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."
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.
