Have a closer look at US & THEM
On how anti-Asian hate came to be, by Alice Wong
‘US & THEM’ is a story of Asian stereotypes as perceived in America. Story Designer Alice Wong and artist Aryan Javaherian worked together on this installation, as seen at Area 51 during the Dutch Design Week 2019 and presented at our Designalism: Design + Journalism Event.
Alice is a Specialist Tutor at the Design Academy Eindhoven in the department of MA Information Design. Her focus is on designing multi-perspective narratives to make complexe story’s comprehensible. The origin of the installation is rooted in understanding how our perception of reality is shaped.
Alice Wong about the installation: “Along the way, the Western mainstream idea of ‘the Asian’ gets deconstructed – revealing the image of ‘them’ only exists in our imagination. The video is projected on gauze, making the images look like they’re barely real.”
Unfortunately, the question remains relevant. The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at the California State University published an analysis which stated that Anti-Asian hate crimes in the US increased by nearly 150%.
The first edition of the installation was called 'The Imagination of Human', and was made in collaboration with Kobi Vogman at 'The East', curated by Tal Erez and Anat Safran at Hansen House during Jerusalem Design Week 2019. The sound design is by Yuval Reuven, Photo by Francois Quillacq & Kamil Parzychowski.
On June 9 2021, ACED organised Designalism: Design + Journalism, a live talk show about the intersection of design and journalism. Watch the full show on our YouTube channel. This evening was in collaboration with Beeld en Geluid Den Haag.
