Martin Hosken, Critical Theory on The Self
I found hearing Martin's lecture about the self and how the mind works really interesting. It immediately got me thinking about what my values are - Love, family, laughter, happiness and creativity sprung to mind and were cemented when Martin said the fabric of the community is love, attachment, empathy and imagination - I had naturally picked things that fit into these categories. I was also surprised to learn that most people under 40 (like myself) believe more in nurture over nature as this is the my view.I have always been drawn to the idea that we are the sum of our experiences because this means we are forever changing and not the same one day to the next; it also means we can learn from everything and adjust accordingly.
Nature v nurture is a debate that can be seen spanning centuries, from poets to scientists it is always being discussed. I found this TED Talk by Irene Gallego Romero explained the struggle between nature v nurture really well. Irene compares nature and nurture to people's assumption that digesting milk for example, is based in your DNA. It's actually learnt behaviour over thousands of years of having access to cows milk regularly, so even things that appear to be nature are actually long form nurture. This made me wonder how much of me is actually nurture rather than nature and if the things I'm interested in, design, space travel, film, are interesting to me because other members of my family are also and not because of some innate need for knowledge. [1]
"You are the sum total of everything you've ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot - it's all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive." - Maya Angelou
This then got me thinking about the question of talent. Is it something that is innate or is it learned over time? I've always had the feeling that the idea of talent takes away from how much work you have to put in to become great at something. I think talent is interest + encouragement + time. For example, when I was young I enjoyed drawing, I got told I was good at it by my mum and teachers, therefore I was encouraged to put more time into it and make it a career. However I do wonder if there has to be a spark of natural talent first. In the Scientific American article "Is innate talent a myth?" the authors discuss this and conclude that there is more to becoming great at something than just training - although science hasn't actually discovered what that is yet, and therefore the debate continues.[2]
Another part of Hosken's lecture that really interested me was the idea of symbolic meaning being replaced by scientific meaning and what this means for our sense of self. For example, when it was discovered that the earth wasn't flat, it was a globe, did this challenge to the established order give people a reason to reflect on their idea of self and everything they thought they knew? In the same way that the discovery of dark matter may have done in more recent times.
I decided to research this further and discovered that throughout history scientific advancements and philosophical theories seem to be linked in this way. Take the Renaissance through to the Age of Reason (approx 1513 - 1721). For example, in 1620 Frances Bacon published New Organon which proposed a different way of investigating nature (similar to the current way we test hypothesis - rigorous reviewing), in 1633 Galileo was excommunicated and imprisoned for life for his theory that the earth revolves around the sun, then eight years later in 1641 Descartes writes Meditations which focuses on the idea of self and soul. In the span of 21 years, there had been a new approach to nature, a revolutionary scientific theory and a change in the way we viewed the self. From this research I really do think the change in established order means people question everything they know, including their sense of self.
Perhaps this is why the idea of self is changing now - with the digital age underway they way we see everything is shifting therefore our sense of self is being questioned. Social media is a huge influence on how we see ourselves, we are far more critical of ourselves now we scroll through Instagram and see beautiful people living amazing lives, before social media we couldn't see this and maybe people were happier in themselves. As you can see in this New Yorker article [3] on average people are more unhappy, jealous and lonely with the use of social media. Does this mean that our sense of self has diminished with the digital age? The article also suggests that the more passive an activity the more it makes people feel disconnected and social media is very much a 'gap filler' activity,
I'm really interested in the effect of technology on the idea of the self because it is such a massive part of our lives. If I challenged you to think of the last time you went a whole day without using tech could you remember? Mine was the USA election day in 2016, I was in Thailand working at an elephant sanctuary and the night before I dropped my phone in the river. Luckily I didn't miss anything that day - well not anything good anyway. It's shocking to me that in the last 4 years I can't remember a day without my phone, but more and more our identity is tied up with technology and the internet.
