ABSTRACT
The work of Asian American media arts centers is often said to be historically significant because of its role in giving Asian Americans “a voice.” This narrative is particularly dominant in Arthur Dong’s Claiming a Voice: The Visual Communications Story (1990), a documentary that chronicles “the twenty-year history of the first arts group dedicated to productions by and about Asian Pacific Americans” (Dong n.d.). In interviews with the founding members of Visual Communications (VC), we learn about what was at stake in creating a center for producing and exhibiting Asian American independent media in the late 1960s and early 1970s. However, despite the documentary’s title, there is very little discussion in it actually focusing on the Asian American voice. Rather, the voice in the documentary’s title refers to self-representation in predominantly visual terms. This includes media images and narratives from film, video, photography, print-based media such as cartoons and comics, mass-distributed texts including novels, plays, newspapers, advertisement, and other forms—things to watch and read. Linda Mabalot, longtime executive director of VC, articulates its mission as being “a part of this whole movement of seeing how we can utilize media as a form to empower our communities. So in terms of the arts, that meant creating our own images that counter the stereotypical images that were in the media, that were really racist.” 1 Mabalot’s statement highlights visuality as central to the struggle for Asian American self-representation. The voice that is claimed here is primarily seen first, and then heard.
