(What happens when you google this…)
An essay by Paul Pardi from Philosophy News website:
http://www.philosophynews.com/post/2015/01/29/What-is-Truth.aspx
Grace to You:
http://www.gty.org/resources/articles/A379/what-is-truth
What is The Truth.com
http://www.whatisthetruth.com/whatisthetruth/
Our dearest Wikipedia:
Identity is a very curious and intricate thing. One that I don’t think I will ever fully understand. Who are we really? How do you even begin to answer that… An online blogger, Lene Troubo, says ‘my identity during ‘school hours’ is defined by my job as a researcher. For the rest of day it is defined by my role as a parent. When I step into a church another identity defined by religion overlaps the other identities. When I am online, depending on which social media I am using, my online identity can be more or less predominant.’ (https://www.globaltrends.com/2013/02/25/the-many-faces-of-identity/).
Therefore what I extract from this and can agree with is that our identity is dependent on the environment we find ourselves, changing from one to another as we walk out of one room and into an other. I believe it is something we all experience; when I am at university I am my student self; focused, driven, perfectionist, aims and goals in mind. When I am at work, I am ‘just’ a seasonal sales assistant so I feel less powerful than I might do at university because my role at work is seen and treated as the lowest one in the ‘food chain’…and so that affects the identity I take on in that space; I am not me, I have a mask on, all I am is good customer service, an appropriate professional self, there is no personal or emotional connection to what I am doing or where I am. But, I do believe this changes wether you like what you are doing and where you are. When I am at home with my family, I am the middle child and I assume that role; I am the cheeky one, the one that makes noise, the one that breaks the rules and is a rebel!
The point is, we assume the roles that go with the environment we find ourselves. But what happens when there is no role to assume? When we are just walking down the streets and there is nothing to be but just ‘be ourselves’…? How is that identity constructed and what does it consist off? I believe we need things we ”identify” with to understand who we are. What we like tells us and others around us a lot about ourselves. ‘Identity is the story the modern I constructs and tells about the me’ (Self and Identity : Fundamental Issues: Fundamental Issues edited by Richard D. Ashmore Professor of Psychology Rutgers University, Lee Jussim Associate Professor of Psychology Rutgers University).
This is where fandoms come in. The way we dress is possibly the most obvious and popular way of comforting ourselves in who we are and telling those around us what we are about without actually having to verbalise it. So, if you are really into a certain music style, your dress style will show that. Specially if there is a style to go with that music. For example hip hop, rap or R’N’B, rock music and all it’s variations, K-Pop… They all have prominent styles that everyone can recognise. Therefore others will immediately classify you as a certain type of person or at least recognise your ‘vibe’ or taste which conveys ideas and values.
Same goes with if you are fan of manga for example, or super fans of Harry Potter, The Beatles, David Bowie, etc…There is a high chance it will show in your dress sense. You are communicating something about your story, your narrative. This narrative will feel unique to you because it is yours, it is personal. But the truth is you are not the only fan, you are part of a community of The Beatles fans for example. Your great love for your fandom that constructs a great part of your identity is therefore not so unique, but because of it you are part of something. It will socially integrate you (into one community) and at the same time socially differentiate you (from other communities).
With fashion comes mass-produced taste. Every community has a certain aesthetic when it comes to its fashion.Therefore there must be some codes to follow or fit in order to be a part of it, to recognise and to be recognised as a ‘true’ fellow fan. Therefore how personal are the choices you make if there are already set tastes?
What I am coming to is that maybe your identity is already set and chosen once you start liking something, once you become passionate about something. This brings me to think that maybe the more passionate you are about your fandom, the less personal your identity is? I will finish off with this quote from Ru Paul that will give us something to think about:
What I am interested in when it comes to celebrities is why the public is so interested in them, to the point where they feel the need to know about their personal lives, to strip them of all privacy. This intrigues me much more than the side of the star/celebrity, if they are the same as on TV or if that’s not the real person but just a mask. I personally cannot comprehend the fascination for other’s private lives. I can adore someone’s work and admire their talent, but I am still able to separate the work and the talent to the actual person. But most people can’t. But first of all, what exactly makes a celebrity? And is there a difference between a star, and a celebrity?