Towards the end of Martin's lecture he talks about the digital self as a separate entity the idea that to prove you did something you need to take a picture to prove it. (Like those annoying people holding their phones up to record a gig). People are more and more concerned with proving they did something than actually being present in the moment to enjoy it. Take this short film Aspirational by Matthew Frost. [4] It examines the selfie culture today:
As Hasken states, the technological self is now overwriting the immediate self to the point where someone's view of the self can be based entirely on their outward facing online persona, not who they are deep down.
The Trajectory of the Self by Anthony Giddens
When I first started reading this chapter I really liked Janet Rainwater's theory that every moment in life is a 'new moment' and you should live each minute reflectively and in a state of heightened awareness. However the more I read I did start to wonder if this meant it was harder to live in the moment because you're meant to be constantly reflecting on what you are learning and how you can improve. I have always been a big believer in looking forwards not backwards so this did make me question whether I miss out on potential self development opportunities. One thing I did take away from this however was to think about if I was told I would only have three years left what I would do - I would definitely plan all the things I could fit in and not be angry about the short amount of time. However this came as a surprise to me because I've always been a bit nervous about the idea that at some point we just stop existing. I'm not religious therefore in my eyes we're just gone, so to actually figure out my view of death is more optimistic than that was interesting.
Rainwater's suggestion that the individual does not exist in religion also interested me. In a religion like Catholicism for example, it is widely believed that your path in life is already laid out before you, therefore removing free will. Does this mean a religious person has a more passive role in their own lives? If you believe that God creates every opportunity for you and has already planned your destiny, does this mean people do not believe in their 'self' as it's own entity? Christianity as a whole sees the self as a negative thing, distorted through sin so spend their whole lives trying to make up for this 'original sin'. [5]
Something I really didn't agree with in the book was Rainwater's idea that you could only rely on yourself - that all relationships are temporary and essentially can't be trusted. Possibly the most important thing in my life is my relationships to my mum, partner and friends; Rainwater's view of the self as isolated sounded incredibly lonely. I much preferred Gidden's theory of pure relationships with love and companionship at the centre. When I'm thinking about what kind of designer I am and what means a lot to me in general, personal relationships are high up the list.
Giddens also sites Peter Berger's idea of the pluralisation of life worlds - the idea that we have a public and a private self. I feel like this has become even more prevalent in the digital age with our public selves being seen by thousands more people than at any other point in history. In a way though social media must straddle both of these worlds - it's public facing but (some) people put their private thoughts out to the world, revealing more of their private self. With fast paced technology comes more choice. Previously people that grew up in certain places would only know certain traditions however we all have a world full of knowledge and experience at our fingertips now. I wonder if this means tradition is breaking down as there is less situational geography involved in social life and friendship groups? We are no onger bound by our situation.
Further Research
Self Expression/The Selfie
To further my research I decided to look into one of the most popular trends of the 21st century - the selfie, or portraiture as it was originally called.
A self portrait is the representation of the artists self, admittedly the self they want you to see which may not always be the true self. It is a way for people to express themselves through whatever medium they choose. I love the self portraits that leave something up to the imagination, ones where you have to guess what is going on or how they managed to paint themselves in that way for example the Lucien Freud portrait (second down on the left). It makes you wonder what was going on at the time and how he managed to capture the water effect in a painting.
The first recorded selfie in its current form was in 1839 and was of a shop owner called Robert Cornelius. (It was not, as Paris Hilton claimed, invented by herself and Britney in 2006). However, self portraits have existed for as long as art itself in the form of self portraiture. However, as Hasken mentioned in the lecture this week, there is now a culture of if you didn't take the picture you weren't there, owing a lot of your self identity to being able to take the right photo at the right time. [6]
Whereas previous eras the self portrait was an exhibition of skill and method and captured a specifically chosen moment in the subjects life, since the smartphone gained popularity, a selfie is a much more throwaway thing. People take selfies all of the time, it is estimated that 93 million selfies are taken per day (article here) I think the meaning behind capturing the self through an image is losing meaning through over exposure. With the growth of technology it seems to me that the modern day selfie is a far cry from the expressive, skilled art of the self portrait which for centuries was used to tell you everything about the subject, the self.
