The construction of identity is based off of the inception of a human’s life. In the museum we saw videos ranging from children playing with toys all the way to military personnel just laughing on a ship. Identity is not something that you just flip a switch to create rather, it is “ to a great extent assigned, rather than selected or adopted.” (Howard, 367) Events in your life make sure to create and solidify your identity as a human. That tends to become the theme throughout life. As an individual you tend to adopt certain behavior seen around you or introduced into your life.
One of the three videos that stood out to me the most was the video of the soldiers in Navy Uniforms on a ship. Water constantly splashed the video distorting the image behind it. To me it brought up many different feelings. My best friend is currently in the army and for him it was not a choice rather a way to get out of his city and the environment he was born into. Watching the video and seeing only white faces and laughter on the ship, I questioned if they had a choice to go into the Navy and be on that ship or if they were trying to continue a family legacy of serving for the country. I found the video one of the ones that stuck out the most because the person behind the camera had to take precautions to now let the whole camera get engulfed in water as the waves crashed on the boat and people.
The next video that made me stop was “New York. Victor Ginsburg. USA. 1981.” New York has been home to many people for so long and since the inception of Ellis Island the images released always provide great detail of what the city means. In this video I kept seeing the Statue of Liberty and the skyline. Both of those are images that represent the city even though they are both seen from New Jersey or from a different location. The idea is that both are very prevalent to the meaning of freedom or of The United States. The images are so engraved in our brains that we tend to disregard them and brush them off. To people coming into the country or learning about major landmarks, the two images represent way more.
I truly believe that the audience of these videos was never meant to be the public eye. These were created to sit and watch in the living room with your entire family and reminisce. In a way the videos were taken to be seen however, maybe not on this level. “Miles et al (1998) focus on consumerism as a process through which young people attempt to fit in their peer groups, but also to maintain individuality, buying some goods in order to “stick out.” (Howard 374) This quote can also refer to each video because they were recorded to show that they were different and had a unique experience at a place maybe many people traveled to. Everyone wants to be so unique that in a way that idea fails since we can relate to a lot of what we see. Many of us ended up having a conversation when we saw the statue of liberty scene pop up on the screen. I remember commenting and saying “all I know is that I love Exchange Place because you can see everything.” It was interesting because with that once statement I feel as though I completely shed a different light on the skyline because to me it doesn’t mean the same thing to me as the person I was standing next to.
I came into this trip disliking modern art with a passion. I genuinely might just go back to the museum because I had a good time in NY.(even though I like Jersey better)
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