declan

Social stratification is the foundation on which economic theories lie. Situating people into a lower, middle and upper class generate the drive for a capitalistic society one concerned with profit. Whether that profit is economic, social, environmental or political is independent of the individual but the pursuit to enrich our lives is a definitive property of a capitalistic society.  

Basing the concept of my installation upon this system I wanted to create a discourse in the generalized thinking around what we conceive to be profit - as an idealistic pursuit for individual pleasure. We may pursue this individual profit as a sacrifice of another profit; we may sacrifice economic profit through charity, for the gain of social profit within a community – this is often why nearly all charities present some form of recognition after donation. With that being said, people may give anonymously which would then disrupt this ideology, unless it was the pursuit of individual pleasure in isolation from society (knowing you gained a profit of respect from yourself). I’m fascinated with this search for profit and how communities may be just the foundation for which our individual desires of: feeling a part of a group or to be accepted, can thrive upon.

 This individual profit of social return is easily demonstrated through collaboration where a group comes up with ways to reach a mutual understanding to reach an objective. Collaboration becomes an equally shared profit of return between a group of individuals which is the essence of a community – each individual gaining equal share of profit. Red Hong Yi’s ‘Zhang Yimou Portrait’, shows us how collaboration can create a shared profit within community. Yi uses a typology of socks to create a portrait of Chinese film director Zhang Yimou, painstakingly pinning each sock to rows of pegs that make up an oversized portrait frame held together by bamboo. Yi is commenting on the social system of the lower class and their traditional methods of hanging washing while giving credit to a director whose filmography denotes traditional Chinese culture. The metaphorical interpretation of her art was oblivious to the society in which she installed her art in, however, needing help standing her art on bamboo struts individuals rushed in to help erect the structure. With an objective in which collaboration was necessary the group of individuals created the foundation of a communal society – one which all members shared an equal return of fulfillment in the erection of the installation. It’s important to understand however that not all individuals within the community will share in equal profit. Throughout the process an elderly lady insisted that she erect the bamboo strut herself, selfishly pursuing a greater return of profit from the collaboration. This disruption to the community structure would expect a communal collapse however the community adapted and exchange of profits were made by members within the community.

To test this theory of class structure and individual profit, I developed an economic system in which individuals would be assigned a social class that they would just have to accept – similar to the arbitrary nature of class assignment at birth. Each class would have an indication of wealth where they would essentially be entitled to ‘resources’ from which I’ve laid out upon a table. The lower class will be given 10% of the resources to share between them, the middle class 20% of the resources and the upper class 70% of the resources. These items I’ve chosen are pieces of chocolate as they are indicative of indulgence within society.

 There will be a set of rules signed by the political authority in the room, the class tutor, which will set out to denote the class system and ability to exchange wealth, however you can only exchange class rather than chocolate. The hope is to create a de-regulated socialization that comments upon the state of individual return and whether individuals will sacrifice individual profit in the exchange of shared profit.  

 Refrences

 Priester, M., Mendelson, A. (2013), Income Inequality, retrieved from

http://inequality.org/income-inequality/

 Irwin, N. (2015), The $179 Million Picasso that Explains Global Inequality, retrieved from

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/14/upshot/the-179-million-picasso-that-explains-global-inequality.html

 Hong Yi, R. (2015), Zhang Yimou Portrait, Retrieved from

http://redhongyi.com/portfolio/zhang-yimou/

 Hassel Studio, Hong Yi, R. (2012), Behind the scenes with Red - the making of the Zhang Yimou portrait [YouTube video]. Available from

The approach for assessment 2 initially began with thoughts and ideas around exclusion within community – something we are confronted with during our first years of schooling. I wanted to create an atmosphere in the room that responded to the question indirectly – the collective feeling the audience would feel being excluded from the performance. What I decided on was an act of leisure where the community of the classroom would be excluded and the collaborative assessment of myself being selfish and narcissistic. Conceptually I felt it had weight but lacked substance

 I began thinking about wealth and why some people are rich and some people are poor. I went to the best example I knew to find this living process of difference in wealth the CBD – where homelessness is contrasted by excessive wealth and success. I began taking photos indicative of this discourse as shown below.

This developed the basis around the course of class structure and how arbitrary of a system it is. We are born into a lower, middle or upper class and most often we stay within that class. This pursuit we undertake however to reach for the next class or a certain ‘profit’ within our class is an individual pursuit. Whether that may be social profit, economic profit or political profit – each system has a certain class structure of success. This euphemism of capitalism was hard to experiment with being of the elusive nature of theory. I decided to experiment where I could however. The act of not leaving a tip at a restaurant and the reaction from staff as opposed to the reaction when leaving a tip, walking to a coffee shop five cents short and noticing the staff sacrificing a small financial profit for gain in social profit - allowing the change to not factor into the price. These ‘experiments’ I conducted created the foundation on which the final assessment piece rests.