_01 ABSTRACT
The United States is currently confronting its capitalist1, heteronormative2, patriarchal3, white supremacist4 foundations, and there has been an increasingly prominent push for reform and eradication of this oppressive structure. The current structure favors the cisgender, heterosexual, affluent, neurotypical, able-bodied white male, while those who fall outside of these parameters are deemed as “Other,” an alternate state of Being.
Our understanding of what it means to Be was defined by philosophers like Rene Descartes and Martin Heidegger, and through their privileges of living within this same capitalist-heteronormative-patriarchal-white supremacist society, gave themselves the authority to define their existence as what it means to Be. A large fracturing of the definition of Being can be seen though, with the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic providing a pause in these rigid concrete societal expectations and oppressions that provide the structure through which we define our identity and sense of Being. When confronted with the empty space to turn inward, people found themselves reanalyzing and reconstructing their own sense of purpose and identity, emerging the isolation as an entirely new person5.
With this thesis, I intend to analyze real-life scenarios of transformed, reconstructed, and fluidly-shifting identities, referring to shifts in the understanding of our own sense of Being. I will explore how art and design-making can aid in mimicking these opportunities to turn inward for the purpose of self-invention and self-reconstruction. I aim to suggest new modes of viewing our sense of self, as something that is constantly changing by the addition or the absence of the society around us.
2 See importance of LGBTQ+ inclusion in the workplace and media representation
3 See examples of how the #MeToo Movement has helped to challenge the abuses of men in power
4 See the BLM Movement and the death of George Floyd bringing further awareness to structural racism
5 See discussion on how the pandemic has shifted many people’s sense of identity