Studio: Identity Crisis

This evening I was thrown for a loop when my neighbors and I started talking about identity. They were interested in what I was doing artwise, and after a few of my auto-blasé answers, they challenged my simple answers right back with simple questions. “Why do you want to be an artist?” “What is your work about?”

I’m not going to get into the first question just yet, but I answered the second question with, “well I’m working with online identity”. Before discussing my Tagged work (which I’ll blog about soon, but some completed pieces are up on my site) they dived into their views about ‘online identity’. Here’s where shit got a little interesting.

They immediately started talking about personal information online, specifically with the Genome Project. I wasn’t very familiar with the project, except for the basics, which can be summed up by the first line in Wikipedia’s Human Genome Project entry:

The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project with a primary goal to determine the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA and to identify the approximately 25,000 genes of the human genome from both a physical and functional standpoint.

We didn’t stay on that topic for very long, but I automatically felt a sense of urgency to stop them and say, “no no, I don’t mean that kind of identity”. But for some reason, I knew right after that momentary thought, “well shit, I don’t know what my work is about, but I know what it’s NOT about,” so I thankfully kept listening. While I really don’t know anything about the human genome, I obviously do know this: it says a lot about who you REALLY are, I mean, literally, your identity that could basically make sure you are or aren’t the guilty murderer of a crime scene.

Then they shifted to the idea of surveillance, like tapping phone calls and tracking credit cards. That’s some serious identity stuff right there that can basically destroy your life if someone got a hold of. And what about social security numbers? These small identifiers carry a tremendous amount of weight as to the Real You.

By the time we finished talking about all these issues of identity, I quietly thought to myself, “wow, that is definitely what my work is NOT about”.  I giggled at myself and started a new conversation.

I realized tonight that my work (at this point) is about the constructed identity that I think I am. I am interested in the fluid identity that I possess and can literally alter whenever I choose. There are identifying marks that I am born with—my thumb print, social security number, birth date, genetic code, etc. Then, there are the identifying marks that I choose to own—artist, blogger, introvert, Incubus fan, puppy lover, etc. The first identity is an absolute fact while the second identity is a fact For Now, but hey, what if I get mauled by a dog tomorrow and end up hating dogs for the rest of my life?

(Here’s the side paragraph where I ask, “am I dumb? There’s definitely something out there about this idea already, and it’s called insert term here!” Is it like, identity vs. personality? What?)

And so, I believe that everything I deal with, in terms of this so-called ‘identity issue’ I love so much, can be encapsulated by one thing: the online social networking profile. I am interested in all those blanks you fill in on your Facebook or MySpace profile. I’m interested in the stuff you want other people to know about you. I’m interested in who you Think you are, not who you Actually are.

 
Links Cited:
Wikipedia entry, Human Genome Project.