Identity Seminar and Study task 3

Main points form the lecture

Phemology

Physiognomy 

essential thinking 

Chris Ofili - attempt to play on the purpose of identity and the stereotyping of a black person 

Social Identity 

Digital Identity - Second life, your identity can be reinvented 

Otherness

- Creation of identities

- Concepts of 'otherness'

- Analysis of visual example 

Identity Creation 

We were then asked to in paris answer the questions given to us. 

1. What makes you, you? 

•  Where you live - environment 
• What you wear 
• Family 
• What you earn 
• What your job is
• Personality
• What you eat - Diet 
• What you look like 
• Your friends
• Age
• Religion 
• Political views
• Hobbies
• Name
• Martial Status
• Era
• Education 

2. How do you express your identity 

• Music 
• What you wear - possessions, fashion
• Things you buy
• Hair 
• Things you say and do - Personality, Social interactions, Attitude 
• Hobbies - Interests 
• Political Views
• Accent 
• Who your associated with 

Subjectivity is arrived at through a variety of the things talked about before

Identity formation 

Jacques Lacan

• Psychoanalysis
• The 'hommelette' 
• The 'mirror stage'

Mirror stage 

sense of self (subjectivity) built on 

• an illusion of wholeness 
• receiving views from others 

Result = own subjectivity is fragile 

Constructing the 'other' 

problems: 

• relies on the assumption of opposition and radical otherness 
• In the same way that we create our own identities, in opposition to what we are not, so does a society 

Accent, in terms of otherness 

• Speaking in a affluent way makes you feel like your part of that society, when really your not. 

Identification 

• Shares up unstable identities through illusion of unity 
• Shared fashions, belief systems, values 
• Subterranean Values (Matza, 1961) 

Concepts of otherness in visual representation

Identity Creation  

What makes you you?

How do you assert your own identity? 

 Representation

Mannerisms 
Affections
How we dress 
What we wear
Our circle of friends 

Identity 

Expected roles
Set identities by society 


Production

What we do in society, the job we have ect


Consumption 

What we actually buy


Regulation 

Limitations of society 
Rules and regulations, we can only express ourselves to a certain point

Culture is the framework within which our identities are formed, expressed and regulated


Identity formation 

Psychoanalyst, LACAN, 'Mirror stage'  

Sense of self (subjectivity) built on receiving views from others    
But this subjectivity is based on an illusion of wholeness and independence 

Proceeding from or taking place in a person's mind rather than the external world

RESULT = own subjectivity is fragile 


Constructing the 'other'

In the same way we create our own identities, in opposition to what we are not, so does society    

 

TASK 

Write an analysis (300-500 words) of one media image of your choosing. This analysis should highlight how the intended reader/audience would construct their identity by a specific reading of the text which is based on the 'othering' of other groups or individuals. Your analysis should evidence an understanding of the concept of 'othering' and also show some acknowledgement of how much the security of our own fragile subjectivities or identities depend on this process.



RESPONSE

Paul Smith

 

This Paul Smith advert creates an identity for the audience through the use of subjectivity, it makes the audience feel like that if they were to buy this product they would then become them, taking them further away from what there true identities actually are  giving them an illusion of wholeness and independence in the form of different representations. 
   These representations that this advert portrays are that if they brought this product they would become like these cool, young men. They feel that 'if these men can own the boxers and be like that then why cant i'. The advert forces an identity into the boxers then on to the people in the most of extreme ways by showing it at its most potable in the most extremes of what men want to be like. This advert shows how 'otherness' is being used in creating an identity for the person who is watching, the Paul smith brand in itself gives off this sense of being cool and for a certain type of person within society, the person internalises the established social attitude towards the the brand and when they see what people are doing in this advert they are deepened and there ideas are shaped by what they see not only on this advert but also what other groups of people who may be wearing the brand do or look like.