By using Blender-3D modeling software, I visualize my cultures and expand my experiences as an immigrant in the United States. I am interested in myself as a subject matter in exploring and telling stories to the outside world. By including the objects attached to memories, events, or the loss of connection, I sculpt the figure with all the elements building from the perspective of virtual reality in reaching our physical world.

"In each of ME steps” functions as a loop with the chaotic effects from the animation to present my journey in exploring all the potentials and possibilities as a human. I immigrated to the United States five years ago and experienced a complete cultural shock; the idea of assimilating and achieving the American dream was somehow the goal being ingrained in my family. In the journey of escaping, untangling the confusion, and finding justice for myself, I pull and grasp the cultural values and items left off in my memories and social practices to survive. I find the objects hold specific meaning and value in my living experience. The typewriter with the polaroid attached are the items I’ve never owned, only present in my memories about one of the most beautiful experiences of adolescence. The glass bottle with the small piece of rolled paper with all of the notes from my best friends is counting down for us to reunite with the 10-year promises. Later, the moving boxes and the dictionary witnessed my growth, pain, and happiness. 

In replicating multiple textures and materials, I approach the sense of sympathy and perceive the complex layers of my culture and experiences. Growing up in Vietnam for most of my life and transitioning to becoming a permanent resident of the United States, the world of cultural wealth, I look forward to diving into the transformation and how cultures are intertwined. I constantly raise questions in “In each of ME steps” to hint at the difference between familiar culture and absorption of a new culture. The figure surrounded by multiple objects across the sense of time joins in the same space on the same figure to shape the body of an entity. 

 The animated video is a series following the previous work, “Me Tower,” to expand the story and the changes in my mindset and perception of the surroundings. I am moving forward and opening many different ideas through experiences, not to exchange heritage and origin. The environment of the whole animation is a green-blue hue, creating strangeness but reflective with water textures to act as the self-recognition to be aware and reflect. I select and evaluate to absorb the valuable aspects to enrich and strengthen my culture and identity to fight against assimilation and normativity.