from a letter to a friend

"I was thinking...its funny how people say that people don't change...like when you are in a bad relationship people will tell you that you can't even try to change someone because people are incapable of change and that old dogs don't learn new tricks...etc etc etc....

but I don't think this is in fact true...at all..people change all the time...people are changing everyday. I was listening to a conference online yesterday and they were talking about identity and how we are really just a sum of parts. Like a computer...a computer is a hard disk with a monitor, with a key board and well whatever else composes a computer. one computer is different from another depending on the different pieces they have. and that is pretty much how we are...we are a collection of things a body with a brain with different experiences all that sums up to who we are...there is no real "essence" to our identity...it is constantly changing because of the different things we live through...would you still consider yourself to be yourself if they took your body and put another brain in it...it would be your body..but it wouldnt really be you...and if they put your brain in another body it wouldnt be you completely either...because your body is part of who you are...but it is not enough to make you you by itself. its pretty much the same with everything else that makes you you...you cant be you if you are missing any of the components...or can you?

anyways I found it interesting because it pretty much says people are in constant change...because everyday we have new experiences that add to who we are...so its illogic to say people can't change...we change all the time. we are never the same...tomorrow I will already be a different person."

You can listen to the conference by downloading the RSA podcast "what does it mean to be you?" by Julian Baggini

Identity and Me

I am thinking about identity again. I guess I think about it most of the time.

A couple of months ago I posted about Identity and Nationality, and then later I talked about Identity and Objects. However, I am still struggling with my own identity. As I said before identity is basically what you identify yourself with. In other words my identity is based on whatever I find I have similarities with. In its essence identity would be completely relative to what I know and what surrounds me. It all goes down to comparisons.

In my favorite book in the whole world, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, there is a short episode where Milo, the main character is sent to meet "The Giant". He heads over to the house with an inscription above the door that reads "The Giant". After knocking an ordinary man comes out claiming to be the smallest giant in the world. He then sends Milo to the other side of the house to find "The Midget". Here Milo finds a man who looks exactly like The Giant, but who claims to be the tallest midget in the world. He then gets send to find the Fat Man and the Skinny Man...of course Milo realizes they are all the same person. Here is an excerpt:

     "I think you're all the same man," said Milo Emphatically.
"S-S-S-S-S-H-H-H-H-H-H-H," he cautioned, putting his finger to his lips and drawing Milo closer. "Do you want to ruin everything? You see, to tall men I'm a midget, and to short men I'm a giant; to the skinny ones I'm a fat man, and to the fat ones I'm a thin man. That way I can hold four jobs at once. As you can see, though, I'm neither tall nor short nor fat nor thin. In fact, I'm quite ordinary, but there are so many ordinary men that no one asks their opinion about anything."

I pretty much agree with this; We can only be described in comparison to what we know and what surrounds me. If I go to some far away village up in the mountains of Ecuador, where they have little contact with foreigners, I am pretty sure I will be one of the tallest people the villagers have ever met. To them I will be considered tall, or even extremely tall, but I consider myself average, even short at times, because I have met taller people.

So maybe that is why I have troubles with identity. If I constantly learn new things and everyday I see different things, then I have to place myself in context every time that I add any piece of  knowledge to my life. Any object that I interact with should have the capacity to change the way I feel about myself and how I view myself with the world; ideas and thoughts should have a similar effect. However, this doesn't really help me with my identity issues. Maybe some day I will figure it out.

If you have any thoughts about where identity comes from, let me know!

When Objects Became Art

I have always been intrigued by art.

Up until the end of the 19th century art had generally followed the accepted aesthetics of the time. Paintings were done to please the patrons or to express the ideals of beauty of the moment. Then in 1914, Marcel Duchamp presented "Bottle Rack", which is considered one of his first readymades.

replica of Bottle Rack

This object, unlike other objects he had used before like "Bicycle Wheel" and "Pharmacy", was not altered in any way, making it his first true readymade. Today the most famous readymade by Duchamp is "Fountain". 

replica of Fountain

A lot of controversy surrounded this object. It was supposed to be exposed at the Society of Independent Artists Exhibit in 1917. This event had stated that it would exhibit all the pieces it received. However the board members decided "Fountain" was not art and hid it from view during the show. After this the New York Dadaists decided to publish it as a photo in one of their anonymous journals. It was entitled "The Richard Mutt Case" and accompanying the image was the following explanation:

"Whether Mr Mutt made the fountain with his own hands or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view – created a new thought for that object."

