Context, context, context

Of all the questions that we ask people, I’m beginning to find the last one the most interesting. We ask our questions about America—what to you think being an American is all about? of all the Americans you’ve met, is there one thing they all have in common? and, what do you think the American dream is?—but to conclude the interview, we ask everyone to tell us a little something about themselves. This part is my favorite. Our first questions are interesting in a different way. Asking someone to talk about an abstract idea—American identity, for example—draws people out of their skin in ways I simply find fascinating.

Asking questions concerning common ideas seems to do more than provide a space for personality exhibitions—though these are inevitable—it provides an opportunity for a person to talk about ideas that have impressed them, become impressed in them, about concepts that involve more than one person, more than just themselves. “American” is a term applied to more than one person.

But several people have answered: “Being an American is about being out for yourself;” a yogi we met on Bourbon Street believed the American dream was “ultimately just an excuse to live how you want to live at the expense of others.” We met a couple in Austin who thought that even though Americans are supposed to be free, they are still restricted in many ways. But the woman added that as a woman, she did appreciate the freedoms she was allowed in this country, comparing it to other countries in which women were forbidden many things women enjoy in this country—driving for example.

Stitching all of these positions together to form a complex definition of American identity would be a murky affair—and it is not what we purport to do. We are seeking, rather, to put together an exhibition, a show, a display of America in a variety of poses—through several lenses, ours, theirs, yours. Definitions are for people who believe in them. What has been put into the camera may become something very different when it projects onto the screen, when the images are woven together and seen in each other’s contexts.

It is important not to forget about context. When we approach these random people, and ask them questions that they are not necessarily prepared to answer, we receive answers that usually flow pretty quickly; they seem to come off of the tops of people’s heads. It is a lovely thing, to see the ways people describe the country they live in, or are visiting—the country they are in—whether or not they even identify with labels like American in the first place…

(Alex)