"Introduction: Who Needs 'Identity'?" Stuart Hall

I think identity is something that is a really hard topic to deal with because it encompasses so much . I think Halls ideas about identity starting with the idea of identification is a good place to start. We see ourselves be identifying with a set of characteristics of a certain group and therefore it is a process of construction.

Thus because we construct are own identities they also change over time . Just like our identities change so do those of cultures , due to historical reasons such as globolization or colorization . These changes in cultural identity also effect personal identity as the groups we identify with change .

This idenitity isn't constructed through difference , we can only construct our identity if we can see the "other" . We find ourselves in what we lack. thus idenidy can only be formed where two different sides meet and identity can only exist at a site of conflict between two differing sides .

I think an artist who really embodies identity conflict is Adrian Piper. Because of her light colored skin she is able to pass for both black and white , witch allows her to embody two sides of racial identity politics . My favorite piece of work by her is her calling card series which really confronts the viewer to think about identity politics and why we create these sites of conflicts related to race in our society .

I think you can see it even more so in a reaction to Pipers work that I found on youtube where as any race can be placed into the card , calling on the universality of the problem .

I think both piece question why we have made racial identity such an issue and how it still continues to be a problem for many people today. We shouldn't judge people on their identities .

"From the Imperial Family to the Transnational Imaginary: Media Spectatorship in the age of Globalization" Robert Stam and Ella Shohat

In discussions of globalization and identity one must look at the media because they are the way we are able to interact with foreign places and peoples . Because the media has such a global reach it allows for culture to move around the world and outside of just one nation .Because or this the third and first worlds have become interlinked and depend on one another

I think in our society the term globalization has both negative and positive connotations . We see it as a way to interact with the world around us and all learn to live together as tolerant people but it also become a way with which to homogenize the cultures of the world . To avoid both extremes we need to find a place in the middle in which to exist.

Right now we seem to inhabit a world of neo-colonialism where the first world exports culture and the third world receives it . We can see an example with the show Bay-watch , which is the most watched show world wide mostly because it has been exported to so many countries . Yet here in the west we rarly see productions from other parts of the world other than a few telenovellas which is mostly due to the high number of Spanish speaking Americans.

All this exchange of information takes ideologies with it . Meaning that the west is exporting it's media and ideologies around the world. When people see the show friends on TV they want to live like the people they see on the show and adopt a more western lifestyle.

I think an artist who deals with this well is Banksy because he mixes pop culture media images to create new meanings and make us question the world we live in and how passive we have become to the media both that we produce on a larger scale and that we take in on a personally level.

"The South Kensington Museum and the Colonial Project" Tim Barringer

You never think when you are a child and going to museums that they could be impeding your world view , you see them as a place where you go to expand your mind and learn new things. But like everything else you have to use your own judgment and draw from many sources to learn the reality of a situation.

Once again it's amazing to me how little has changed in museums , they may try to hide it but they still take a very imperialist view just like history textbooks and other materials do.

I am reminded of a recent trip to the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa . It seems like every battle we were ever in we were the good guys , we were always fighting for the winning side and we're always justified in our actions. Which may or may not in many cases be true . Also in Ottawa at the National Musuem of art is a church that has been moved inside the art gallery which is reminiscent of the mosque at the Egyptian exhibit although a coffee shop has not been put inside the church it is still an odd feeling to walk inside and not be presented with what we associate with a religious environment.


I think that James Luna deals with this imperialist view of museums in his peice titled artifact peice , in which he places himself and some objects under museum cases. As a Native he is representing all the times that his people have been misrepresented in institutinal settings. The signs in the case point out things on his body and links them to stereotypes relating to Natives such as a sign saying scars due to excessive drinking .

“Displaying Sara Baartman, the ‘Hottentot Venus’ Sadiah Qureshi

Sara Baartman was taken from South Africa and tranfered to Europe as a curiosity . Because of her looks and the tribe from which she was from she was labeled the Hottentot Venus. Her body was put on display in Europe and curious on lookers paid to see her . Even in death her genitals were cut off and put on display.

In 1995 South Africa requested her body parts be returned and buried in the proper way of her tribe which represents black artists to reclaiming their image and sexuality as their own and not of that of the European Colonizers.

Also mentioned in the Article the work of Coco Fusco who put themselves on display in a cage as a new recently discovered tribe , they even charged people to see the male genitalia or to make the women dance . Her the audience took the role of the colonizer and objectify these new tribes people and treat them as if they were animals . It's amzing how many people believed the act and bought into it .