Duchamp and the dadaists were some of the first artists that began to question what art was, what it was supposed to be and what it could be. With their actions they shifted the focus from the physical object to the intellectual aspect of the piece and thus, conceptual art was born.

Around the same time, at the beginning of the 20th century, in Germany something very different was happening. In 1907 Hermann Muthesius, along with several architects, founded the Deutscher Werkbund.  The idea of this group was to combine traditional crafts with industrial mass-production techniques. It also sought to integrate artists, architects, designers and industrialists. The men involved in this group were mostly architects and designers and during the years that the group was active they created furniture, houses and spaces.

It was also thanks to the development of this group, that the Bauhaus came to be. It held similar principles, as it was meant to bring all arts together so that they could influence each other and work as a whole.

So now we have two important movements in the world, at the same time, that look at objects and art. The world was becoming more industrialized. Artists were questioning art and Industrial Design as we know it was born. Artists began to appreciate the beauty of everyday industrial objects to the extent that industrial designers could be considered artists.  I guess it was only logical that the boundaries between art and design became hazy. Today there are designers that use objects to question beliefs the same way artists do. But I'll leave that for some other day.

The first manmade objects

I believe objects can be divided into two big categories: manmade and made by nature. When the first humans appeared on earth I am sure at some point they realized they were surrounded by all sorts of natural objects. And just like other primates they realized that these objects could be used as tools. But I believe the most exciting revelation was when they realized that they could transform natural objects to fit their needs. So they sharpened stones and bones, they made beads, clothes and tools. 

Tools from the Paleolithic

It would be great to know how these first creators felt about their objects. Did they feel like we feel about them today? Did they have a "magical" connection with their creations? Were there creative humans who created objects just for for the sake of creating beauty? Prehistory doesn't only give us examples of tools, but also examples of admiration of beauty, like the venus figurines that were found all over the world.

Venus figurines

Venus de Valdivia

There were objects that were purely utilitarian and some that seem to be made just to admire their beauty.  We can't be sure if paintings or objects were made as "art for arts sake"...or if they were made for rituals. I like to believe that they were made for beauty's sake. 

However my favorite objects are the ones that combine both aspects, beauty and function. 

 Precolumbian objects from the Gold Museum in Bogotá

I consider these first creators, the first designers. Maybe they weren't making their objects industrially, although in many places evidence of the use of molds and templates has been found which means that some objects were probably made in series. However they seemed to be looking to reconcile beauty and function and isn't that what many designers do today?

The truth about objects

I am never really quite sure why I studied fashion design. Some days I love it, some days I don't understand it and some days I wonder why in the world I decided to study it. And I don't really know. I find it fascinating and at times completely unattractive.

One thing I know for sure is that I love design, art and beauty, and that I am captivated by our relationship with objects. So for a while I think I will dedicate my blog to that. To objects, and the wonderful creators of objects. And we'll see what happens after that.

:)

So here is to objects and to finding the hidden truth in them!

how i feel

This is pretty much how I feel since my last post. I miss Italy. I love Mendini. The picture is from an exhibition I went to in Rome about 3 years ago at the Museo del Ara Pacis.

I never thought I'd miss the summer

I never thought I'd miss the warm summer days. Nearly 6 years ago when I moved to Medellín to study I dreaded the heat. Later when I moved to Italy I consistently tried to escape the asphyxiating days of June, July and August.

I always felt like the best climate for me was the cool weather up in the mountains of my home town. I still think so. However, today I missed the long summer days. The walks in the park and through the streets at 9pm. I never in my life thought this would happen. But its true.

I miss the summer.

Bari, Puglia - Italia

Palermo, Sicilia - Italia

Palermo, Sicilia - Italia

VPS #1: think of Me when i think of You

Love is Beauty

So much has been said about love and beauty. To me they continue to be the most ambiguous ideas out in the world, well, add art as well.

The oxford american dictionary defines beauty as "a combination of qualities....that pleases the aesthetic senses" as well as the "intellect or moral sense."

and it defines the noun love as "an intense feeling of deep affection" and as a verb to "feel a deep romantic or sexual attachment to (someone)....to find pleasure in."

