As a junior, about to become a senior, I’ve been reflecting upon my years at Duke and the impact I will have left on campus by the time I graduate, no matter how big or how small it is. One key reason I took this class was so I could find new ways to express myself artistically since most of my classes have been in the science and engineering fields, which value accuracy and formulas and calculations over the freedom of expression and the formulation of opinions. I realized that there was a common thread behind the things that I chose to involve myself in. I always sought out opportunities to experience new cultures and cultivate a better international student life experience on campus. After my first presentation on Nam June Paik’s Electronic Superhighway, I started considering using a map as a medium to convey my message regarding Duke’s global community and the history of international students on campus, and step by step I developed what has now become my final project.
One of my favourite works from this semester is still our first reading, “The Medium is the Message” by Marshall McLuhan. I think it was a great introduction into the class, and I really liked his point about a medium being an “extension of ourselves”, a way to help us convey an idea by using materials (whether physical or virtual) to help us broaden the scope of our association with the concept. I am a super hands-on learner, and I think there is great value in using physical models or technology when trying to explain a concept. The use of physical definitely something that I wanted to further explore in my final project. Another topic that we explored that really spoke to me was our module on critical making and new media art, particularly the “Electronic Civil Disobedience” reading by the Critical Art Ensemble, and the “Wage Islands” artwork by Ekene Ijeoma that we discussed during the module. I liked the comparison of traditional civil disobedience and electronic civil disobedience that the reading makes. From my understanding, traditional civil disobedience involves people who are all very politically inclined. Electronic civil disobedience, however, may involve an audience or consumers (for example, NFTs) that are not necessarily looking to be involved politically. I enjoyed thinking about how everyday people can use their own means to critique the world around them and have the freedom to formulate their own opinions, without the pressure of being affiliated with a political group, although that may be difficult at times nowadays. In all of the artist works we looked into, I especially liked the “Wage Islands” piece because it was so simple yet effective. By using a physical model, it was extremely easy to draw a comparison from apartment space to cost, so easy that I can still remember the main message behind the piece even though we discussed it months ago. I also really liked Ekene Ijeoma’s use of the liquid to both hide and reveal, I thought it was very elegantly clever. For my final project, I was inspired to think more deeply about what I wanted to critique in my own surroundings and be as specific as possible.
For my final project, I initially wanted to do a large-scale statistical analysis on the history of international students at Duke. I wanted to collect data on the number of undergraduate international students at Duke on a holistic level and analyze how it has changed over time. I also wanted to break it down and look at the data for each continent, because I had heard from my coworkers at International House that Duke has been struggling with recruiting students from Africa recently and I was curious about the data from other locations. This was all data I could gather from looking at statistics from Duke Visa Services, which publishes information on the number of international students at Duke from every country around the world every year. However, as I got further into my project, I realized that a mere data analysis would not really satisfy the message I wanted to convey with the project. I wanted to critique how the treatment of international students has changed over the years. Therefore, I started to draw upon resources at Duke Archives and I reached out to a few of the librarians.
Ms. Amy McDonald provided me a few sources, which I used for my video pieces. I wanted the video information to be concise but also interesting and use a “show-not-tell” perspective, displaying not just a summary of the timeline of international student involvement at Duke, but including anecdotes and examples to get my point across. I decided to make a physical map to add user interaction into my project and to help solidify the message by allowing the user to scroll through the clips and choose which ones they would like to view first. I also really wanted to learn how to connect the Arduino to Max/MSP because I’ve used the Arduino many times for class projects in my biomedical engineering courses, and the idea of using it in a different context was very appealing. In order to honor my initial idea behind the project, I decided to still include a smaller data section, which shows the changes in the total undergraduate international students enrolled from 1999 to 2020.
My intended audience is the general Duke population, but particularly those who are either unfamiliar with the international student population or curious about how identities they consider themselves us fit into the Duke community. For example, having grown up in a Chinese household, it was very enlightening to learn about the first Asian students at Duke, and it made me feel more at home here knowing that many that have come before me and Duke has made an impact on the education of thousands of Asian students in the past. Although the road was not smooth, it is very inspiring to see the progress we have made in recognizing Asian identities around campus and advocating for the voices of Asian students. I hope that every Duke student that views my work may take away from it that everyone has had a unique path to Duke, and everyone will go their separate ways after they graduate. It is important to understand that the assumptions we draw about people may not define them, the place people come from does not dictate their values, and the concept of home is not always simple. However, many “foreigners” or “aliens” have come to Duke and made a home here nonetheless. I believe that everyone deserves to build a community here and make Duke a home away from home, and everyone plays a part in that. The way the institution views the value of international students has changed in the past few decades, and the amount of support they lend to departments like International House has also changed. These things have monumental effects on how the rest of the Duke population perceives international students, and I do believe that more education and transparency on the history of international students will allow the general Duke population to be more open-minded to befriending and learning from people of various cultures.
I think my project explores critical making by delivering my message through various mediums: electronic circuitry, laser cutting on wood, and Max/MSP virtual software. As we have discussed in class, a medium itself can convey a lot about what the creator is trying to imply. In my piece, my physical representation of the map represents the scope of the data and provides a more memorable design and structure to the project. The project also critiques an aspect of the social life at Duke through an artistic lens and allows me to extend my ability to share with others my own interpretation of the data and history, which we have defined as being a crucial part of critical making and the thought process that goes behind coming up with a project idea. I also think it conveys a critique through the physical realization of an artwork and has helped me think more critically about the topic as well as the artist, which we’ve discussed as being a part of the process of critical making. I do not think that my project offers a very new lens about critical making and what it can do, but it has given me a very new perspective on visual arts. I always thought that my interest in engineering prevents me from dedicating a lot of time towards creativity and art, but I think this project and the concept of critical making has changed my mind. I can see how my experience in Arduino and circuitry and laser cutting has been able to contribute towards expressing my message in a way that I have never associated with art before.
Please see this link for images and videos from my final project process, along with my final Max patch!
Please see this link for my final project presentation slides.
