Radio Chthulucene 87.9 FM

There were many fears running through my mind after last week’s lecture. After reading about Asco and learning about the work they created, I knew that I wanted to use this project to convey the experiences of being Korean-American. Having this goal, however, led me to experience a lot of self-doubt that I was qualified or able to speak on the experiences of the Korean-American community in a well-articulated manner. How do I engage with the class themes when internally, I still feel very confused about my personal connection to my culture, and how that connection has impacted my life? How do I create something that is innovative and meaningful to others when I cannot seem to figure out any clear message that I want to convey? With these questions in mind, I have not even come close to narrowing down the location that I want my radio to be placed in. 

Reading Glissant’s “Thinking of The Opacity of The World” eased a lot of the self-doubt I was experiencing. Rather than thinking about how I can create something that is meaningful to others, I shifted my focus to how I can create something that is meaningful to myself. According to Glissant, “…you have the right to be obscure, first to yourself.” At first, this project made me feel pressured to “figure out” my identity and be able to articulate my experiences with clear insight. However, as Glissant says, “There is no landscape that is not obscure, underneath its pleasing transparencies, if you speak to it endlessly.” I am still unsure exactly what I want my final project to be but I am relieving myself of the pressure to have my identity “figured out”. Creating my final project can be part of the lifelong process of better understanding my connection to my culture and my lived experiences.