So if to love is to find pleasure in something or someone, and beauty is a combination of qualities that pleases, then love is beauty. And so beauty leads to love.

one of my favorite books is The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. In it he talks about all sorts of topics, amongst them of course is love. One of my favorite parts is when he talks about love and metaphors.

"I have said before that metaphors are dangerous. Love begins with a metaphor. Which is to say, love begins at the point when a woman enters her first word into our poetic memory."

It seems a bit strange that he would consider love as something dangerous. He is basically saying that when a person enters someones poetic memory which is usually something beautiful then love is born, and that is why he considers metaphors dangerous, as he says later "a single metaphor can give birth to love." A metaphor is poetry, poetry tends to appreciate beauty and beauty gives birth to love. But why be scared?

E.E. Cummings used to have a similar perception of love when he wrote "be of love a little more careful than of anything."

I guess it could be because love leaves us exposed and vulnerable. Maybe it is frightening because we wish we could enjoy it for the longest time possible and the idea that it could end at some point is what causes the fear. So maybe to fear love is to in fact fear the end of love and the end of beauty. So maybe to fix this we should try to find the beauty in ends and learn to accept that when something dies something else can be born.

Anyways, this whole discussion came about in my head because I am planing to get a tattoo sometime in  the proximate future. And "Love & Beauty" being two things that matter to me, was one of my tattoo ideas.

Here are a couple of tattoos online that I find inspiring.

the things that matter to me

...the things that matter to me are the things that make me think of love and beauty. I think that is how I have summed it up for the moment. I'm always trying to figure out what matters the most to me, and I make lists, and then I review them. I make lists of the things I love about life: family, friends, cold foggy days, micro nature in big cities, food, lakes up in mountains, birds, dancing, long conversations with friends, animals, great movies. And then I make lists of things that I believe in: nature, respect, passion, fresh air, love, beauty, relationships. But maybe it all sums up in two things: Love & Beauty.

Maybe that is what brings it all together.

I was thinking about objects & identity again. And of all the objects that surround me, and why I chose them and decided to bring them into my environment. And I got the urge to draw 3 of my favorite accessories, which all happen to be jewelry. The first are two necklaces made with huayruro seeds (Ormosia coccinea), I bought them in mexico. These seeds are used as protection charms all across south america. On each of these necklaces I attached another good-luck/protection charm this time from Napoli. They are two red "corni" or horns. The second necklace I love is also from Napoli and it is a red "mano cornuto" (a hand making horn signs) hanging from a long pink chain. It is a traditional charm that protects against the evil eye, although I have had some trouble wearing it in latin america because many people have come to believe it is the sign of the devil thanks to the catholic church). Finally I have a necklace and earring set I bought in Oaxaca made out of ceramic skulls. Apart from being lucky charms I wear these accesories and love them for the things they make me think of. First of all the huayruro seeds will always remind me of life and its duality and about passion and love. The Italian charms remind me of my life in Italy and how much I love that country. Finally the skulls also remind me of life, instead of death. So in the end the two most important facts are that they are beautiful and make me think of beautiful things and that they remind me of the things I love.

for the moment I guess those are the things that matter the most.

Digital Detox Week

Tomorrow Digital Detox Week begins, and after tomorrow I am off to the beach. 

It makes me so happy. I need a break from this city.

I found this image at Adbusters.org

The best house is a house with a good view

I think windows, or places where you can look out of are my favorite places of a house or apartment. Houses tend to separate you from the world and windows, on the other hand, create a connection with it. Its not only windows I like, but any "opening" that lets you look towards the outer world. Windows are a bit like the eyes of a house. You use them to see anything that is happening outside. And just as they say that eyes are the window of the soul, the windows in a house allow you to see a glimpse of the soul of the house. 

I find it absolutely fascinating that Hundertwasser treats buildings and homes as an extension of the body. Actually, in his studies, this Austrian architect/artist comes up with a diagram that states that a person has 5 skins. 

this image is from a Hundertwasser sketch that I found through google

He also comes up with a text titled "Window Dictatorship and Window Rights." I especially love the last part, where he talks about window rights.

"A person in a rented apartment must be able to lean out of his window and scrape off the masonry within arm's reach. And he must be allowed to take a long brush and paint everything outside within arm's reach. So that it will be visible from afar to everyone in the street that someone lives there who is different from the imprisoned, enslaved, standardized man who lives next door." 

