Visual Literacy 2023

Art Statement

What is the American Dream?

I had a question in my mind. While taking the “American Dreams American Lives” class, my interest in this topic was going deeper. I found out the American Dream was an abstract idea. A myth. It was an idea that evolved during 1930 and changed over time. 

Does American Dream still today?

It depends on whom you ask. The definition of the American Dream also varies by experience. For most people, American Dream is hard to achieve. The initial idea of the American Dream as “everyone can achieve” is collapsing. Because the gap between rich people and ordinary people is getting bigger. More than 95 percent of the population is consumer and labor. People have to work really hard to achieve the basic things. 

This was the initial idea of our movie, American Dream. 

We imagined a lead character in our movie as an immortal creature, like a mythical or mystical but human. It represents all people after the American Dream was born. The character narrates their story since the idea of the American Dream was popularized in America. 

We wanted to show how the American Dream is getting hard to achieve and how it overlooks the social issue. How it neglects the problem created by the system. Many people may have been able to drive a car, live in a big home, and have theater experience in their home but did all people have the same access? What about people from indigenous communities or people of color? Yes, there are many people from marginalized communities who achieved the higher class of society. But are their cultural knowledge valued? 

The film is just a glimpse of these questions made in an experimental way. 

Samundra and Cyprian.