Responses to the word 'IDENTITY'

Having given a fair few packs of materials out to my friends, family, and people I know, I have began to recieve their responses to the task of creating a response to the word 'IDENTITY'. They could use any of the materials contained within the packs that I provided, in addition to any of their own choosing.

All of the responses that I have recieved so far are brilliant, and very different from one another!

They really reflect the diversity that is apparent within us as individual human beings, our thought processes, and the diverse ways in which we percieve, engage, and interact with the world around us.

So a massive thank you to all those who have participated so far. Keep them coming in! :-)

Here are a few that I would like to share with you:

 'Me' created by using the provided record card in addition to a single hair and sellotape

 Stating personal details and philosophies on life

Using the record card to print on a fingerprint - something that is individual and cannot be replicated

 A pictorial representation of themselves in addition to their address which is written on the luggage tag on the reverse side

 A fractured image representing one particular section of an identity. By putting all of these pieces together, a full picture of the person can be obtained, and therefore their identity can be accessed.

A liberating perception on the word 'identity'.

A holistic perception on identity. Nevertheless, the participant has identified a toe-tag representing our identities when we leave the living world. Upon speaking to the participant she also said that the 'dash' on a grave stone in between the date of birth and the date of death represents our whole life and everything this contained.

Identity is not only who a person is, but also why they are and what contributions they make to the identities of others as a result of the actions that a person takes.

Identity being defined and represented by an individuals current context

No one of these responses is the same, even though the content of some of the responses represent similar ideas and thoughts. This is what I truly find to be inspirational. The fact that we are all different, and interpret and respond to everyday life with a variety of attitudes/perceptions/views.    

Barnes (2002, p.8) identifies that,

"Art can help them [children] to perceive the world in a greatly extended way so that they can begin to assimilate a variety of perceptions in relation to one another.”

I believe that this is the case for everybody. By gaining an insight into the perceptions of others through the notion of participatory art, we can begin to construct, interpret, access, and share the way in which we understand, identify, and present ourselves within our social and cultural contexts.

The next step I think is for me to get more of my packs out there into the public domain. I could never anticipate what participants may create in response to the word 'Identity', as the experience of participatory art is completely individual and underpins so much of human interaction.

For example, many forms of art require some sort of participation. E.g. experiencing art is a kind of participation as we may observe, listen, watch, or respond in some way other way to what we see or experience. It could be said that art objects have been very rarely created not to be experienced by someone.  

By placing more of my packs into the public domain will hopefully allow me to gain a much wider perspective on the theme that I would like participants to respond to, in addition to actually encouraging more people to participate and make a contribution to this concept.  

Roux (2007, p.2) explains,

"In participative art, participation is the project and the artist creates the framework allowing for participation with no pre-concieved ideas of the outcome."

References:

Barnes, R. (2002) Teaching Art to Young Children 4-9. Oxon: RoutledgeFalmer.

Roux, X. (2007) Participation in Contemporary Art. New York: Redseeds.