I probably won't be the first one to stick my hand out of the window with my paintbrush, I am pretty sure my mom would not be happy, and then even though my parents own this house, the rules of the place we live in state that any external changes on the houses must be approved first, and that the houses must remain looking pretty much like the ones next to them. Maybe one day I will own my own house and then I will be able to do whatever I want with it. However I truly admire Hudertwasser for his initiative into breaking out of the mold. 

I also have a couple of things to say about looking out of windows. As I said before, they provide a connection with the outer world. I believe that in our modern world we don't give much attention to windows anymore, perhaps it is just me and my families lifestyle, perhaps not. When I walk around cities its unlikely to come across many people just looking out their windows watching people pass by. On the other hand whenever I go to small towns I always find people catching a glimpse of the world; You find old ladies, kids, men. Sometimes they sit in balconies, sometimes behind the glass, at other times they just sit outside of their houses right at the door...or on the street. They just sit there and talk to the neighbors who are also around, or get together to play chess, or simply talk from window to window. 

We should learn something from these people, I believe they know how to enjoy the simple things in life.

identity & objects

After yesterday's post I am still thinking about identity. Before falling asleep I kept asking myself where it comes from. So today I decided to look it up in the dictionary, which is what I should have done in the first place.

From The Oxford Dictionary:

i·den·ti·ty /noun/
1. The fact of being who or what a person or thing is. The characteristics determining this.
2. A close similarity or affinity.

ORIGIN late 16th cent. (in sense [quality of being identical]): from late Latin identitas, from Latin idem 'same.'

and then I realized that the word identify also comes from Latin identitas. and the Oxford dictionary defines it as: "to establish or indicate who or what (someone or something) is." And also as: "regard oneself as sharing the same characteristics or thinking as someone else."

So I guess in the end it is really simple. Identity is what you identify yourself with.

While studying fashion, we discussed this subject quite a bit. Every semester he had to investigate real people and who they were as consumers so that we could at on point design for them. Our teachers would tell us that we had to dig deep into their lives, ask them where they spent their time, what their spaces looked like, what they carried in their bags. Many times we would find ourselves in strangers' houses taking pictures of what was in their rooms, in their drawers, in their closets. Any objects that were important to them where important for our studies. In conclusion, whenever you buy something you buy it first out of need and then because you relate to it. The fact that you identify yourself with an object is what causes you to chose between one phone or another, or one note book instead of another.

These are a couple of images I found with google when typing "in my bag" in the image search. These people clearly identify themselves with different objects and lifestyles. 

Sometimes we identify ourselves with things because we grew up with them, because we learned them from our parents or the society and culture we lived in. I for example love plants and flowers, probably because my father grows and exports roses and my mom loves tending her garden. I guess this also answers the question of why sometimes I have trouble calling myself a Colombian, perhaps I just don't identify myself with the style of life Colombians have and the things they do and appreciate. 

At other times we identify ourselves with objects because they represent ideas or concepts that we believe in. For example buying an iphone instead of a blackberry might be just making a statement that I believe in design. 

John Baldessari, who happens to be one of my favorite artists, says that "meaning is derived from its immediate surroundings." Most of his work deals with language and its structure and how images can be used like words to create different meanings. Some of his most famous pieces involve text and images, others are altered photographs covered with blocks of color. Every time he alters an image or places it next to something else its meaning is changed. 

I believe the same happens with us humans and our identity. When we place ourselves in different contexts, or surround ourselves with different objects we are altering our meaning and how we communicate ourselves with the people that surround us. Our bodies and our image is how we present ourselves to the world, whether we are aware of it or not. Some people's choices might be unconscious, but they still say a lot about who they are. 

Learn more about Baldessari here.

Identity & Nationality

Identity and nationality are two topics that intrigue me. I have been watching Anthony Bourdain a lot lately. Mostly because I love it, but also because I have a lot of free time on my hands right now. Apart from Anthony's attitude and being able to see so many countries and cities and learn about their food, I love how he almost always meets and expat sometime during the show. In almost every city you have the people whose families are from the country and who have always been there and feel 100% from the place. And then you have the immigrants, who have been there for generations and feel as much from their original country as from the country they currently live in. And then there are the real ex-pats who for some reason decide to move to another country and live there, most of them because they love the place and decide thats where they want to live. I think one of my favorite ex-pats from the show was in Thailand, or maybe Indonesia, I can't remember. Anyways, what I liked about what him is that when Anthony asked him why he had decided to live there he answered that he had travelled a lot and everywhere he went he would ask himself "Could I live here?" and everywhere he went his answer was no. Until one day he said yes and so he sold most of his things back home and moved.

