Over the last few months, our PLP 10 class has been working countless hours to put together an exhilarating, but informative experience. Yup, you’d be right, we created another winter exhibition. Due to covid, this is the 2nd ever winter exhibition that I’ve participated in, and it did not get easier. I don’t blame you if you don’t remember my last winter exhibition as it was 2 years ago, but you can find it HERE if you’d like to see what we did last time.

The project that we showcased in the exhibition was called “Ology of Apology”. The driving question for this project was “How would you keep an apology alive so the wrongs of the past are remembered and respected today?“ and in a nutshell, in this project we had to learn how a public memory of past wrongs is fostered and how we can use that to never repeat the wrongs again.

Throughout this project we went on 6 field studies as Covid restrictions finally allowed it. Within these field studies we learned of 3 fascinating cultures including Chinese Canadians, Indo – Canadians, and Japanese Canadians. These field studies weren’t all sunshine and rainbows though, in fact, it was quite the opposite. We learned of the sufferings, discrimination, and hardships these immigrants faced when coming to Canada. Since we haven’t been on any field studies in almost exactly 2 years, I’ve only come to realize how much we were missing in our PLP 9 class. When you are walking around, seeing, touching, and feeling the location that centralizes your learning, it is a great way to gain that extra level of knowledge and understanding of the topics at hand. These field studies only make the learning more meaningful and experiential as opposed to memorizing in books, which shapes the final level of comprehension at the end of the project. Through this, the field studies impact my learning in a significant way. Putting this into the field studies of our project, I felt that walking around and taking in the significance of the locations where the actual wrongdoings took place as well as memorials attempting to apologize and remember the events gave me a deep insight into our past and present problems as a society.

After partaking in all 6 field studies, we now had to create our own memorial to create a public memory of one past injustice out of the 3 we studied. I teamed up with Quinn, Dries, and Erin, to complete this task. Our group was given Chinese Canadian maltreatment in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Through the field studies on this topic, we learned of the Chinese head tax, a blatantly discriminatory law put in place to reduce the number of Chinese Canadians in Canada. We also learned of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and the terrible practices during the construction. The final part of Chinese Canadian discrimination that we learned about was the general discrimination and hatred for Chinese Canadian immigrants living in Canada.

The first step for our group was to choose what part of Chinese Canadian discrimination we would memorialize. We chose the railway. The next step for us was to come up with the idea for the memorial, which proved to be the hardest part for us. Eventually, we settled on a large railway spike to be built with a phrase across the side encapsulating all the hardships of the Chinese Canadians during the Construction of the railway.

Through the formation of this idea, we considered realism, accuracy, impact, and publicity, to make a great memorial. Realism meaning how likely it would actually be built so it couldn’t be some super complicated contraption that would be an engineering and construction nightmare. Accuracy meaning how accurately it would portray the events being memorialized. Impact meaning how powerful it would be to a bystander interested in the memorial so it could create a long lasting memory and be memorialized in public memory. Simplicity also has to be considered in impact though, as a memorial needs to be simple and easy to understand so the average viewer is not confused, but left with clear, concise thoughts on the memorial and events behind it. Publicity meaning how many people would see it so it could be in everyone’s memory. Again, creating a public memory of the events. These 4 pillars of memorials create a powerful and significant memorial that can be integrated into our society to create a long lasting public memory of events. That is how you keep an apology alive so the wrongs of the past are remembered and respected today.

We went through a few drafts before the final product in the railway spike, mainly a park in the shape of an ancient Chinese cash coin with a path in a timeline explaining the events. This design showed to be lacklustre in the accuracy and impact categories. It wasn’t accurate as a Chinese coin only portrays the Chinese aspect of the events whereas it was really in Canada that these terrible events took place involving Chinese Canadians. It also not as big of an impact as we were looking for. We thought that the overall design needed to be more simple. A timeline would be too complicated, leaving citizens confused and not reaching that end goal of a public memory of the events.

After we had the idea, it was time for the construction. This is where the teamwork in our group really shined. Each member had a different task throughout the few days we had to get this together. Dries constructed the spike and stand, Erin created a 3D model to showcase during the exhibition, Quinn gathered important videos to create a powerful experience in the exhibition, and I wrote the plaque to explain the memorial and events behind the memorial.

The final product was made of wood and I think turned out really well, the phrase across the side read “in memory of the mistreated” and on the other side in Mandarin. It was featured on a high quality professional stand which I think tied the whole thing together.

As the spike summarizes our whole project, it reflects and answers the driving question. Once again, the question is “How would you keep an apology alive so the wrongs of the past are remembered and respected today?” We can keep an apology alive so the wrongs of the past are remembered and respected today by creating an informative and easy to understand memorial that leaves the viewer thinking even after leaving the memorial. Through this, creating public memory of the events, thus ensuring the events may never be repeated again in our society.

Now, turning to the exhibition, our group had to create a powerful experience for each viewer to secure as many votes as possible for our memorial. Not only did we showcase the memorial itself, we had a location already chosen to further connect the viewer to the idea of this memorial being built as they could imagine it in the location itself. Along with this, we had a 3D model shown so the viewers could get a closer look of what it would look like in greater detail. To display these 2 aspects of our proposal, we set up a large television so viewers could get an idea of our memorial with ease. As well as the memorial and tv showcase, we had plaques set up in 3 languages (English, French, Mandarin) giving a greater understanding of what the memorial stood for and the events behind it.

In the end, the exhibition did change my view of our memorial. It only made me realize how good of an idea we had come up with. We had created such a powerful memorial with a powerful statement that was practical. In reality, no city, and very few engineering companies are going to undertake the massive complications that come with such a complex memorial such as one dealing with shadows, moving parts, and variables. That is why our memorial is so good. It accomplishes the same feats as all the other memorials, but in a much simpler form.

“Nature is pleased with simplicity. And nature is no dummy.”

– Isaac Newton