Personally for me a modern day selfie doesn't tell you much about a person at all. There are filters being used and dozens of similar looking pictures. The article I mentioned above also mentions that people take on average 450 selfies a year, that is more than one a day. Surely the more common something is the less meaning it has. Although this isn't true in every case, like the first 'out of this world' selfie (above, bottom right) taken by an astronaut doing an EVA (Extravehicular activity) on the International Space Station.
While some selfies can indeed be throw away, some show a mood, an expression, a moment in time, a moment in history or just a moment you want to remember. Self expression has taken many forms over the years, but one thing has stayed the same - it is a way for people to capture themselves however they choose and allow their audience to question the identity of the subject, what they represent and who they are.
Workshop Challenge
How can graphic design enable you to communicate your core values at this moment on your course?
I think these 20 words are what is important to me as a designer and as a person -
These are the five words that I think are the most important -
Mood Boards
Imagination - I have always valued imagination in everything I do. Imagination helps you to problem solve, to entertain yourself and to express yourself. From pretending to be an astronaut as a kid to being able to imagine yourself in the shoes of your target audience as a designer, imagination is key. I think for me imagination is linked to ambition - even the craziest ideas can be made reality with imagination, ambition and work. Without imagination we never would have landed on the moon or have electricity for example.
Curiosity - Since I was young I have always been curious about everything. I want to know how everything works and why it works. This has really helped me in design, whenever I begin a new project I can't wait to start researching and finding out all I can about the subject. I think being curious is really advantageous as it helps you learn, improve and gives you countless ways to express yourself.
Optimistic - I am optimistic sometimes to a fault. Put it this way, I thought the pandemic would have been over by my 30th... which was on April 23rd 2020. I think optimism goes a long way, I live with the assumption that everything will turn out well, it has always made situations less stressful.
Laughter - People have always said to me that I laugh a lot and loudly. I have one of those full body laughs where I throw my head back and laugh from the stomach. I know it's a bit of a cliche but whether in an office, at home, or in an awkward situation, laughter is the best medicine. It relieves stress, adds to general happiness and sometimes puts things into perspective.
Learning - I think my love of learning is linked to curiosity. I love learning new things everyday, it helps to broaden horizons and keep your mind active. I also think learning really helps with being a designer - every time I learn something new I think it makes me a better, more authentic and sensitive designer. Curiosity makes me want to find out about new things but learning helps me to understand them.
Reflection
When designing my mood boards and writing about why they were important to me, I realised how intrinsically linked my words are - mainly in two ways.
Curiosity, Learning & Imagination - I think these two ideas both feed into each other. My sense of self is so rooted in being curious and interested in everything around me that I think I sometimes overlook the fact that this leads to constantly learning things too. I think to be a good designer you need to be infinitely curious and a lifelong learning.
Imagination, Optimism & Laughter - These all improve your mental health and general wellbeing, which in turn improve me as a designer. In order to be truly free and creative, it's far better to be happier and not stressed, imagination, optimism and laughter all help with this.
Single Visual Expression
The first thing I thought for my single vision expression was the idea of construction - it's all about what I am made of, the things that make me, me. I really like the idea of going with a blueprint theme, it represents the core construction of me and also is a nod to my background in architecture.
I also noticed that most of my 20 words were based on feeling and emotion rather than logic, such as encouraging, enthusiastic, optimistic and compassionate. If I'm going to come up with a single visual that represents who I am as both a designer and a person, it has to be focussed around the heart. So I started with sketching out the heart in different forms to see which style I preferred.
