Thesis Project Description
This project represents my experience as an international student in Canada, regulated by the idea of the ‘ideal immigrant.’ Canada frames international students as “ideal immigrants” (Gomez, 2017, p. 10), an image I experienced self-denial and identity crises attempting to fit. The rotating hologram expresses four animated figures representing the Jungian concepts of persona, ego, shadow, and self. While separated as different panels, all four are united as a single hologram, representing my ultimate self-acceptance. The lack of sound signifies infinity and unpredictability, but all within a comfortable space. Throughout the chaos and struggles that characterized my journey towards acceptance, I learned to understand silence as an insight of one’s consciousness that allows the discovery of new sounds. It symbolizes a world of infinity and endless possibilities; as you think, your thoughts are free, can be felt undisturbed, and makes your ‘inner voice’ heard more clearly.
PERSONA
The first panel features the persona, "the psychic interface between the individual and society that makes up a person’s social identity" (Stein, 1998, p. 234). The figure walks at a controlled and steady pace, almost as if performative of Canada’s ‘ideal immigrant.’ The spotlighting effect signifies the influence on my identity by the outer, or social, world.
EGO
The second panel features the ego, "the center of consciousness, the “I” and "the portion of the psyche made up of easily accessed thoughts, memories, and feelings" from the outer world (Stein, 1998, p. 233). The ego is a link between consciousness and unconsciousness, a channel of body and soul. The figure walks hurriedly. It signifies living as an international student under given time and the crucial reality that I have to pick up the pace in order to keep up with being an ‘ideal immigrant.’
SHADOW
The third panel features the shadow, "the rejected and unaccepted aspects of the personality that are repressed and form a compensatory structure to the ego’s self ideals and to the persona" (Stein, 1998, p. 234). The figure’s steps are a bit randomized, signifying an unstable inner state that I suppress in order to maintain the image of an ‘ideal immigrant.’ Thus, there is no spotlight because this panel features the inner world.
SELF
The fourth panel features the self, "the center, source of all archetypal images and of innate psychic tendencies toward structure, order, and integration" (Stein, 1998, p. 234). The self is the true self, the inner unconscious (and thus spotlighting is not used for this panel either). The figure is standing still and calm, signifying my genuine form.