..:: ATOPIA - the polylogic e-zine ::..

IDentity/eyedentity (ATOPIA no. 4 - 2/2004)

“What we are is what we appear to be”. In a fundamentally optical world, entities affirm their existence through their visual appearance: Corporate identities, logos, brandings - today, more than ever, identity is moulded through visibility. If the U.S. immigration now starts collecting the biometrical fingerprints of the incoming foreigners, this is only the most salient, “visible” aspect of a tendency towards “generalized visibility” which has to be questioned.

Identités. Interfaces entre politique et esthétique chez Jacques Rancière

Written by Alain Deneault; Ludger Schwarte; Emmanuel Alloa (Berlin)
The work of the French philosopher Jacques Rancière is characterized by an aesthetic approach to the political and a political approach to the aesthetic. In an outplaced "polylogue", (at least) three voices discuss possible interfaces of the political and the aesthetic starting from the question of identity.
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Visual identity and virtual community

Written by Karin Y. Lu (Atlanta)
Virtual spaces are an open stage to experiment, create and transform identities. Karyn Y. Lu investigated the history of virtual communities on the Net and their specific realms of vision (avatars, webcams), reflecting on the "atopia" of the Net as a "social laboratory" for identities.
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Oriente e Occidente. L'identità in questione

Written by Giangiorgio Pasqualotto (Padova)
What is "the East"? Can the West be defined in another way than the opposite of what it has always constructed as its counterpart. Pasqualotto, maybe the most eminent defender of intercultural philosophy in Italy sums up the characteristics of traditional West/East-identities and draws the outline of what could become - beyond the oppositive or exclusive logic - a "practice of philosopy as comparison".
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An embassy for invisible identities

Written by Tristan Wibault (Bruxelles)
Since 2001 the abandoned Somali embassy in Brussels has become an "atopia", a non-place within the state where migrants (illegals to the law) can live while they wait for their permits. Tristan Wibault asks what it implies to exist without an identity on paper, forced to avoid any visible exposure.
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Ecce homo. Holbeins Porträt des Kaufmanns Georg Gisze

Written by Fabian Goppelsroeder (Berlin)
Only at first glance is Hans Holbein's portrayal of the rich merchant Georg Gisze (1532) a display of wealth and power. The longer we observe the painting, the more imperfections and disharmonies become visible, casting a doubt on the firmness of Gisze's and on identity in general.
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Ojos / Eyes

Written by Javier Salgueiro (La Paz/Berlin)
The subject "eyeDENTITY" inspired the Bolivian photographer Salgueiro and his model Anja Wilhelmi
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