Drawing Week

This week I drew. Many of my ideas are half formed, or concepts to explore, and not necessarily things that could be made. I have decided to look into the area of identity. One area I want to look at is how individual identity is connected to the body. I think it is possible in today’s world for one’s identity to become more and more detached from the body, the two are and always have been very separate entities, but I want to research the effects that begin when the two entitles cease to be linked, or when the individual becomes disgusted, or struggles to accept their own body. I will look into the work of Susan Bordo, at first, as I am particularly interested in her theory that disorders such as anorexia and bulimia are linked to the individual’s wish to have complete control of, and therefore be able to transcend the body, and eventually detach from it completely. I will read her collection of essays “Unbearable weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body” This idea could branch out into the realm of existentialism, which I am also interested in.

Another area of interest to me is how identity relates to the body, and how important/ vital to identity the body actually is. I was reminded of the part in Philip K Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep’ when a simulation is used to encourage group solidarity. The person puts on an electronic mask, and is then linked up with people, all working together as one man pushing a huge rock up a steep hill. The man will never reach the top, and the people using the simulation are all well aware of this. I want to use this as a starting point to look into group solidarity, and how it affects the individuals’ identity. I plan to read ‘The Man in the High Castle’ by Philip K Dick, as well as ‘The Hero With A Thousand Faces’ by Joseph Campbell.

I thought of a syndrome this week, and named it ‘Phantom minds’ It is based on the way that when a person loses a limb, they can still feel it, they still believe it is there, and it is only seeing that the limb is missing that reminds them it is not. I wonder if people today suffer from phantom mind syndrome, where the mind seems to be there, we seem to have an identity and thoughts and feelings, but it only seems that way because we are so used to making our own decisions, having our own feelings. So much of ourselves is downloaded and stored on the internet, so many tasks that used to be vital are carried out by computers (sums, spelling, even learning important facts can be replaced by Wikipedia) and these tasks go a long way to creating a person’s identity. The media now tells us what to buy and when, where to go and how to do things. The media, advertising and marketing, heavily influences our ‘own’ life decisions. Throughout history, the ruling classes or elite forces in society have dictated to the majority of mankind, and our actions and decisions have always been tied up with societal power relations. I wonder if we just think our minds and individual thoughts are still there because we are used to that being the case. There is Descartes “I doubt, therefore I think; I think, therefore I am” discourse which I would look into to further this.

This leads me another area I am looking into, on how individual identity is affected by modern day life. In the same way as I am looking into how the body is related to identity, I want to look into how the media presents things, and how this relates to the content. A simple example would be branding. How does the content (identity) relate to the brand (body) as a starting point I would like to strip down various media products (magazines, television shows) to their bare content somehow, to see what the content actually involves. I wonder if it would possible to do this with a human as well. I plan to read ‘Manufacturing Consent’ by Chomsky to research the effect of modern society, (in particular the media) on the individual. Further suggestions would be welcome. I am also interested in comfort, as I feel that western society, particularly cities, are incredibly lacking in it. I wonder if the body can be used as a tool to provide comfort to combat the effects of everyday life on the individual, and I wonder how this could be done.

Other ideas I have touched upon have been the concept of ‘The Long Now’ after it was mentioned to me this week. Other cultures think of 'now' as being one or two generations in the future. The plans they make and the way they live their lives reflect this. I wonder if teaching ‘The Long Now’ or trying to integrate it into our society would help us. I thought about alternate realities, is there a way that someone could take on another identity to do their dirty work, or to stand up for themselves. If everyone did this, and it became socially acceptable, I wonder how society would be. I wonder about the impact it would have on crime, or how criminals would be tried if it was possible for everyone to do this, I will be researching split personality disorders and strains of schizophrenia to look into this more. I thought about using the online community ‘Second Life’ to try this out. What if every time someone pissed me off I went online and took it out on those people. Would that help me feel better? I wonder about the sense of guilt I would have if I took out my frustrations virtually, although they involve real people. I wonder if this action would have any repercussions.

3rd Year Design

I have been working on two briefs over the last two weeks, the first of which is Upcay/Decay, which asks that the final outcome challenges the perceptions of decay. I liked the idea of decay as the invasion of a host, and through uncontrolled growth. The most destructive example of this being cancer. I looked into this by making some prints of tumours, using the same method of decay through invasion to ‘invade’ the paper, using materials such as bleach.

I also researched scabs, and how they are formed. I used a similar process to this by creating a base of oil paint, and removing the top layer using turps.

I got a bit sick of these after a while. They are pretty simple, and lacking in concept. It has been suggested to me that the shape of the print is not important, and hat is infact most interesting is the actual act of decay, which I have stifled through controlling the prints too much, which is why I hope to move away from making prints, and perhaps continue this project through research, I may begin to look at decay that is inherent in, and caused by society, as a side project.

The second brief was called ‘Physical Identity’ It asks the designer to create a record detailing interesting elements of the human face. This is one of the briefs I wrote myself, I am particularly interested in this area because I think the face can represent, and be represented, in many different ways.

I was interested in using the human face to explore how easily information can now be accessed, based only on the individuals face and name. I was also interested in researching facial recognition, and codifying faces in different ways. I think the richest area to look into came from some research I did into look-a-likes.

I believe that it is the way each look-a-like presents themselves that leads you to think they are famous. I conducted various small-scale surveys within my class, these all showed that separate features are often recognisable alone, especially if that part of the face is particularly distinguishable. I also found that personalised features often stand out the most, this is what makes the individual most recognisable.
From this I have come to the conclusion that the face is obsolete.

I have since been thinking about the idea that a look-a-like may have to take on someone else’s appearance to do their job, they may even have to replace their own identity. I started to look into transplanting identity, and how this could be a hindrance or a help to personal development. I have been looking at the work of Cindy Sherman as a starting point for this. (If anyone else has any other suggestions they would be very useful)

I have also become interested in the various effects that modern society has on the individual, for example the way that the media can make a person feel inadequate, or the way a busy city induces anger. I think my next step will be to look into how the human face and body can be used as a tool to investigate this.