Daily Landscape in the Making (DLiM)
Conducted simultaneously in Korea and Taiwan from November 2017 until October 2018, Project DLiM [Daily Landscape in the Making] was designed to address the current phenomenon of rapid ethinic diversification in Asia. Grounded in art and culture sectors, the project members in Korea and Taiwan attempted to address this issue by creating a new platform for the ‘natives’ and the ‘newcomers’, ‘multicultural families’, and ‘mothers’ and ‘children’ from different cultural and environmental backgrounds in order to strengthen relationships with one another through the language of art.
As the project invited migrant women and their children to come together and become actors through visual expressions, the participants gained various techniques, overcame language and cultural barriers, spoke out about their side of the stories, and formed a new exemplar community for societies that will continue to diversify.
This project was largely composed of two sections: artistic workshops and participants’ making of documentary film. They were designed to exist independently yet complement each other. Each workshop was led and assisted by art practitioners of various genres.
Series of artistic workshops took place every other month. It focused on stimulating participants’ creativity, drawing out their creative potentials and making them comfortable to express themselves in visual language. The variety of workshops were designed by individual art practitioners with their specialties, ranging from art therapy to painting book art, and shadow play.
Filmmaking was a crucial part of this project. Film workshops were assisted throughout the whole year until the videos are screened. It aimed for participants to speak out about themselves with their own visual language. Film mentors and other project members met up with the participants regularly and led the participants to appreciate aspects of documentary films, to learn to use camera, to find own narrative direction, and to produce a video.
Final screening took place on October 6 th in both Korea and Taiwan in the form of real-time face chat. All the participants who stayed in the project until the end had the opportunity to present their videos not only to the invited family members and guests
but also to other members in the other countries. It was meaningful to have a real-time face chat meeting, for it brought all those present at the event together, overcoming the physical distance.
The significance of relationship building for all participants became clear as the project unfolded. By gathering once a week, the women and their children were able to interact with each other, other participants, and local volunteers all while acquiring different languages, skills, and tools in order to share stories and transform their position in society by forming a new sort of community. The local mentors also learnt about the newcomer participants in greater detail as everyone discovered oneself through the arts and evaluated their relationships with their children. In addition, the children had a safe space to express their vivacity. This process of evolving relationships contributed to unique experiences many other programs for immigrants or art workshops cannot match.
Although there was an overall plan and agreement on the format, the project had been process-oriented and allowed to evolve organically until the end. The project was composed as a series of meaningful experiments and experiences while attempting to be free from the constraints of orthodoxy. The participants were exposed to very particular artistic experiences, often challenging ones. Only with courage and open-mindedness could they stay and walk through this whole journey. The art mentors and film mentors devoted their time and selves to the project and brought in vibrant ideas to share with all. This was only possible with passionate and adventurous mindset. In addition, without all the help we have received throughout the year, this projects would not have been where it is now. Lastly, we also need to recognize the in-house mentors for working on such a project that was often in flux in content and scheduling. It was great patience and flexibility that enabled the completion of this journey.
In this platform we met, we grew, and we embraced. The project has now come to an end, but despite this, our daily landscapes will still continually be in the making with all the knowledge we have acquired throughout the year. Let us look forward to the future and see how our landscapes unfurl.
* Project DLiM received the Toyota Foundation International Grant 2017.