Week 10

This week I focus on gaining new insight through literature, which leads me to explore a new direction for the project.

Resource reflection

Migrant Journal: Foreign Agents


Fig. 1: Migrant Journal 2019. Issue 6: Foreign Agents. [magazine cover]
Esperantujo, land of the hopeful

I’m truly fascinated by the conceptual aspect of Esperanto. Reading Wilson’s article, Esperantujo, Land of the Hopeful, I wondered if I could somehow use the language in my project through an homage, documentation project or similar. Perhaps I don’t have to develop a constructed language, but instead use an existing one in my work somehow?

Wilson explains how Esperanto speakers “would be in and out of their primary language, and therefore in and out of their cultures” (Paul Wilson, 2019). I personally interpret this to mean that when using Esperanto, speakers find a common ground, a culture for all. A question I’d like to explore moving forward, is what this culture might look like – how could I attempt to document this second culture using design?

Fig. 2: Migrant Journal 2019. Esperantujo, Land of the Hopeful. [magazine spread]

Wilson goes on to discuss the content of the archive boxes, in which lies a collection of Esperanto postcards (Paul Wilson, 2019). He explains how the post cards often shows landscape and place, and in particular scenes of mundane life (Paul Wilson, 2019). This made me wonder if I could take a more personal approach to place connection. Perhaps I could get prior immigrants to make postcards for those to come to Norway in the future, providing them with a message of comfort – something they would have liked to have when they first came to Norway?

In his conclusion, Wilson writes:

“These seemingly non-essential items of everyday communication, by virtue of their being collected, kept and then kept again (…) are significant in sustaining the vital cultural history of one place and some of its people”

(Paul Wilson, 2019)

By developing postcards of comfort, by and for immigrants, I could perhaps hope to document a sense of the meeting between Norwegian culture and those of Norwegian immigrants.

Bedazzled Jerusalem: City simulacra and unoriginal truths

In this article, Dima Srouji reflects on what it means to know a place, and how various artists’ interpretations of Jerusalem has led to art of an “imagined city” (Dima Srouji, 2019). The idea of an imagined city is interesting when discussing place documentation, as when documenting a place (at least beyond it’s mere geographical aspects) representing a city might always be a subjective act.

If one’s perception of a place is subjective, Srouji’s argument “as history is constructed by those with agency, the narratives of those without is cast aside” (Dima Srouji, 2019), supports the act of including “everyone” when attempting to document it. Going back to my postcard idea, I think this could be an interesting way of documenting a range of subjective interpretations of Norway. Further, Srouji’s argument supports the method of including immigrants in the insight collection and making process, as a way of writing the narratives of Norwegian culture from the perspective of the immigrant.

Asafo flags
Fig. 3: Fante Ca. 1863. Asafo Flag. [appliqued and embroiled cloth]

In his article Asafo flags, Benjamin Orlow discusses the cultural meanings of Asafo flags, made by the Fante people. These flags become a symbol of an hybridisation of cultures, as the Fante people developed the flags by adopting certain elements from European aesthetics (Benjamin Orlow, 2019).

I’m very interested in the craft aspect of these flags, and particularly how crafts are used to tell and document cultural narratives. I wonder if in my project, I could use crafts as a tool for merging cultures – for example by giving immigrants access to historic Norwegian craft, or established cultural institutions. By using Norwegian history (craft) and an immigrant’s narrative, I could perhaps begin to develop a shared visual language, built on comfort and “meeting each other half way”.


Tutorial w/Dan

Since writing my project plan last week, I had started to feel a bit funny about my new approach (interviews and workshops with immigrants). In the preparations for my tutorial with Dan, I wanted to try and pin point what had caused this feeling of discomfort. I realised that in my project, it wasn’t really the immigrant aspect I was interested in, but rather the notion of language barriers and how language speaks of our identities. Although solving immigration issues was never my aim, I was starting to feel as if it had become so. Solving these types of issues are important, but not something I was ready to tackle in my personal practice. Through my conversation with Dan I was luckily able to realise this, which led us to discuss a new direction.

Feeling inspired by the Esperanto article above, I wondered if rather than developing a language, I could work with an existing one, like Esperanto. For example, I was interested in how Esperanto speakers “would be in and out of their primary language, and therefore in and out of their cultures” (Paul Wilson, 2019).

Dan suggested that I could perhaps explore ways of combining different cultures as one, and to find common grounds across various cultures. He also mentioned how with this direction, I could arrange workshops within the course (as we are a global unit), which could be easier than with immigrants.


Weekly wrap up

This week has not been hugely comprehensive in amount of work, yet, my reading as well as the reflections in my tutorial have been hugely beneficial.

By attempting to pin point the cause of the disconnection I have been feeling towards my project over the last few weeks, I think I have finally begun to realise how to make a shift. Moving forward I hope to really follow my personal design interests, by delving into the world of Esperanto, and perhaps also other constructed languages. By doing so, I think I will be able to concentrate on actual graphic design, rather than linguistics and other areas in which I have no current skills. I’m currently excited about delving into some real ideation, but for the moment I will focus on reading and gaining a deeper understanding for Esperanto.


REFERENCES:
Benjamin Orlow (2019) ‘Asafo flags’, Migrant Journal [Preprint], (6).

Dima Srouji (2019) ‘Bedazzled Jerusalem: City simulacra and unoriginal truths’, Migrant Journal [Preprint], (6).

Paul Wilson (2019) ‘Esperantujo, land of tue hopeful’, Migrant Journal [Preprint], (6).

LIST OF FIGURES:
Figure 1. MIGRANT JOURNAL. 2019. Issue 6: Foreign Agents. Migrant Journal [online]. Available at: https://migrantjournal.com/products/pre-order-migrant-journal-no-6-foreign-agents

Figure 2. MIGRANT JOURNAL. 2019. Esperantujo, Land of the Hopeful. Migrant Journal [online]. Available at: https://migrantjournal.com/products/pre-order-migrant-journal-no-6-foreign-agents

Figure 3. FANTE. Ca. 1863. Asafo Flag. Detroit Institute of Arts [online]. Available at: https://www.dia.org/art/collection/object/asafo-flag-44794