imperfecta.

This art installation by Daria Loi invites viewers to experience the four stages affecting those that migrate to a new home: excitement, irritation, adjustment, and adaptation.

Anthropologist Kalervo Oberg's four stages of cultural shock have been reinterpreted spatially and materially, to enable a personal journey into what the artist, who migrated to the US two decades ago, has experienced — to ultimately engage viewers in reflections on what immigration and home mean. By leveraging light, color, texture, proportion, and sound the artist created a space where to physically and emotionally experience feelings of joy, fear, stability, growth, reflection and serenity.

Artist Notes about the installation
 

In the late 1990s I packed my life and left my country in search of a better future. I remember the excitement and great sense of wonder I brought with me from home to the airplane and in the new life that was waiting for me – new culture, new language, new world. Everything ahead seemed brighter and all that was left behind felt dull. The multicultural, urban dimension of my new home inebriated me and a never experienced sense of freedom and opportunity filled my new everyday life. It was wonderful. Until it wasn’t.

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After a few months the language barrier hit me mercilessly, as did the realization that I was alone in an unknown place – no family, no friends, no familiar smells or sounds. Everything that intrigued me upon my arrival became a struggle – I felt fatigued, depressed and confused. Above it all, I felt immensely alone. Without a home or a compass. Where did the me-that-once-was go? Who is this new me? I wondered. Eventually, I formed a new (dual) identity. Eventually I belonged.

In the mid-2000s, I relocated to Portland Oregon. New job, new opportunities. After almost 10 years in Australia, the language barrier was no longer an issue. It’ll be easier, I thought. After a brief honeymoon, the new cultural context hit me unexpectedly and brutally. While in Australia my Italianness went mostly unnoticed, in Portland it seemed to be at odds with everything and everyone. It was brutal, exhausting, irritating and hurtful. I felt constantly rejected and incapable of meaningfully connecting with fellow humans. A few years later, I found a balance between my old and new home – I found a way to be myself, elsewhere.

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Anthropologist Kalervo Oberg theorized the idea of cultural shock in 1954, identifying 4 stages to describe the feeling that affects people that are immersed in a culture that is different or new:

excitement, irritation, adjustment, and adaptation.

First comes the honeymoon: intrigued by cultural differences and similarities, you’ll feel that everything can be conquered and possible. Yet the honeymoon eventually wears off and negative views of the cultural differences emerge – that’s when helplessness, frustration and homesickness will fill your days. Over time, however, you’ll gradually adjust – things will feel easier to comprehend and you’ll begin to see multiple perspectives, questioning your own assumptions. Finally, the host culture will no longer be new and you’ll begin to feel at home – you may prefer certain traits of the new culture over your home culture or even begin to adopt cultural behaviors.

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Despite being a US citizen and having lived here for ⅓ of my life, the concept of “home” remains a complicated affair. My accent follows me everywhere, as do my memories of a life, a culture, a way of living that is far, increasingly nebulous yet painfully near and palpable.

If you are an immigrant, you know what I mean. If you are the descendant of one, trust that they too knew what I mean. Perhaps if we all reflected on that reality, we’d have more consideration, compassion and understanding of those that left their life behind to join this beautiful experiment called the United States of America.

After all, unless your ancestors are indigenous to this country, You Are One (immigrant) Too.

About the artist

Daria Loi is a mixed-media artist and participatory designer with a track record in arts-based research and interactive art. Dr. Loi published 80+ articles, co-edited Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Participatory Design, holds 10+ patents and is columnist for ACM Interactions. She mentors artists and innovators and is on the Board of a number of non-profits. In 2018 she was recognized as one of Italy's 50 most inspiring women in tech & received Intel's Global Diversity & Inclusion Award.