#ccadthesis

Meet the Strange: 5 Students, 1 Concept.

We’re almost there, folks - we have only a week until the show goes up, and The Strange is finally starting to really slide its way into the forefront of our reality. Soon there won’t be any way to ignore it.

If you need help in preparing yourselves, take a moment to talk to those that have spent the most time with The Strange. They have had countless hours coordinating its arrival and feeling its weirdness advance into our collective psyche.

Alexis is our logistics coordinator; She specializes in production design and eating bagels.

Brandan is part of our promotions team; He specializes in visual development and chronic singing.

Oriana is the queen and overlord of this whole project; she specializes in arts and crafts, and is always down for a fight.

Emmett is the other half of promotions; he specializes in timed narrative media and has an unhealthy interest in sweat pants.

Katie is the monster behind branding; she specializes in editorial and children’s markets, and is, in fact, the baddest bitch in the place.

I keep remembering how much I love this project. Seriously. SO MUCH. 

This stuff is really powerful, because quality connections are the juicy exciting parts of life. We all want to feel like we are important, involved, fun, approachable people. And if I can make you feel that in ten minutes after playing a silly game with some people you just met? That's pretty amazing. 

This week I've been delving into the ACA's Camping magazine. (American Camp Association) And I found some super interesting stuff and people. 

First I found Adam Grant, organizational psychologist and author of Give and Take. He talks about people being "givers" "takers" and "matchers" i.e. people who like to give, people who are out for themselves, and people who do a little bit of both. The main thing I took away was this: good givers ask for help.

Which brings me to my next pool of research. Communication. 

Without good communication camp would fall apart. Seriously. It's important.

And you wouldn't be able to share your entire life's story while sitting on the bathroom floor with your co-counselor after a late night staff meeting if you weren't on board with good teamwork and communication. 

This guy knows a thing or two about that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYln_dRiOmM

More research to come, plus more stories about camp, and hopefully good news that a mentor got back to me. 

While i was looking through Ai Weiwei work and thinking about how the world is about to get a lot bigger this idea on how I wanted to do my thesis hit me in the face. So here is the low down:

To display each of these stages of cultural adjustment I want to experience those same feelings. Those butterflies of excitement, the twist of your stomach when you are in an uncomfortable situation and complete bliss when you are in the sweet spot of life. So to bring the experience to the view I want to completely emerge them to make this most effective.

My idea to making this happen in have a room with all four different walls with four different videos representing the four stages. The first video would display the honeymoon period where everything is shiny and new in the host culture. Second video would display the stress and distress when completely emerged into a different culture and trying to get over the culture barrier but still keep your own identity. The third would be either the acceptance into this new culture or complete rejection. Finally the unavoidable acceptance of the culture good or bad.

Now these will not be your average boring videos. I wanted to use my skills of shooting video and editing to create each mood that I want reprint each stage. They will be filled with culture and colors. Also to give the full effect of being completely emerged I want to use a somewhat small space and incorporate music. 

Since there will be 4 projections going on I thought a good way to divide up each mood besides being on different walls would include different music for each. Every time the the music would change so would the focus of the project. I wanted to find a way to time the music with the appropriate scene by making the focused video go from black and white to color. So it would be activated by both color and music to give the complete experience.

Now all there is to do:

-applying my research to the video

-finding 4 projectors and speakers

-find music

I'm playing a little bit of catch up here between One Show and being deathly ill for the past week.

So the game plan that I have in my mind was to continue with my research about these different stages of cultural adjustment and hopefully a vehicle for the concept will hit me. In continuing my research I would like to find people who are at each point of these 4-5 stages. This would allow me to get real experiences and stories to put into my research. With finding different people that apply to these stages I didn't want to stick with a specific ethnicity of people because I want to get what the overall experience is for anyone that comes into the US

I think that I have finally nailed down a specific aspect to immigrant culture that I want to explore. Gregory Trivonovitch's theory of stages of cultural adjustment is what I want to thesis research to focus on. I found it interesting that something so complex could be broken down into four simple stages. So to continue this crazy train I am looking for individuals to talk to about their experiences and test the legitimacy of this theory. Visuals are still a work in progress but there are some images below that I thought are interesting.

AND SO IT BEGINS...

I am exploring the idea of how does one preserve their culture when living in another culture that is completely different from their own. Do they completely adapt to the culture that they are surrounded by or do they distance themselves so they do not get exposed to it. OR do they intergrade it with their own culture causing it to morph into something completely different. 

There are many angles to explore when it comes to that topic and I am currently on the hunt to finding what that exactly is. One idea that has stuck out to me is Gregory Trivonovitch’s four stages of cultural adjustment. He explains how the enter this honeymoon stage where they are in love with the culture and all the possibilities that America is suppose to offer. Next is the hostile stage where the fact that they are in a completely different culture with another language and customs is starting to set in. Then the integration stage starts where they become more adjusted to the customs around them. Finally the home stage, which not all immigrants experience but for those that do they finally recognize them self as part American. 

My partial mentor to the subject is Marianna Smith who is helping me understand this subject with knowledge and personal experience.