I have already researched Donna Haraway and referenced Gucci’s use of her concepts, now I feel to analyse the specific cyborg show further as it will be a good reference and way to contextualise my work in current fashion media.
- I am still heavily influenced by the Gucci manifesto for a/w 2018, which summarised Foucault’s general concepts on identity which he defined throughout his life. I found a copy of the manifesto and broke it down in order to help me construct my proposal. I also loved the set itself and will use this as a reference for my own.
“The challenge of the disciplinary power is to impose a precise identity on the subject. This operation is carried out placing the subject inside binary fixed categories, as the normal/abnormal one, with the specific intent of classifying, controlling and regulating the subject. The regulative strategies prove so alluring that the subject voluntarily chooses to stick to that particular categorisation, claiming its positioning inside a given social structure. In this frame of reference, the regulation of the living body uses the concept of identity as a device of bio-political control”
- Core Foucault concept of Disciplinary power – traditionally kings and monarchs using their power in very public displays of barbaric power. There also exists public symbols which allow the public to question and rebel against this power structure behind closed doors.
- Provided with a structured identity as opposed to constructing one
“Identity, though, is neither a natural matter nor a pre-set category, which can be imposed with violence. It’s not an immutable and fixed fact, rather a social and cultural construction and, as such, it’s a matter of choice joining, invention. Identity, thus is a never-ending process, keen on new determinations each time. The consciousness of how everything is socially built, even who we are, opens a field of fresh possibilities to performatively explore. A field of liberty and responsibility in which anybody can become who he/she really wants to be, getting social expectations and personal desires back in the game.”
- Self-expression
- Balance between social expectations and personal desires – a play off of what we are expected to do
“The subjectivities embodying Gucci’s pluriverse move in this field, which is ethic and political at the same time. They represent the invitation to diverge, not conforming to univocal and other-directed identity models, and the encouragement to spread other ways of thinking about ourselves that are able to violate pre-set categorisations. In this regard, what can seem atypical, anomalous, flawed to a normalising eye, acquires a new legitimacy. A new breath. The courageous affirmation of the self and its singularity.”
- Queer theory – a sociological study of people who are thought of as different
- Singularity – triple entendre – 1) an unusual trait 2) a point at which a function takes and infinite value – complicating identity and having a diverse spectrum 3) a hypothetical moment in time when artificial intelligence and other technologies are so advanced that humanity undergoes a dramatic and irreversible change
“The collection goes further beyond, taking the shape of a genuine Cyborg manifesto (DJ Haraway), in which the hybrid is metaphorically praised as a figure that can overcome the dualism and the dichotomy of identity. The cyborg, in fact, is a paradoxical creature keeping together nature and culture, masculine and feminine, normal and alien, psyche and matter. Conflicting with any category grid, the Cyborg is the expression that blends different evolving identities, built on multiple belongings, that transgress the normative discipline.”
- The possibilities that identity is something that could be forges for yourself
- Contemporary evolving nature – infinite connectivity – thanks to the internet, people can take an aspect of their identity and broadcast that all over the world
- Hybrid identity – someone from across the globe could identify within that a piece of their own. Identity which they had never been able to articulate, so this would help them better understand who they are
- ‘otherness’ is punished by society – systems of punishment in place to force us to monitor ourselves
- They hybrid is metaphorically praised as a figure that can overcome the dualism and the dichotomy of identity.
“Gucci cyborg is post-human: it has eyes on its hands, faun horns, dragon’s puppies and doubling heads. It’s a biologically indefinite and culturally aware creature. The last and extreme sign of a mongrel identity under constant transformation. The symbol of an emancipatory possibility through which we can decide to become what we are.”
- Complex systems of power which are enforcing norms – woven into the fabric of life – embedded into own codes and habits
- Accept the paradox of identity – enforce fewer norms on other people.
- Creating of identities through affinities.