Sunday, March 4, 2012

Evolving


This project will attempt to deal with the relation that each person has with his/herself, and how does time play a role on this

The starting point comes from the way that philosophy studies identity: identity comes from the word "identical", therefore  identity is treated as a way of sameness, sameness to oneself. Several philosophers such as Hegel, Hume or Locke studied identity and this issue of sameness. As in maths, sameness, or equalness its represented by "=", Then we can say that A=A where A is oneself

Hegel said that this identity is only an affirmation, because in fact, there is not only "A", there is "A=A", there is another A outside A, to represent sameness we just don't say "A", it must be equal to something.

Then, how does it come we are equal to ourselves, but we can't properly proove it? Here enters the concept of continuity, and how time affects identities, Hume and Locke worked on this. Usually, when we think about identities, or people, we tend to think about it (or them) as a static thing in the time, that doesn't change, but that's not how it is, isn't it? we are always evolving, meeting new people, having new ideas...As Per told me some days ago, there is a statement, which is quite true, that says "You can't bathe in the same river twice", because it won't be the same water you bathed in the first time...

But rivers usually have a name, and are thought of as something continuous, because they are always carrying water. Same happens with people and their identities...they are always evolving, changing, but they are still the same person...And that is thanks to the consciousness, memories and personality of each one, through time, we proove our identities...Such as you can't know a person from the first time you met him/her, it's continuity and time what allows us to have an identity...It's being permanently changed even if it's only small changes, one is equal to oneself also because of this...as time is something we can't elude, and thanks to it we are always evolving, that is also part of each one's identity...So evolving is also a proove of our identity and our equalness to ourselves

This is the argumentation for a sculpture hanging from the ceilling that is thought to represent a drop of water made of cloth. In Spain we say "identical as two drops of water". A drop of water is quite appropiate for this project, it's fluid, it's always falling, therefore moving through time, it's a symbol of equalness (at least in Spain)...

Made of different pieces of cloth, meant to represent how we change on our surface, but we still preserve our identity through time...Usually changes in the way we dress up, style and such are the first thing that people notices when somebody has changed/evolved...But it's still the same person, it's just the surface what changes...

So, as the drop falls, the different pieces of cloth are falling behind, but the drop of water remains the same through time...It's always evolving, but it's always the same

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