I wish life were that easy for me. I don't always ask myself that question, but I have asked it in certain places. I spent most of my life in Quito, Ecuador. And although I love this country most of my life I have been planning how to get out. And then I went to college in Medellín, Colombia and although it is a beautiful city, in the first week I was there I knew that I didn't want to live there for ever. Many people believed that I could change my mind and that the first years of college are always hard, especially when you are in a city where you don't know anyone or have any family. But I studied there for more or less 4 years and there was no moment where I thought, "this is where I could live for the rest of my life." Then I lived in Bogotá for two months. I always thought if there was any Colombian city which I would love to live in it would be Bogotá. First of all I was born there, and then most of my family lives there. It is a great city with so many things to see and do. I loved this city all my life and since our family lives there we would visit it once a year, probably thanks to the fact that it is right next to Ecuador. However, a week after actually living and working there maybe even less, I knew that I didn't want to live there either. I also realized that even though I was born in Colombia I would always be a tourist there. I have lots most of my accent and whenever I meet someone in Colombia they ask me right away where I am from, and most of the times don't believe me when I say I am from Colombia. I actually went through college telling everyone I was from Ecuador, it made it easier and most of the time I thought it was true. During all my college life I considered myself Ecuadorian. 

It wasn't until a couple of days ago that I started questioning my nationality once again. When I was in school I considered myself Colombian until I went to Colombia and experienced culture shock in birth country, plus I was considered a foreigner there. Then I decided I must be Ecuadorian because that is where I grew up, that is the culture that I know and where I thought I could pass of as a natural citizen. And then, last friday, I was at the gym and a man came up to me and asked me, "so what part of Colombia are you from?" At first I thought well he probably heard my mom speak and although she has lived here 24 years she still has a strong Colombian accent, and I told him I was practically Ecuadorian because I had lived here all my life. He quickly rejected this idea and told me it was great how after living here for such a long time I still had such a strong accent. If he only knew that in Colombia no one considers my accent Colombian. 

So where am I from? If in Colombia I am considered a foreigner, and apparently now I am considered a foreigner here in Ecuador, where I lived all my life, where does that leave me? 

What makes a person belong to one country? is it your passport? is it where you have spent more time? or where you know the most about the culture? Where you feel most comfortable with the culture? Or maybe you just decide? Maybe its all about me saying "well, I am from this place. period." Or does society decide for you?

Today I was watching Anthony Bourdain traveling around the Rust Belt in the USA. At one point of the show he says "American food is whatever food is being made in America in this moment." Does that apply to people? Is someone from the place he is living at the moment? Does that mean I was Colombian when I was in Colombia? Italian when I was living in Milano? and now Ecuadorian because now I am back in Quito?

Or should I stick to the fact that my passport says I am from Colombia, as well as all my identity cards? 

Maybe I don't belong anywhere and so I belong everywhere at the same time. I have encountered people from all over the world who believe in the same basic concept: nationalities are only lines on a map. 

F is for Fake, F is for Fact

I have never actually watched Orson Welles' F for FAKE, only bits and pieces. The first time I heard of it was in my History of Cinema class back in 2008 when I was living in Italy. We talked about it in class because we were talking about video editing and how it allowed moviemakers to create all sort of scenarios and stories. One of my favorite parts is the sequence where the woman is walking in a city and all the guys are turning around to look at her. Later it is revealed that none of it is true; the woman walking and the men looking were shot at different times in separate locations it is just the editing which makes it look like everyone is looking at her. 

As Orson Welles says it in the movie, it is a film about trickery and lies. It is also a movie about truth and perception. I guess this is why I chose it as a theme for my first entry and as inspiration for the title of this blog. You see, life is a tricky place, it is full of mysteries. And it fills me with questions. Most of the time these questions don't have answers. And if you believe that everything is relative, then nothing really has only one answer. And if there is no single answer, then there is no truth, or perhaps there are many truths. So many truths that everything starts getting complex and confusing, just like in Orson Welles' film. 

This is what this blog is about. A place where I can explore all sorts of topics and questions that confuse me. And hopefully it will be as the film says: "delicious, delirious, delightful"