Identity In Transit: The journey of an immigrant
What aspects of the Immigrant experience contribute to the fear of expressing oneself, leading to self-censorship?
IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE | NARRATIVE STORYTELLING | USER RESEARCH
An immersive experience capturing the multifaceted Immigrant experience, encapsulating the transient struggles and enduring triumphs.
Overview
Through intimate interviews with nine individuals, this immersive experience seeks to capture an Immigrant’s memories and journey to evoke empathy and simulate the feelings of being an outsider.
Research
I began my research by talking to as many Immigrants as I could, I had access to a large student cohort, however, I didn’t want to be limited by a privileged student population. So I ventured out and began by first trying to understand the legal system by talking to an Immigration lawyer and then a social worker.
I then began to look outside my immediate circle and look for individuals who I could interview, trying to understand the reasons for self censorship.
But how was I to create vulnerability through a screen with a complete stranger? With each interview I conducted I took then I took them through an exercise which began with pictures, then words, then general questions slowly moving into blanks of about 50 prompts of As an Immigrant I…..Thinking this was going to shape my form.
I interviewed people who were contractual workers who lived in constant uncertainty with their status, the boy who worked in the Deli below my house, nursing students and others.
What was interesting about each interview was that though people came from different parts of the world, had vastly different backgrounds and upbringings there were commonalities that cropped up not only with their trials but also their triumphs.
Each interview I conducted lasted an average of 1.5 hours.
Findings
There was an uncertainty of time, how long they would be here. There were complicated bureaucratic system that people didn’t understand. Communication was difficult because language was often a barrier. Ignorant or racist encounters. And they missed home and community.
All of which boiled down to them feeling like an outsider an OTHER
I knew I wanted to capture these sentiments and embed them in my experience but to truly create empathy and invest in an individual’s journey I knew I wanted each person to experience a single immigrant story.
The Experience
My final form was to create an immersive experience of the immigrant journey by capturing the concepts of language, time and community by creating a process that mimicked a bureaucratic system of waiting in line.
I wanted to incorporate sort of movement - So I created three kiosk stands where individuals were directed by arrows on the ground to move from one kiosk to the next .
Language
Step 1 :
Participants would be asked to grab an ID card of the immigrant whose story they were going to hear with the immigrants native language on one side and a translation on the back highlighting the difficulty in communication
Time
Step 2 :
Then they were asked to wait and stand behind a line - creating feelings of waiting and uncertainty of time.
What was most important to me was championing the stories and telling them as best as I could. So each interview of over one and half hours was edited down into three parts with the entire experience lasting on average 5 mins and 20 seconds.
Listen to the story
Step 3 : Scan barcode
On stepping up to the first kiosk stand and scanning the barcode, the participant could hear the first part of that particular immigrants journey and interview.
Then again at the second kiosk listening to the second part of the journey similarly to the third.
After repeating the monotonous action three times the user would finish hearing the journey of that immigrant.
Community
After listening to such heavy stories, remembering to create a collaborative social moment to provide a sense of community. using the AS AN IMMIGRANT I PROMPTS I created a posit wall.
I presented the piece at two different shows.
After the first show as some people resonated with the stories and asked me if they could contribute to the wall. So at the second show I iterated and allowed people to contribute to the wall as well.
Scroll down to see what people said!
