Participatory - Tumblr Posts

The second piece in a new photo series I’m doing on group identity.  More info at the project site.

The third piece and first male participant in a new photo series I’m doing on group identity.  More info at the project site.

The fourth piece in a new photo series I’m doing on group identity.  More info at the project site.

The fifth piece in a new photo series I’m doing on group identity. 

More info at the project site.

The sixth piece in a new photo series I’m doing on group identity. 

More info at the project site.

The seventh piece in a new photo series I’m doing on group identity. I decided to only include each person's name and chosen identities to keep each piece more simple. But, to give some more information, so far two of the portraits were taken in Chicago and the rest in Japan. Of the participants, one was Canadian, today's is Jamaican, and the rest have been American.  In two weeks I'm setting up at an international festival in the city of Minamata and am excited to have the opportunity to photograph visitors from places like Slovenia and Mexico in addition to local Japanese people.

More info at the project site.

The eighth piece in a photo series I’m doing on group identity. On Saturday I set up at the Minamata Cultural Exchange Festival. Prepping for it is getting more and more hectic, but it's exciting at the same time.  More info on the series at the project site.

The ninth piece (and second Brit) in a photo series I’m doing on group identity. Last Saturday I exhibited the project and photographed attendees of the Minamata Cultural Exchange Festival. Photos of that soon. More info on the series at the project site.

These are the Japanese versions of the photos I showed at a cultural exchange festival in Minamata, Japan last weekend. I worked with scans from the negative of each image, rather than the print, so I'm excited at how much higher quality these images are than the previous ones I'd made.  So far I've managed to photograph Americans, a Canadian, A Jamaican, a few Japanese people, two Brits, and recently a Mexican. Translations of the Japanese are in the captions. More info here.

The tenth piece in a photo series I’m doing on group identity. I found out today that I didn't get into the group show in my hometown I submitted a few of these photos for. They said around a hundred people applied, and they narrowed it down to twenty. That's $30 down the drain, but I guess I'll look for the next opportunity. More info on the series at the project site.

With the big launch of the Omoidemari project behind me, I feel I don't have any other big project ideas in me at the moment. I take inspiration for complex projects like that from places I live in, and with the end of my time in Japan on the horizon, the timing isn't right for another place-based project.  At the same time, I feel like I'm full of a lot of little undeveloped ideas and small projects. Rather than try to work out another big one, I think it'd be fun to experiment with smaller ideas for a while. One of those has become the images above. There are an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 kanji used in written Japanese, but the number of kanji learned in school is only 2,136, leaving thousands of kanji that are learned in college, independently, or rarely learned by anyone. The idea of so many rare and unknown kanji is really exciting to me, so I wanted to find a way to work with them. I've come up with A6-sized images of rare kanji. On a typical kanji test or worksheet, a blank box is accompanied by the reading of a kanji along with a sentence with a blank where the kanji would be . A student then uses the reading and the context of the sentence to fill in the box. In this case, I've provided the reading and filled in the kanji, but left a blank below it. I'm asking those that receive the pieces to fill in their sheets with a desired definition for the character. It can be a feeling, a concept, even an experience -- anything they'd want to create a symbol for. The meanings of these kanji are unknown by most people, so they'll have to work from scratch.  I'm calling the project 自字 or Jiji, a made up word combining the characters for self and letter. I'm excited to test it out this weekend and see what people write!

I gave this to my friend Hana and asked her to give the kanji a meaning. As one of the estimated 3-7,000 rare kanji, we didn't know what the real meaning was anyway. Without hesitation she began to write.  "To be used when someone naively enters into a place they're ill-equipped for, and they need to be firm and move forwards." It turns out in reality, it's an alternate way to write 飛 (to fly). I feel like, in a way, her definition fits that. More info on this project, Jiji.

The 11th piece in my photo series on group identity.  Throughout this project, I've rarely asked participants how they decide on their words. I've often been surprised by what people choose and leave out, so I wonder about their thought processes. So, as this is my own response, I thought I'd explain my words. Batavian: Really I'm surprised that no one has chosen their hometown and very rarely do people put down a regional or national identity. I feel such a connection to the places and people of my hometown. My childhood and adolescence took place there. My parents and oldest friends are from there; it's my home base. Midwesterner: My family history is tied up in the Midwest, and it's the part of the country I know best. I think exploring the area in college helped cement this identity for me. I wonder if I live outside of the Midwest, if this part of my identity will become less prominent, but for now I feel like it's the part of American I know and have connections to. Greek-American: For me this is less about countries than my family. I've never been to Greece, but Greek foods and traditions make me feel connected to my family and family history. I like that when I'm making koulouria for Easter, I know that my great-grandparents did the same thing. I also wanted to use this word to include America, as I do feel connected to the States, especially as someone living outside of them. Quaker: Though I only became Quaker in college, it's changed the way I live and think about my life. A lifestyle-centered faith, through it I've become more passionate about environmentalism, social justice, and moral issues like compassion and honesty. When I meet a new Quaker, I feel a deep connection with them right away because I know that we hold some of the same deep values and beliefs. More broadly as a Christian, I feel connected to my current family and pacifist ancestors. Artist: A community I feel totally at home in and am always excited to be a part of. Living outside of an artistic community has been one of the hardest parts of being in rural Japan for me. Japanese speaker: Two years ago I wouldn't have put this, but living in Japan, it's definitely on my mind. Through the Japanese language, I feel closer to Japanese people. To an extent, I can enter their world and experience it as they do. That broadened perspective is something I love. Environmentalist: Becoming interested in green living and exploring Quakerism were both experiences that began my junior year of college and have thus always been closely tied together for me. It feels at times that environmentalism effects more of my daily decisions that anything else. I'm shy about discussing it with others because I think the subject can seem judgmental or make people feel guilty, but I feel so happy when I can share opinions with other environmentally-concerned people. For more photos and information, check out the project site here.

The twelfth piece in my photo series on group identity. This one comes from the Minamata Cultural Exchange Festival where I photographed attendees. Noriko was especially friendly and enthusiastic about taking part. More info on the series at the project site.

This project has taught me new things as an artist seeking participation from others. I learned how to explain myself and what I'm looking for clearly and concisely, so that I get the right kind of responses. I'd had a similar project before, "I Identify As", which was getting me a lot of goofy self-descriptions instead of honest responses about identity. Only after changing "as" to "with" and cleaning up my explanation, did people's answers really shift. Second, I've learned to be more flexible. At first I had an idea of the kinds of responses I was looking for: short, serious, group-oriented, but I've come to embrace the diversity of responses, like this very long one. I wanted this project to give people freedom to express their group identities, and I learned that, after clearly explaining my intentions, I should commit to that freedom 100%. This is the fourteenth photo in I Identify With. More info and photos at the project site.

The sixteenth piece in my photo series on group identity. I took this one of my brother at Mogushi Beach near my town in Japan. 

More info on the series at the project site.