active on Earth Day,” Tran said.
Marco Echeandia, psychology senior and A.S director of sustainability, said he was glad students came to the event and to view the different works.
Some of the paintings, comics, and creative written pieces made by the students denounced the omnipresence of advertisement in American society, inciting overconsumption.
“[A lot of art being displayed] points out that the current capitalist society places so much emphasis on working in ensuring that you're a certain standard, but doesn't emphasize taking care of yourself,” Echeandia said.
Shelby Dela Cruz, animation and illustration senior and Meatspace art director, said she believes the art allowed students to understand consumerism in an easier way.
It would take “more than 5 Earths” to support the human population if everyone on the planet lived with the same consumption pattern than the average American, according to the National Footprint and Biocapacity 2022 accounts led by the independent American organization Global Footprint Network.
“When it comes to consumerism, and over consumption . . . it's hard to think of it as a bad thing when you can't see how it affects everything as a whole,” Dela Cruz said. “With art, you can kind of put that in a visual way where viewers can see and fully understand the impact of overconsumption.”