Looking into this subject and doing some research I remembered how the magazine Forbes publishes every year a list of the 100 biggest celebrities of the year. So, how do they judge this? Who makes their list and why?
Forbes uses a formula that takes into account; earnings, magazine covers, TV and radio appearances, internet hits, etc… So obviously, according to Forbes it has nothing to do with intelligence or talent but rather a combination of money and media. The fact that it is Forbes that publishes this list (a business magazine), implies that being a celebrity is purely a business. And a big one of that. So it is interesting to see how for these people on the list (and not), being a celebrity is their job not their personality or personal life considering how the public and fans have such a personal attachment and connection to these ‘celebrities’ and their lives. It is a strange transaction. Again, the fact that a business magazine is publishing this list and not People magazine for example, should make us question the nature of celebrity in our society today.
It reveals our fascination with money, celebrities and lists. Who gets on them and who doesn’t, and why. Specially nowadays with the rise of social media which has greatly changed what it means to be a celebrity and how easy it is to become one. It seems to me that before personas such as Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian leaking their sex tapes on the internet, you were a celebrity if you were an actor/actress, sports star or politician. But the rise of social media and the smartphone culture have changed the rules. It has changed how we treat celebrities and how they gain fame. For example celebrities such as Justin Bieber became world wide famous due to his youtube channel, putting his talent directly on a social platform. Then there are those who share their whole private lives on social media as a strategy to obtain fame, no talent involved (a.k.a Kim Kardashian and the whole damn troop). After, there are those who have been famous for a while and out of ideas of how to stay famous start using the strategy I just mentioned.
But this means that there a whole lot of people/celebrities out there doing the same thing. And every time there has to be something more extravagant or outrageous to share and show because the last one the fans are already bored with. And this brings the word ‘celebrity’ down to a very poor and pathetic one. Because as seen on social media nowadays people are ready to do almost anything to gain or keep their fame. That’s the sad truth of what being a celebrity means and what it means to love them. To me it smells slightly of desperation if we are willing to go that far and if we find someone not wearing panties on purpose (and sharing it) thrilling.
Check out this link below to see examples of brands who used user generated content, successfully.
For this particular task of creating user generated content, I chose to work with my fandom for Tarantino, my favourite director. I intend to create portraits or face swaps of Tarantino himself with the main characters of his movies, as I have always wondered (and maybe it was a fantasy) what it would be like to have Tarantino as one of his main characters in his main movies. He is such a brilliant director, and already has small roles in his movies, what would it be like if he pushed it further? I guess this explains what I am doing and why I am doing it. My outcome will be one or various images. They will probably take me around an hour to make. I will discuss the process later on in this post.
Here is the user generated content I created:
Last one had to be the best one…
All I did was a simple face swap through photoshop using tools such as lasso tool, rubber, feather, smooth, etc… I’m an expert, as you can tell.
Also found on tumblr, links below:
http://elliotfloyd.tumblr.com/image/152873775978
http://elliotfloyd.tumblr.com/image/152873718448
http://elliotfloyd.tumblr.com/image/152873737078
…Enjoy.
Today I will be reviewing the exhibition ‘’Game plan: Board Games Rediscovered’’ from the V&A Childhood Museum in Bethnal Green. The exhibition was designed by the studio Thomas.Matthews and opened on the 8th of October this year and the last chance to see it will be on the 23rd oF April. It is a showcase of over 100 object; board games from all over the world. It is a blend of traditional style exhibition and not; due to its’ interactive side which I witnessed families, couples or parent and child enjoy whilst learning the history of their favourite games.
The exhibition is broken down into four different squares; 1- Explores the history of chess going from Middle East, India, China to Europe. 2- Focuses on games from the 18th Century in Britain created with the purpose of entertaining while teaching. 3 – Discusses the design of popular games and their aesthetic evolution across the years. 4 – ‘Game Changer’, focuses on the impact of electronics and internet on the twentieth century games. It begins by trying to introduce and involve the public in its own game (play a game as you go along the exhibition and read the historical facts about the games). But it failed to pull me in. I didn’t even grasp the aim of the game, as there weren’t really any signs around that there was a game such as checker squares on the floor for example. I personally feel that for a game whose purpose was to suck the public right into this atmosphere of ‘playful feel like a kid/ nostalgic trip down memory lane’… it greatly lacked of visual support.’
