Project ideas

In response to our group manifesto, in which we proposed a world without borders and a future of unified humanity, I wanted to create a project that deepens the knowledge and understanding of how racist ideas grow and perpetuate within our community in the form of racial slurs and how racial slurs we created through out the history have reinforced the racist ideas we have about people we know very little about. I wanted to highlight the ignorance that are embedded in those racial slurs and the effect of the verbal violence those racial slurs have created.

To do that, I started searching for lists of racial slurs on the internet. I thought if someone have created a database of racial slurs, that would be awesome. And I found it. This site: http://www.rsdb.org. is the only one I found that have compiled a list of racial slurs categorized by racial groups. I wanted to present my findings in the form of a dictionary or visual database and create an immersive and interactive experience for the viewer.

My first idea was to hand print individual terms on the paper and provide the explanation of that term underneath. And hang up all the prints in the room for my audience to explore and learn. I felt very inspired after the monotype pathway session. I experimented with the process of embossing in particular because I think when people were verbally assaulted by racial slurs, it hurts and leaves a dent or mark on your body and heart. ( Frog: The French are said to laugh like frogs. When they laugh, their adam’s apples bulge out of their necks like frogs. Also perhaps from the French delicacy of frog-legs. Another possible derivation is the Fleur-de-Lys displayed on the French king’s banner in the Middle Ages, which, to the English enemy, looked like squatting frogs. UK origins.)

Then I have this idea of consolidating all the racial slurs that I found on a piece of paper and hand it out to the viewer and let them somehow destroy it at the end of the exhibition as an act of empowerment or just an outlet for all the negative feelings they will possibly get from the exhibition. Since using fire is way too dangerous, I thought if I can find some kind of dissolvable paper, I can just let them throw the paper in a tank of water. I found out that wafer paper used for baking are made of potato starch and are advertised as dissolvable and edible. So I experimented with it by printing text on it and tossed in the water. It didn’t work!!! I tried to used hot water to accelerate the dissolving process. It still won’t dissolve on its own without me stirring vigorously with my finger.

I shared my frustration with a friend and she asked me why don’t I just eat it and make it a performance piece since it is edible. That inspired my second idea.

I wanted to make a dictionary of racial slurs and print all of them on the wafer paper and present it like an unhealthy junk food/snack with some humorous nutrition facts printed on the back of it. Since it is made of potato starch. It is vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free. It dissolves in water, so you can flush it down the toilet…