This week our team came together creatively to collaborate and finalize our idea for our project. We solidified the idea of exploring home and belonging through questioning how these factors can be constructed and weaponized. For example, when does protection become an exclusion? Why does removal feel like tidying up? When a nation imagines itself as a home, the language of protection and belonging begins to shape who is welcomed inside, and who is asked to leave. Since we are sharing these ideas from two different countries, it opened up a conversation about the similarities between our countries and the struggles that people who are labeled "outsiders" face. Using these comparisons, we came up with ideas on what shots to get to elevate our main idea. Our group has a great variety of skills, so we are able to take on these topics and even explore media in other languages like Czech and Spanish.
We met outside of class on Sunday to talk about the types of media we would all be gathering. Between Chicago and Brno we discussed imagery that shifts from warmth and familiarity, boundaries and surveillance, to lastly exclusion. Images such a home to create that familiarity with shots of gates or fences, security cameras, and immigration papers. The goal of showing these entry systems, and national symbols from both cities, reveals the metaphor of “home” structures belonging across different political contexts. Now that we established our shots, we have a clear path in collecting our media for the next weeks.
This week, we met again on Thursday morning/at noon. Our discussion followed a structure similar to last week’s, mainly focusing on our experiences with traveling and how we think about the concept of belonging. We discussed where we are from, what memories do these places hold and how they compare to where we study. We touched on the idea that both Brno and Chicago are cities with strong identities. We all shared stories about the places where we felt like home even though it was only for a short period of time. Especially memorable was Stevie’s short stay in New Zealand, Auckland. Although we focused mainly on the good sides, both Stevie and Peter mentioned a few places that made them partially disappointed, mainly by not being able to connect with people. We all eventually agreed that the feeling of “belonging somewhere” is very closely tied to the people you talk with and the community you create or are part of and that it's important to have a home base to return to. Then we...
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