one nation, under god — audio project proposal
I’ve been mulling over this audio essay for awhile and I think I may have found a decent idea to go on. As you all know, we are nearing the end of the election season. Those of you who are old enough to vote – unlike me, I don’t turn 18 until late December – will hopefully exercise your right to vote on Election Day. The politically charged atmosphere that surrounds us right now is fascinating, and I want to take advantage of that. So I want to ask people one thing, and that is: What does it mean to be an American? As the first-generation daughter of two violently nationalistic immigrants, cultural identity has always been a point of interest for me. This project is the perfect opportunity for me to gauge other people’s understanding of American culture and principles.
I have an unfortunate tendency towards introversion, so I fear this project may be difficult for me to pull off. I know I definitely want to survey a few college students — so I’ll likely pester people in between classes. It’d probably be best if I spoke to people of all age groups, though. Union Square attracts a rather diverse group of people, so I was thinking about sitting on the steps with a sign around my neck that reads “WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE AN AMERICAN? (answer and help a college student pass her English class)”. I’ll record people’s answers from my phone, and then I’ll transfer everything to my Macbook and mess around with it all on Garageband.
Hopefully it goes well?
3 responses so far
I love it! The sign especially. I see where you’re coming from in being a “first-generation daughter of two violently nationalistic immigrants”, because I am one of those as well. The concept of being an American to me is different from my all-American friend whose family has lived in America since before the Civil War. I think this varies from person to person, culture to culture, and will generate an incredible array of responses. Like the question I’m asking, have you wondered if you will have a difficult time finding a common thread between all the responses? I was expecting a lot of people to respond a certain way to my question and instead I’ve compiled approximately 15 silly responses and maybe 2 serious ones. In short, expect the unexpected and have fun interviewing all those characters in Union Square! I’m excited to hear your final essay.
That’s a good open ended question, and I think it would work well for the project. I also don’t turn 18 until December, but I’m not sure how I would answer the question, so it might take a few moments for people to think of their responses. It will be interesting to see all the kinds of responses, which is definitely based on many factors. Maybe include an I don’t know answer for humor, if anyone actually does go with that. The simple and more in depth responses will contrast with each other, to show that the answer is more than you think.
I like this idea for this project. Your plan is well thought out and the question makes one hesitate and think before giving an answer. My only concern for this is whether you will be able to pull out a focus from the questions. If this were a video project, I’d say to include clips of American landmarks and cultural items and flags, etc, and just gear the images towards what is being said. The focus, however, could be simply the diversity of Americans’ perception of what being American means, and that could be a good focus in itself. Good luck!