Reflections
Reflections
Reflections
When you hear “American”, certain images likely come to mind: guns, fast-food, high school football, and more. Over the past century, American media—namely movies and TV—have shaped global perceptions of the US, creating a cultural portrayal that often reinforces limiting—and sometimes damaging—stereotypes.
This speculative design project aims to understand this impact and challenge the existing stereotypes surrounding America globally. By exploring and mapping the way these stereotypes manifested in pop culture, I was able to find patterns among movies/television and their characters, set designs, narratives, costumes, etc.
ESCAPING THE AMERICAN STEREOTYPE
Ultimately, I created an interactive improv card game using the traditional American film, Grease, as the basis. Players are given character cards and scene settings, but with certain aspects changed. Through this game, I aim to challenge stereotypes and promote meaningful discussion. By reimagining Grease, players are pushed to rethink the way they interact with its familiar narrative. Player's own biases and lived experiences may affect each round which in turn, reveals new perspectives/ideas.
Testing out the game on a small group of university peers, I was able to see one iteration of how it may play out. The more I
explored this topic, the more I became overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of it. It soon felt out of my reach—to big and ever-growing for me to tackle. I still believe this topic is very interesting and worth exploring further. In fact, I initially chose to look into it as it shares a personal connection to my own experience. I do concede, however, that this design project is limited in tackling such an extensive topic. To push this further, I hope to create iterations of the game or further explore other means of designing for the topic.
Design skills: Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Indesign, Adobe Photoshop
