Assignment #3: Typologies of Walking and Not Walking

For this assignment, I decided to get active, political and relevant. I first created a slogan concerning a topic that is not just being dealt with in Arizona, but all over the country; that of immigration. I then took the slogan and translated it into Spanish, making it equally readable by my two target audiences. I took the slogans, printed them each on their owns sheet of paper and attached them to a folder that could be opened and held easily. I decided to incorporate a 2010 U.S. Census bag as a third object to help convey my message. By using the equality slogans with the Census bag, I took objects used by the "enemy" and turned the objects against them. Thus, parodying their message, demeaning it and questioning it.

With all objects in hand, I had to decide on a location for the performance. The location had to be relevant to the performance, as I wanted all pieces to be linked, making my message stronger. I chose to use my dad's insurance business as my location. You ask "Insurance business? What in the hell does that have to do with immigration?". Well, my dad for the past 15 years, as an individual and as a business owner, has been an integral part of the Latino immigrant community in Columbus, Ohio. He has always supported equal rights, and treats all as human beings, because we are all human beings. 60% of my dad's business cliental are latino, and many of them non-citizen aliens; the other 40% being lower income White citizens, who are often anti-immigration. Thus, I had my perfect audience, those in-support of, the Latino population and all employees of my dad's business, and those not-in-support of, the lower income White citizens.

So the stage was set. I had my objects. I had my location. I had my audience. I had my message. For an hour, I sat out front of my dad's business on a high walking and car traffic street, holding up my signs, silently, unless engaged (when you read the slogan below, this will make sense). My dad came out for a brief period to help document my actions, but had to return inside to get back to work. Though, I wish I could have had a video of the entire performance. Being that it was a high traffic area and I was sitting front of a business, there were plenty of people to make up my audience. I ended up conversating with many individuals, English speaking and Spanish, as Hablo Español un poquito, which came in handy. What I was most disappointed by was the fact that the people that engaged me were all in support of my message. Though, I was very happy that there are human beings out there who care to treat other human beings as human beings. Those who weren't in support, as I like to call the non-human beings, completely ignored me. Happily, my stereotype of lower income White citizens was not completey true, as I was approached by a few who were in support.

All in all, this was a very very successful project, as I was able to engage the public in a manner I never had before. I was happy there were supporters of my message and I hope they take it to heart and do not stay silent. I wish there was someone bold enough to have engaged me negatively, but it is what it is.

Below is my documentation of the project. First, my slogan. Second, a short video clip. And thirdly, pictoral documentation of my objects, my performance, and images dad's buisness's support of the Latino community.

"I am silent. And so are you. We cancel this silence and on that day we shall be perceived as equals. Estoy en silencio. Y tú también. Nosotros cancelamos este silencio y ese día vamos a ser percibidos como iguales."