I am, We are

I am, We are.

A short video showing in a very basic way the meld between individuality and similarity. Our social identity as droplets part of an ocean and that together we are the same but each have our own unique aspects that make us different, enriching our society as a whole.

It kind of answers the question, our identity as a society is 'I am, we are'. Words cannot describe our collective.

Social pride

Social Pride

Not inherently a positive influence. I was sitting at our residence games and I realised just how much hate and contempt revolves around our need to belong to a group. This is to the point of zealous pride in causes that do not necessarily have any reason for it. Hostility surrounds segregation, and thus this monstrosity was born:

An egg and spoon race gone wrong, what starts as fun of a rather mundane and repetitive task grows into an increasingly irritating tension. This tension spawns heavy competition and escalates. Happiness is replaced with fear and joy with frustration. What is a symbol of good soon corrodes, and by the end what was it all for?

While an obvious piece that is what it seems, it still carries a message of how even the smallest of arguments can bring out the worst in our social groups and ultimately who we are as a society. This is not always the case of course. I shall explore a bit more later on.


Pictures and competition footages were taken by me personally. But clips from 0:19 come from Dnews,science podcast on sinkholes and 0:21 is by Cyriak Harris, surrealist animator who makes his living working for the BBC. His works heavily inspired this piece, as a renound artist who has made a name and living for himself producing Surrealist animations and gifs for the web and now working for large television broadcasters doing his art:
Interview

Bonds

Bonds of Friendship

Recently I had an epiphany about how society works. One can sort of sum up society in the bonds we make. No bond is more apparent than that of friendship. Our friends not only shape our identity, but represent our community and influence society around us. It is the mutual understanding and cooperation of working together that makes it possible for us to function as single entity and when it comes down to it the most basic and fundamental of these bonds that make this process possible is friendship. Without it, we wouldn't have society at all.

 This collage is a collection of images I've taken of friends enjoying moments we've spent together. Can we identify who we are as a people with friendships? I believe we can! We might be Individual, but through our bonds we are united.

 Thank you to my awesome friends, for an awesome time and for these awesome photos.

Individually Control

Individual Control

Individuality as a means of feeling control. How we choose to try and claim individual ownership of our lives in a self proclaimed superiority over others. That perpetuates a cycle of everyone feeling like they are in control. This kind of inwards thinking that seems to spawn in society. Snapshots of those we see around us who create only to prove their worth. I've represented this as pictures within pictures. a cycle that could go on forever which strangely looks normal to us as we perceive it.

To Conform or Segregate

To Conform or Segregate

Kind of an appropriation piece of John bracks' 5pm Collins street which now takes the roll of 'society' in my image. A choice for most which causes a great deal of controversy, to conform to the expectations of our peers or to stand apart as a separate identity. Where do we draw the line? Is there a gray zone? How does this choice impact on us as a civilisation?

All images, besides John Brack's work, are photos from my social media.

The Proposal

Week 4: Proposal

By now my work has very much taken form of exploring human identity, who we are as a society and a species. Not necessarily the conflict between the 2 but who we are versus who we perceive ourselves to be. So far in my blog I have chosen to look at how we identify through symbology and how we perceive others based off their surroundings and hey they choose to present themselves. But other sub-topics I might choose to explore is an idea explored by John Brack (later mentioned) is standing out, being an individual persay. After all while we are expected to work together in a society but encouraged to develop our own individual sense of identity.

I would like to specifically explore the idea of conformity and working together as a society versus individuality and breaking from social expectation. My exploration isn't really to find an answer or to make a point or even prove something. It just is to look at where we stand on being a society and how it reflects on our individuality. What happens when we choose to break from society? Is it inherently productive/good to stand apart? Essentially I want to make people ask these questions themselves through my artwork.

Specifically I have been looking at John Brack, as a long time admirer of his work I now find myself reflecting on his work once more for inspiration. He explored, perhaps intentionally as is my belief or inadvertently, the themes surrounding us as a race and how we perceive ourselves and each other in society.

'Self-Portrait' John Brack 1955

But most of all Brack not only captured this fundamental nature of society but how it changed over this critical period of time. Where we went from these similar tertiary colours in monochromatic schemes to brighter and more confronting palettes. The perfect portrayal of the many versus the one:

'Nude with a Dressing Gown' John Brack 1967        '5pm Collins Street' John Brack 1955

I plan to do one more Illustrator piece in the near future following Bracks '5pm Collins street' as well as a few other pieces surrounding photoshop and past work I have explored. Specifically I have been looking at my local community at the student village. We have a great variety of students with varying talents and many of them choose to identify through specific things. This comes back to some past work I have done regarding 'dreaming' which can relate to identification through material possession. Which is also something that society tells us is important.


References:
- 'The Ian Potter Centre' NVG Victoria, John Brack, viewed 25th March 2015, http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/johnbrack/

- A Robots Design, Kees van Vugt, Viewed 25th march 2015, https://www.facebook.com/ARobotsDesign

Standing out

Standing Out

It's pretty easy to stand out, in most cases people do. Devil's advocate to last weeks idea of conforming behind a symbol or ideal, which we identify as a society what makes us wish to stand apart? and is it all that bad?