Thesis Proposal
Monika Lin
IMA Low Res Thesis topic: US Census and Race
Thesis Question:
How is (racial) identity both shaped and perceived by the categorizations, hierarchies, and absences included/not included on the US census? What motivations are inherent in these institutionalized choices and by whom (who are the stakeholders)? How does this particular form relate to notions of belonging? How does racism/bias and the US census reinforce one-another?
Art Works:
My project has two components:
- I intend to make my own form which leaves room for self-categorization beyond the spectrum of race/ethnicity/culture, entering into imaginative ways of self-identification (i.e. Peurto Rican + Iranian = Peurtoranian or LatinX + Asian = Latasian”). Possible other imaginative self-identification might enter into the speculative or psychologically descriptive. Some of my current research includes interviews with friends and colleagues to discuss their feelings regarding race and identity in order to think this through. This form will be accessible on line and serve as a sort of archive. Time permitting, included in this website will be an archive of responses to a question about the most memorable time someone attached/imposed a category on them.
- I also would like to investigate how objects can convey historical and personal contexts in it of themselves and enter into dialogue with other “objects”.* To this end, I would like to make a series of artworks based on the following question: What “object” do you associate with the first time you were made aware of racial/ethnical/cultural difference and why? I am asking individuals to donate an object to me for this purpose. I am unsure how this will manifest itself, but I envision it as an installation with a workshop component.
*I use “object” in an expansive sense which can include a piece of music, a moving image, as well as the more conventional associations.
These pieces invite individuals to enter into this discussion and express themselves (both with humor and reflection).
Relevance:
I was confronted by these questions (although not articulated in this way) throughout my life, and witnessed the growing inclusion of diverse ethnic and race categories as well as shifting focal points (such as terminology/taxonomy, formatting hierarchy of questions, redefining categories, isolating particular ethnicities, etc.) Although this research will touch on the major developments of the US census form (as pertains to question #4 on the document) from its inception, my focal point is between 1960 and the current day. This coincides with the time frame in which my family and I have been in the US (and ostensibly included in the census).
Examples:
1970:
- COLOR OR RACE
Fill one circle.
If “Indian (American),” also give tribe.
If “Other,” also give race.
White
Negro or Black
Indian (Amer.) Print tribe ____
Japanese
Chinese
Filipino
Hawaiian
Korean
Other – Print race __________
[On the questionnaires used in Alaska, the categories “Aleut” and “Eskimo” were substituted for “Hawaiian” and “Korean” in question 4.]
1980:
- is This Person –
Fill one circle.
O White
O Black or Negro
O Japanese
O Chinese
O Filipino
O Korean
O Vietnamese
O Indian (Amer.)
O Asian Indian
O Hawaiian
O Guamanian
O Samoan
O Eskimo
O Aleut
O Other – Specify __________
Print tribe _______________
“Fill the circle for the category with which the person most closely identifies. If you fill the Indian (American) or Other circle, be sure to print the name of the specific Indian tribe or specific group.”
1990:
- Race
Fill ONE circle for the race that the person considers himself/herself to be.
If Indian (Amer.), print the name of the enrolled or principal tribe.
If Other Asian or Pacific Islander (API), print one group, for example:
Hmong, Fijian, Laotian, Thai, Tongan, Pakistani, Cambodian, and so on.
If Other race, print race.
O White
O Black or Negro
O Indian (Amer.) (Print the name of the enrolled or principal tribe.)
