SMALL WORLD

In an increasingly small world, the impacts of globalization are visible in almost every element of our cultures. The United States in particular is a nation whose influence is felt throughout the world… our culture is contagious. In traveling abroad last semester, I was astonished at how much of an impact our culture has had on other nations around the world. It was usually the little things that startled me: hearing an American pop song on a battery-powered radio in a rural village, or seeing advertisements for an American brand over a highway in Europe. In some ways, this global connectivity is awe-inspiring… Through the internet, telephone, and television, it’s getting to the point where we can communicate with almost any part of the world. However, the impacts of globalization are negative too.



Cultures are being homogenized, and usually, this homogenization is characterized by Western nations taking over important elements of other society’s music, religion, language, art, and education and replacing them with our own. Small World is a story about these negative impacts of globalization.
A old man (representing previous generations) gazes out over a modern city. The buildings are lit up by flames, which will come to represent our “contagious” culture, but in the distance, there is another city, unexplored and untouched by this man’s civilization. He blows smoke (the precursor to the flames) from the roof down the drainpipe, where it encircles a young man sleeping below. This young man has a dream of an unfamiliar and fascinating girl, and when he wakes she is standing before him. The young woman is startled and flees, but the young man, entranced by the idea of this foreign culture, follows her, stowing away on a ship. A rat, who was also encircled by the strange smoke, becomes his companion. The rat, which in the past has spread diseases, is the perfect symbol for contagious spread of civilizations, inspired by the transmission of plagues to the new world. During his search for this mysterious young woman, the young man is in awe of the new sights, knowledge, art, music, and people he encounters, but the rat, tagging along beside him, often ruins his idealistic view of the foreign city.

The rat, who spreads his own sort of plague, changes the tone of a foreign song, eats the words in a foreign book changing its meaning, and carries disease to this foreign culture. It serves as a symbol for the spread of Western culture.

In the end, when the young man finally finds the elusive woman, he convinces her to travel back to his home with him. But, the next day, when they arrive in his city, she is disheveled by the journey and the rat has marred her exotic appearance.

Her dress is ragged and her long hair has been gnawed away by the rat. The young man is disillusioned by the foreign woman being present in a familiar city and quickly falls out of love with this shadow of his ideal, and retreats to the building top where he and the old man gaze out on the foreign town, which has now been invaded by his culture.

I enjoyed playing with color in this piece. Usually, i go a little crazy with lots and lots of colors but it was nice to limit myself to black and white, only using red representing the main character and his civilization and yellow to represent the foreign city and the young woman.

Cultures and traditions are diluted by globalization, and i think that most things don't stand up to the process of translation. Much is lost in the conversion between cultures... but also, it's alarming to think that elements of our own culture are supplanting the rich traditions of other cultures as well.