Updated proposal // Current process

Proposal

January 2012

I spent the first semester gathering and experimenting with information, thoughts, ideas, trying to find the one topic within my projects overarching theme that I want to focus on. Throughout my work in high school I focused on implementing programs that were designed to encourage acceptance of others by moving beyond differences.  Now I've been considering why this even necessary in the first place. What caused a societal "norm" that people are expected to adhere to and why is it still plaguing America? How did the societal "norms" transfer into stereotypes that have been used to degrade persons with specific affiliations. I want to start this semester by questioning these trends.

I've been exploring the relation between words, as well as their relationship to flesh. How does labeling flesh affect the way we see it, despite never really knowing the person within? I've been experimenting with the way vellum and transparencies affect the work I create, visually as well as intellectually. 

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Current process

I've been considering stereotypes, where they stem from and the methods in which they grow and become ingrained in society. I think a large contributor to that is our language, specifically hate speech. I'm looking for a group of 4 dictionaries to explore the visual weight of derogatory or hateful words in our language - one I will black out every definition that falls under derogatory or hateful, the next I will cut the blocks out. With the other two dictionaries I will follow the same process but with words for acceptance and love. I'm looking to display these in a way that the weight of these words in our language becomes apparent and a comparison can be made.

I've repeatedly seen the statistic of 1 in 10 persons do not identify as heterosexual. Therefore logically speaking, everyone would know someone who is queer, or even in their family. I've been thinking of ways to bring about this realization as a way to create cognitive dissonance and push a reconsideration of beliefs. I have a concept involving mirrors that I will explain further in class.