Through my initial experimentation with questionnaires and gaining a glimpse into people’s lives, I was able to identify a direction for my work. This direction developed further through my engagement with Matei Bejenaru’s work and his own exploration of illegal immigration and the position of the immigrant as a mere transported individual, without addressing the deeper intricacy of experiencing moving away from one’s own country for a better life.
What this engagement offered me was the opportunity to think about the intricacies and differences between immigration and being an immigrant. Immigration is a process, while being an immigrant is an identity that continues long after the process itself has ended.
Visually and conceptually, I struggled to bring together the ideas I was exploring. I found it challenging to connect my intention of engaging both an English and a Romanian audience, as each held very different perspectives on what it means to be a Romanian immigrant. Through discussions, I learned that many people actually perceive being a Romanian immigrant in ways that are closer to Western European experiences, in that form, many perceive that the Romanian immigrant has experienced a linear, direct experience.
While I acknowledge that as Europeans we benefit from certain privileges, such as the ability to come to this country legally, this does not erase the strong preconceptions that exist about Romanians. These stereotypes can significantly shape how we experience the world and particularly how the world sees us.
The most important result of this triangulation has been the realisation that I need to acknowledge the difference in audiences. I must decide whether I want my work to resonate with Romanians themselves or to explain the Romanian experience to outsiders. What I initially thought could be achieved within a single project may, in fact, need to be developed as two separate pieces of work.
Moving forward, I want to recognise that the stories I am gathering are not just quotations or data points. They represent my active listening, editing, and compiling of people’s lived experiences. As a designer and representative of this work, I carry the challenge and responsibility of creating a piece that engages audiences meaningfully and respectfully.
In the next stage, I aim to incorporate more of my own language and Romanian heritage into the project. I also plan to engage more directly with people through interviews. While the questionnaires were a valuable way to gather general insights, I now want to move toward more personal and in-depth forms of storytelling.
Ultimately, I see this project as an evolving conversation between identity, perception, and representation. It is not only about presenting Romanian voices but also about questioning how these voices are received, framed, and interpreted in different cultural contexts. By allowing the work to remain open and responsive, I hope to create space for dialogue rather than resolution, and to let the stories shape the form the project eventually takes.