To take my video to the next step, i grasped the idea of really shoving the video into people's faces. For the 1.0 version of Put Something Here, I had posted the video online to Youtube, but did not receive as many views as I had hoped for. To really try and get a response from people, I spammed the computers in a Rutgers computer lab by logging into every computer available and played the video on loop for everyone to see. To get the proper responses out of people, i stayed in the computer lab and claimed ownership of the video.
Students asked me what it was about and I asked them to interpret on their own. The opinions were widespread, but most visitors understood the piece to be about personal id
entity. Many students had questions about the challenges of being a Muslim in America, and I explained my view point and experiences.
I feel that this method of presentation was most effective, only because of my ability to have 1 on 1 conversations with those who were interested in learning about the differences between being an Muslim in America, and being a member of any other faith. Some questions that were brought up were very serious in nature. One example that stood out came from a Jewish student who spent time studying in Israel. He was very kind and shy about asking wether or not all Muslims hate his country, but as the conversation grew more intimate, I was able to dispel the fallacies that surround the issue as being as a religious conflict rather than the political conflict that it is.
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