Project Wall-to-Wall

Introduction: This November marked the 28th anniversary of Asian/Asian American History Month at Brown. I’ve attended the month’s events for four years now, and I continue to wonder why there are so many empty seats when nearly 13% of Brown’s student population self-identifies as Asian. Whatever their reasons for not participating, I am more compelled by the lingering questions: Who are these people who make up Brown’s Asian and Asian American population? What are they doing? What are they thinking? What are their hopes and dreams? What are their struggles and achievements? How do student groups working toward the greater goal of Asian/Asian American community enter a dialogue with those who are indifferent to or actively opt out of such a community?

December 23 Update: I began Wall-to-Wall focused on this idea of Asian/Asian American community. When I began sharing the project with others in early December, I saw the project’s potential to reach out universally and speak to an audience beyond Asian America. At its core, Wall-to-Wall is an inquiry into how we as human beings conceptualize identity and community. It seeks to create a collective understanding of ourselves while still recognizing individual voices. It is premised on the questions of “Who are we?” and “Where do we belong?” Although I would like to honor the context from which this project arose, I am also present to the fact that I will only disserve the project by trying to limit it to a particular community.

The Project: I want an easy way for people to reflect on these questions and for these reflections to be available in a public form.

Part 1: online collaborative document. Create a Facebook group and ask people to respond to topics and questions on the wall. After a certain cut-off date, publish people’s responses in a physical form.

Part 2: offline bathroom installment. Cover the doors of bathroom stalls and other public places with paper, and invite people to write on them.

Part 3: public exhibition. Hold an event to showcase the Facebook wall and bathroom graffiti. Cover the walls of the event space with people’s responses.

This collective art project is meant to inspire people to think about the above questions, rather than to provide any definitive answers.

Timeline: Spring 2009.

Participatation: There are lots of easy ways to participate! Here’s a few:

- contribute your ideas and suggestions to improve the project
- tell your friends about the project
- brainstorm topics and questions for parts 1 and 2 of the project
- document the project with your camera
- design materials for print and web
- hang posters and advertise for project
- coordinate logistics
- recruit others to help with the project
- anything else you can think of!

If you would like to help, send an email to walltowall.project@gmail.com.

You can also:

1. Join the facebook group.
2. Browse through past updates.
3. Subscribe to the blog.

Participants:
AASA
VISIONS