But that is not to say that it didn’t have positive sides to it. The name of the exhibition definitely suits the conclusion I arrived to when I finished my visit. Although I didn’t find the exhibition specially enticing (being alone to see it must have been a factor), I cannot deny it was a rediscovery of all the classic board games that were invented throughout history. The exhibition is an educational documentation of the the beginnings of board games and their evolution. It was very interesting to find out the origin of the most popular games and how they inspired others to be created. For example seeing how one game was a combination of three.
The segment of the exhibition I found most interesting was the one that revolved around the design of the board games, as the museum doesn’t only portray them as historic archives but also as aesthetic treasures. And it really was a treat, specially for an illustration student. I am not a game person, specially not a board game person, but what has always attracted me about them is their design, choice of colours, style of illustrations. As a child that is what mostly attracted me to them, although I never really played them. I just remember looking at my parents’ old games, taking them out of the cupboards, feeling the boxes, looking at the drawings, the colours, the tainted aged plastic of the dices and characters.. And as I walked through the exhibition that is what I saw once more. It was heart warming to learn the story behind the games my parents had played as children.
I enjoyed finding out about the stories behind these games, and the quotes distributed along the exhibition on the walls got me thinking about the whole idea of playing. For example; ‘’ We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing’’. I think this quote perfectly explains what games mean to us, to all of us. We keep playing, or games will always bring us joy, excitement and strong feelings because as humans, we cling on to our youth. The past is certain, unlike the future. The feelings and memories associated to the past are fixed; written in our childhood books, filmed in our favourite cartoons, stamped on our favourite board games. There is carefree, promised excitement, joy and innocence in our games. As we were when we were kids. Games are universal; there will always be a game for anyone from anywhere, from any age, games adapt… Because there will always be a player.
End of the journey!
Even though this avery strong, determined personal statement, I happen to agree with it, on some level. I believe the means of entertainment that are out there in our present society, specially television, are dangerous, pushing us the consumers to an unmeasured and thoughtless, unquestioned level of consumerism.
Television, is either a means to bring back emotions/memories of nostalgia, happiness and excitement…or one to numb all the other emotions we prefer not to feel and deny. This specific desire to silence unwanted emotions, I believe drives the consumers to watch programs or shows where very little amount of thinking is necessary. ‘’Brainless’’; as it was put in the previous quote.
These said programs, things such as ‘Keeping Up with The Kardashians’, ‘Big Brother’, ‘East Enders’, ‘Made in Chelsea’, ‘Made in Essex’, etc.. serve to numb and distract the public to such a deep level that they end up being absorbed into that word and forgetting theirs. This means that in some way, the life they see in these shows is better than theirs, that is what they have come to admire and aspire to. This is dangerous because they are deeply absorbed into shows that only aspire to superficial matters, matters of possessions, ‘luxury’ and reputation… The people they aspire to are people who aspired to the same type of people they have aspired to..And that’s a dangerous and unhealthy cycle.
The funny thing is is that most of these shows are called ‘reality shows’… How can reality, be a show?
There is another side of ‘numbing’ to television. One we may have less responsibility in. And that’s where the greater power uses the means of television to distract us from the more important matters. For example, it is very convenient for the government that most of the public is at home watching ‘brainless’ programs, simply because, they don’t want you to be an awaken civilised thinking individual. And my second example would be; take a look at the politicians in America and their ways of distracting the public; Obama, Hillary and Trump, all three going on Jimmy Fallon’s late night show over and over again, showing the public how close they are to the real people, how funny they are… All of this advertisement, it’s basically saying ‘Don’t worry about me, I’m just a cool funny guy who just wants to make you happy.’ The actual truth is that whilst you were watching them rap with Jimmy Fallon they were throwing bombs in 11 different countries and not fulfilling those promises for which they got elected.
SALOMÉ GAUTIER 