Bilingual Daydreamers :
The Encyclopedia of
Bilingual Personalities
181 Pages, 12x17 in
THESIS
This is a research and photographic overview of bilingualism.
This research focuses on first-generation immigrants [FGI] and first-generation children.
The project aims to inform monolinguals about how bilingualism shapes lived experience and to encourage readers to learn or maintain a language.
DELIVERABLE
Research , Photography Book
Exposed stitch spine, handbound.
Printed from home.
Collections of written questionnaires from participants locally in New York and globally through digital submissions.
3x Viewmaster reels
This is a research and photographic overview of bilingualism.
This research focuses on first-generation immigrants [FGI] and first-generation children.
The project aims to inform monolinguals about how bilingualism shapes lived experience and to encourage readers to learn or maintain a language.
DELIVERABLE
181 Pages, 12x17 in
Research , Photography Book
Exposed stitch spine, handbound.
Printed from home.
Collections of written questionnaires from participants locally in New York and globally through digital submissions.
3x Viewmaster reels
BILINGUAL QUESTIONNAIRE
40 responses were collected in 2 months by bilingual individuals ages 20-70.
Some were local responses, others were digital submissions, parents and children, friends, or a table neighbor at a restaurant. Some forms were designed to emulate government documents, and responders had a choice to choose between govt format or the framed experience.
+ How does “I Love You” differ in your Native Language vs. English?
+ Please write down a traditional saying, proverb, or phrase in your native language that is profound to you: is there a direct translation for it?
+ Please illustrate something you daydream about:
DISTRIBUTABLE COPIES
Available at Printed Matter.
$35
BABY BELUGA AND THE CROW
A portrait series inspired by the first songs I memorized by heart in both English and Japanese in the public elementary schools of each country. There is something special about memorizing lyrics to a song. The portraits are visual interpretations of my Japanese/English identity through the narrated subjects in the songs and in the colors of the traditional kimono.
CONCEPT
The Red Kimono and striped blue Obi represents my American Identity.
I was 5 when my formal introduction to English began. The first song I memorized the lyrcis to was Baby Beluga, a song defining my Pre-school year.
The portrait in a Black kimono represents a Crow. When I would visit my mother’s hometown in Japan, she would enroll my brother and I to her elementary school where she herself attended. A couple of summers spent in a far different educational system to the US left an impact on my life. A first hand view into how pedagogy and routine is embedded in culture and values. It was a highlight of my childhood. After the 2011 Earthquake, I returned to Japan as a 3rd grader. The class song, Nanatsu no Ko 七つの子, we rehearsed every morning was about a mother crow who cried for her cute offspring.
ROLE
Art Direction
Thank You to Keongbok Lee for photographing,
Thank You to Hotaru Ryuko for assisting.