CACS102 Keyword Assessment

Unpacking the concept of Identity- its facets, constructs and relation to the Artist

[whoareuwhoami]

Reference List

Barker, C 2007, ‘Issues of subjectivity and identity’, in Cultural studies: theory and practice, 3rd edn, Sage Publications, London, pp. 218- 223.

Bennet, A & Royle, N 2016, ‘Me’ in An introduction to literature, criticism and theory, 5th edn, Routledge, New York, pp. 150-158.

Cranny-Francis, A 2008, ‘Touching skin: embodiment and the senses in the work of Ron Mueck’, in N Anderson & K Schlunke (eds), Cultural theory in everyday practice, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, pp. 36-46.

Fink, B 1995, ‘Language and otherness’, in The Lacanian subject, Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp. 3-13.

Howes, D 2005, ‘Skinscapes: embodiment, culture, and environment’, in C Classen (ed.), The book of touch, Berg, New York, pp. 27-39.

Moore, A. (2002). Authenticity as authentication. Popular Music, 21(02).

[finnydoodles]

Don’t talk to me or my son ever again…

[whoareuwhoami]

Just because it’s a dog with sunglasses and a pineapple with glasses.

[whoareuwhoami]

Social Identity

Social identity is the construct of our own identity through social settings, whether it is in a school, at the shops, on social media and in a family. Barker notes that “we learn to use a language that was in use before we arrived. We live our lives in the context of social relationships with others... understood as socialization or acculturation” (Barker, 2007). The way in which we represent ourselves in society has been constructed by social norms, cues and obligations which give us a certain role to play; fundamentally in regards to our age and gender across all societies (Giddens, 1984). The above image highlights our being born in the Digital Age and social norms assess that all people have social media as a reoresentation of our social identity, playing our assigned roles.

[whoareuwhoami]

Fractured Identity

According to Barker (2007), this refers to the post-modern subject or ‘decentred’ nature of artists’ identities. As with all people,  our personalities can be divided and separated due to our context; our situation that we currently are in. An example would be if I went to the shops and bought something, my dominant personality at the time would be the kind and gracious person who has the absolute respect for everyone but if I came home to my family, my relationship with them is different. I have respect for my family but I’ll jokingly fight with them and our relationship is different than with strangers. This is enforced by the image above of the woman and the five perspectives of her, all showing something different but are still within the same body; fractured identities creating a complexity in humans.

[whoareuwhoami]

Authenticity

Authenticity is one of those terms that have been thrown around for many years and have been vital for many jobs: from a journalist to and artist. Across my academic studies, I have encountered academics who have stated that their works are authentic and thus, original. There was a quote that I once read that said, being a Creative Writing major, that every good idea (in relation to writing) had already been written so everything else is appropriation. The authenticity, in regards to Moore’s article, acknowledged by artists outline “the artist speak truth of their own situation, that they speak of the situation of (absent) others and truth about their own culture” (Moore, 2002). as is obvious, the image above is authenticity as a mirror, framed to look the same without being a truthful representation.

[whoareuwhoami]

Creative Influence

Creative Influence references the way the artist promotes the artwork’s agenda, its meaning and its purpose. One could say that creative writing is able to project a view and/or opinion without ever expressly stating any. I wrote a short story about the pains of war, the loss of life and the collapse of modern society. My true intention was to criticise and critique Donald Trump’s administration that has ‘figuratively’ destroyed modern society. Another facet of this term relates to its ability to influence and motivate another artist to continue on with pain and conflict as the theme of their artwork, prompting them to spread a message of criticism. This image relates to the sheer possibility of the creative influence. Artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci have inspired artists for centuries and prompted them to follow in his footsteps.

[whoareuwhoami]

Sensory Knowledge

Sensory knowledge is the connection between our intrinsic connection with our senses and the corresponding world around us. An example can be the torrential rain in Wollongong, feeling the downpour on your skin and connecting with that experience. In Cranny-Francis’ article, there is a quote about the problem of the corporeal body being physically whole instead of existing as “bundles of interconnected experiences and properties” (Cranny-Francis, 2008).  Howes notes that Thoreau’s opinion of attributing “some form of intelligence to the sentient body... with the rise of body-mind dualism associated with the work of the philosopher Rene Descartes that such bodily ways of knowing became alien to mainstream Western thought” (Howes, 2005). This image is referring to the closeness and connectedness  of the senses and how each individual sense makes up a larger whole of a person.

[whoareuwhoami]

Overdetermination

This concept has been prevalent for hundreds of years and has been synonymous with the question, ‘are you overthinking it’? Mansfield notes that one of the apparent problems in Freud’s psychological assessment of the unconscious is the trivial matter of a patient’s dream could be interpreted as being “significant, dramatic, even tragic” (Mansfield, 2000). Mansfield’s perspective on Freud’s psychological analysis, also as a critic for some practicing therapists today, is that it expends a “huge amount of psychological energy...on a small behavioural space” (Mansfield, 2000). Basically, if compared to an investment, it would be high risk, low reward. This image is important because, like overdetermination, just because there is a correlating link to your analysis, does not mean that there is a causal connection; over-analysing leads to more harm than good.

[whoareuwhoami]

The Unconscious

The Unconscious is a frontier that, to this day, has been vital in the understanding of humans and their functions. It refers to the mind’s processes on the edge of consciousness which, unlike the majority of our brain fucntions can appear muddled up and confusing. Fink uses the example of a stressed out man who accidently says “schnob instead of job” (Fink, 1995). Where as Fink assesses that the unconscious is, quoting Lacan, a ‘language’ a form of discourse (Fink, 1995); Mansfield perceives it as a way for the brain to sort through the “huge range of impulses, representations, emotions and inspirations...from ordinary experience” (Mansfield, 2000). Freud’s view of the unconscious has led to the notion of overdetermination. This image represents the unexplored vista of the unconscious, a compilation of sounds, smells, and images processed into an incomprehensible montage.

[whoareuwhoami]

Essentialism

Essentialism is a concept that assesses an individual to possess some elements that make us human, “the identity exist[ing] as a universal and timeless core that we all possess” (Barker, 2007). These elements have been a point of contention for philosophers due to the fact that academics believe that those intrinsic qualities that everyone possesses are actually made by our social contexts. By looking at the identities of people: their routines, perspectives and ways of life, the essential emotions and ethics can be discerned. An example could be that the essential qualities of people could be in their approach to their studies. We all have the capacity to learn, an essential facet of humans, but it is in our own choices that we are able to learn or not.

[whoareuwhoami]

Subjectivity

Barker defines subjectivity as “the condition of being a person and the processes by which we become a person; that is, how we are constituted as cultural subjects and how we experience ourselves” (Barker, 2007). To say that people, especially of our current generation, are products of their upbringing wouldn’t be too fallacious but its from our sense of identity and of self that we exist; we are. Barker poses one of man’s most sought after questions, “what is a person?” which corresponds with this idea of autonomy or agency; the ability to confer and influence our lives as we see fit. This image, like subjectivity, shows only one idea, one notion, one facet of a person and their identity.

[quotemadness]

Art is the exclusion of the unnecessary.

Carl Andre (via quotemadness)