____________________
O Eskimo
O Aleut
Asian or Pacific Islander (API)
O Chinese
O Filipino
O Hawaiian
O Korean
O Vietnamese
O Japanese
O Asian Indian
O Samoan
O Guamanian
O Other API
____________________
O Other race (Print race)
“Fill ONE circle for the race each person considers himself/herself to be. If you fill the Indian (Amer.) circle, print the name of the tribe or tribes in which the person is enrolled. If the person is not enrolled in a tribe, print the name of the principal tribe(s). If you fill the Other API circle [under Asian or Pacific Islander (API)], only print the name of the group to which the person belongs. For example, the Other API category includes persons who identify as Burmese, Fijian, Hmong, Indonesian, Laotian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Tongan, Thai, Cambodian, Sri Lankan, and so on. If you fill the Other racecircle, be sure to print the name of the race. If the person considers himself/herself to be White, Black or Negro, Eskimo or Aleut, fill one circle only. Please do not print the race in the boxes. The Black or Negro category also includes persons who identify as African-American, Afro-American, Haitian, Jamaican, West Indian, Nigerian, and so on. Allpersons, regardless of citizenship status, should answer this question.”
Goals:
Categorization of race/ethnicity/gender/etc. raise questions of stereotype, representation, self-representation/agency, and cultural construction of “normativity” (among other issues) as well as highlight the limitations inherent in such practices. Implications of belonging/not belonging have perpetuated power dynamics and fueled violently-expressed binary positions.
Individuals of mixed -race, -ethnicity, -acculturation are confronted with layers of additional complexity. Unable to identify entirely with just one cultural/ethnic/race group forces us into a liminal state of never-belonging which simultaneously presents positions of extreme ostracization (even within family groups and native communities) and offers spaces of fluid identity shifting and reinvention.
I’d like to find answers to these questions through collaboration and dialogue: Is it possible to bring these notions of fluidity and reinvention into a census? To embrace an ever-changing state of being in order to subvert institutionalized categorizations? What would such a platform look like? I intend the website and object project to be such spaces/activities.
Influences/Inspirations:
Projects
Fred Wilson: Mining the Museum
https://www.artsjournal.com/artopia/2004/05/fred_wilsons_quest.html
Coco Fusco and Guillermo Gomez-Pena, The Couple in the Cage: Two Undiscovered Amerindians Visit the West, 1992-94
Kara Walker.
https://brooklynrail.org/2017/10/artseen/Kara-Walker-and-the-New-History-Painting
https://hyperallergic.com/125592/what-does-kara-walkers-sugary-sphinx-tell-us/
Trevor Paglen and Kate Crawford, ImageNet Roulette
Oral history projects such as:
https://www.loc.gov/folklife/civilrights/survey/view_collection.php?coll_id=1165
Publications
Bhabha, Homi. The Location of Culture, “DissemiNation”, 1994. pp139-170
This particular chapter addresses issues of Nationalism – which is one substantial effect of these racial/ethical/cultural divisions
Bell, Derrick A. Who’s Afraid of Critical Race Theory?, 1995
Fusco, Coco. “Fantasies of Oppositionality,” Art, Activism, and Oppositionality- Essays from Afterimage, 1998. pp 60-75
Gough, Julie. Transforming Histories: The Visual Disclosure of Contentious Pasts
hooks, bell. Black Looks: Race and Representation, “Oppositional Gaze”, 1992, pp115-31
A thoughtful and emotional first-person account, layered with history, that presents ideas about “the power of the gaze” as a rebellious strategy.
Spivak, Gayatri. “Can the Subaltern Speak?”
This seminal piece offers critical thinking on issues of race, labor, global capital and the challenges/obstruction of agency and “voice” – ultimately placing into question access and inequality as an ongoing effect of colonialism.
PBS.org. “The Power of an Illusion” Various articles: https://www.pbs.org/race/000_About/002_04-background-01.htm
These texts have to do with discussions revolving around scientific discourses on/about race
Persons
bell hooks.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/books/bell-hooks-min-jin-lee-aint-i-a-woman.html
Realizing the Project:
- I will need to conduct interviews; reach out to various publics (peers, colleagues, friends, family; make the form; build/test run a website (which requires me to learn more coding – I am very much a beginner); collect objects and stories; ideate, conceptualize, and experiment with various forms for the installation. I will use the NYUSH student/faculty gallery for the installation.
Tags:
Identity
Conversation
Archive
Material Meaning
Installation
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