I.D.

This is my second year Video art class project. Thank you for the 5 persons who participated in this project, who inspire me all the time.



I.D., a short form for “identity”, a symbol that represents the meaning of identity. Similarly, elements I received from three of the five people are symbols. I also received a photo of me and my sister when we were young. All elements seem like codes that reveal my identity. On the other hand, I recognized that identity appeared in a fluid form rather than a fixed object. It is because there are multiple meanings interacting with each element. This made me wonder whether a symbol, languages or a still photograph can speak for themselves. Do we share the same thoughts when we are looking at the same symbol? Do our point of view changes according to different culture backgrounds? Is this song meaningful to you when you are reading the lyrics that have been translated? The above thoughts remind me of “punctum”, a term that introduced in Roland Barthes’s Camera Lucida:

Barthes refers to punctum as the element in a photograph that pricks or wounds the viewer. Punctum is not something that generally interests someone, such as a beautiful sunset or, most currently, a collapsing building, which might invoke a recollection of 9-11, thus a national identity. In locating punctum, Barthes wishes to locate only what he himself could see, not what others saw. Punctum was his way of forging individuality; it occurs when one least expects it. It is a small, overlooked detail. “The punctum, then, is a kind of subtle beyond – as if the image launched desire beyond what it permits us to see…”(C.L 59).

Barthes states that the importance of the punctum plays an important role that the meaning of a same photograph would be read differently according to different experiences of the viewers.

In this project, I am going to use punctum as an idea to remake elements came from these five people. Although meanings have been attached to each element when I recieved them, my mind gives a different interpretation from them. For me, experiences are usually appeared in a form of dynamic and personal depiction. Therefore, I would use videos to juxtapose with those still images/text , these juxtaposition could vary with different images/text. This process of remaking and remixing the represention of one’s identity demonstrate the complication of our mind, body and experiences. Symbols, languages and photographs represent our world ideally that generates a hypereality, to give us an I.D.