My immediate feeling was to steer clear of the valentines type hearts - overdone, too cutesy and I don't like the way it looks. I really like the idea of having an anatomically accurate heart with the construction lines. However I think my expression of self needs more than just the heart - it needs something else to represent the words from my mood board - laughter, imagination, curiosity and learning using my previous research.
The development of the heart idea was to add further construction lines and technical drawings of the icons I think represents my 4 remaining words the most. From the initial sketch (above) I then developed my final illustration (below).
I then realised that there are four quadrants in the heart which could each represent one of my mood board words, this would make the blueprint more authentic - showing exactly what I am made up of. After thinking more about my single vision piece I realised that it was a bit flat, this was meant to represent me, how I am and what kind of designer I am. Then I had the idea of creating a GIF that shows the heart beating surrounded by the representative icons.
The heart represents optimism - always beating and always looking forward to the next great thing. Optimism is at the centre of who I am.
The right atrium represents curiosity - a telescope, finding everything interesting.
The left atrium represents imagination - the ability to think outside the box and find inspiration in anything.
The right ventricle representing laughter - the best medicine, one of the things I enjoy doing most in the world.
The left ventricle represents learning - the constant search for knowledge and continued growth.
Summary
This was another great week of content - I've always been quite fascinated with what makes us us and how we grow into the people we are. It was a very reflective week. Psychology is such a multi faceted subject that I can't expect to learn everything in one week. I did find the content slightly overwhelming as there was a lot of different technical terms to understand. Looking at the way we express ourselves and the important of the selfie was also pretty eye opening, I had no idea it was such an old concept, I assumed it came about at the same time as the smartphone or at least digital camera so I was interested to find out as soon as the camera was invented the selfie essentially came about.
The first workshop task of describing myself in 20 words then narrowing it down to five and making mood boards was very reflective and an interesting way to think about what makes me, me. On reflection the word procrastination should have been included but I instead went for more positive words. This was my first experience of creating mood boards and I think I need to look deeper into this. I enjoyed making them but I don't think the result was what I wanted - they were too uniform and neat and I don't think they represent me like I intended. Given more time I would definitely redo the mood boards with more research.
I am really pleased with my final piece. I started the week slightly struggling how I was going to grasp representing myself in one single expression. People are complicated - they're made up of infinite things I was a bit overwhelmed. However, when I started with 20 words, whittled it down to five and made mood boards I realised I was thinking about this all wrong. The task wasn't asking me to describe everything about myself in a visual expression, it was the most important parts. Once I had it narrowed down to 5 words I found it a lot easier to think of ideas.
Blue prints seemed like a natural development for me as it not only relates to my background in architecture but also the idea that these words are not everything, they are just the foundations of who I am. I also really like the aesthetic and the typography fit in well with the blue print draft theme..
If I had more time I would develop the technical drawing further, specifically for the atriums and ventricles. While I am, happy with the overall look, these four are more like icons than technical drawings. I specifically struggled with technically drawing a laughing mouth so I would also try and improve this.
Peer Review and DIscussion
References
[1] Karchmer, K (2019). Seeing Red. UK: Tiller Press. p87.
[2] Hambrick, D, Ullén, F, Mosing, M. (2016). Is Innate Talent a Myth?. Available: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-innate-talent-a-myth/. Last accessed 15/02/21.
Buckingham, W (2011). The Big Philosophy Book. UK: DK. p100-141.
[3] Konnikova, M. (2013). How Facebook Makes Us Unhappy. Available: https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/how-facebook-makes-us-unhappy. Last accessed 15/02/21.
[4] Aspiration (2014). [Online]. Directed by Matthew Frost. USA. Iconoclast. [Viewed 15/02/21] Available from YouTube
[5] Britannica. (2021). The human as the image of God. Available: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christianity/The-reborn-human. Last accessed 15/02/21.
[6] Zetlin, M. (2019). Taking Selfies Destroys Your Confidence and Raises Anxiety. Available: https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/taking-selfies-anxiety-confidence-loss-feeling-unattractive.html. Last accessed 18/02/21.
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