6 EXISTENCE
BECOMES DESIGN
Does one even need to seek
one’s own distinctive identity?
Does one even need to seek
one’s own distinctive identity?
One’s positioning in society determines the well-being of the whole, the mutual performance grows into an overall legible image of the current human evolution, which, as the first generation, we are able to observe live. Thanks to technology, in the last 30 years the perception of information exponentially developed, together with it the general cultivation of our personas. Hypothetically everybody is a designer nowadays since society requires it, after all, one has to design one’s Self to present it in order to survive. ‘The ultimate problem of design concerns not how I design the world outside, but how I design myself - or, rather, how I deal with the way in which the world designs me.’ [23]
Multi-media constantly pressures us to imitate the perfect live life, by taking care not only of our appearance, but also our inner Self. The Dutch graphic designer Mieke Gerritzen states that society shaped a new phenomenon in the Self-help industry. ‘The media provides us with an image of an existence in which we are rich, beautiful, happy and successful to be. We know product design, interior design, graphic design, interaction design and fashion design. And now there is also self-design.‘ [23] Authentication became a trend, most of the humans who harvest their Self publicly think their sincere authentication is an artwork, it’s a task that craves research, reflections, analysis, realizations, observations, and actions. In my opinion, one needs the deprivation of all the influxes, at least those that are pointing towards a very specific direction, to truly evolve into convincing original. To be saved from our Selves we have to not be ourselves. It seeks one’s responsibility towards the world to call for the de-globalization to be different.
Self-transparency is a very questionable topic, Mieke writes about a need to form a new defence mechanism that is a reaction to the flood of images that comes from the Outer world, ‘our bodies, with the old genetic transmission, have not kept pace with the new language-produced cultural transmission of technology. So now, when social control breaks down, we must expect to see pathological destruction.’ [24] To some extent this means playing 21st-century hide and seek with each other - against privacy, the right to be free, control over our data, and systematically taken decisions. Does even one have still something to hide? ‘Existence becomes design. Who you have become is based on a combination of circumstances that you have combined with your own choices… Privacy is an unpopular problem of our time.’ [23]
The culture that we live in is characterized by its mobility and connection. We unite as a clan of social creatures, herd together as sheep or ants. We have to remember we are still the biological species, well-behaved animals, just with the most intricate network of systems. Not robots yet, nevertheless living in the reversed world in which we are voluntarily exchanging our privacy for comfort. To get it back one has to give up online existence, which means no smartphone, no apps, no online banking, no fb events, nothing. Seeking for identity offline, designing the private space where one has to identify as anything else than just a person.
Considering the possibility to function as an offline-designer, who gave up all the desirable Personas, I can imagine one would gain one’s authenticity. We can say that we are all aware of the fact that the democratization of technologic has made possible to resume or remix somebody else’s work, however, society hides it from itself, dealing with ordinariness is just a never-ending curve, we are walking on the moving path that is exponentially leading upwards. In general copying, same as automatization is perceived as something negative, non-creative. Mieke writes that ‘creation apparently requires influence.’ The digital empire of online art completes itself in a database for satisfaction our current information needs, from adding your own inspiration to creating united growth, because every idea is a connection in itself.
Re-designing our Selves is the best way to shape the new phenomenon of Self-help. Same as re-organizing our lives about something else than the systems, although systems bring us plenty, ‘they feed us, keep us warm, safe and healthy - humans can do it easily to become a prisoner of one’s own organizational capacity.’ [25] Stop for a while, think your action through, don’t rush with your decisions, remember that you are not a robot or part of any robotic evil structure, facilitate your existence. This all is not about the controlling, it’s the opposite of it, it’s a purification.
One feels a desire to experience oneself as a part of a larger cultural whole. The desire to know both oneself and one’s environment, then the identity is an imaginary distillate of cognition of both. Therefore, if we’d not experience any authentication or would not recognize any identity in ourselves, we would simply surrender to a pure being and become primitive animals. Personas as an identities, makes us differ from animals.