Elche Spain

Final Take-Home

Identities

As human beings, when we see a person of a different race, of an opposing look, a person who carries an obvious divergent cultural background, we have a natural tendency to think stereotypically. We take the little that we know, or think we know about their cultivation and their race’s common practices, and we make that their identity. The fallacy with this natural tendency, besides the fact that it’s simply ignorant, is that in a lot of cases people can have a completely different life than that of their naturally-known compatriots. In Y. Dubalin’s “A City in a Building: Paris Subversions” and Multiplicity’s “House Factories: Elche Disseminations,” this common misconception is illustrated through the proof of two separate groups of people, retaining unique identities.

Dubalin’s short essay, “A town in a city: Paris subversions” illustrates a wonderful representation of where this has ensued. In 1970 Paris, what was once large residential complex holding urban middle class occupants, is today hosting a metaphoric city, ran completely by Chinease and Asian immigrants. This “city” is only metaphoric because it doesn’t have the commonly known geographical characteristics of a city; by looking at this building from the outside, one could not have any possible idea of what the inside really looks like. However, it is in fact a city in the way it runs, and the way it’s inhabitants live; from the inside of the building, every characteristic of a city can be seen. “A fluid and agile residential culture has changed the identity of this large building.” (Dubalin 81) Furthermore, not only has the building’s identity been transformed, this completely alters the identity of the building’s (city’s) Asian inhabitants. Whatever one’s cultural background is, living in this building, they hold that identity, but also gain a new identity simultaneously; These people then have a multiplicity of identities.

In Multiplicity’s “House Factories: Elche Disseminations,” a town in Elche, Spain has perpetually been known for a containing a significant portion of the shoe industry. Though recently, the town’s last 15 years have undergone a massive and drastic expansion. The town of Elche has 200,000 occupants, almost all of which work long hours daily from their homes, specifically for the shoe industry. People can work from their houses because white vans are always traveling throughout the whole town, picking up assembled parts from every house. Globalization has taken this town, 200 kilometers north of Valencia, and mutated it into a giant factory, and it is now a “network of production points” that embraces itself; a series of production points in that various parts of products are assembled throughout the entire landmark. But, as awful and discerning as this sounds, some of the people that live here feel that they benefit from this industry, and are actually grateful that they can work and be “home” at the same time. For example, one women with a new-born child says, “With one foot I moved the cradle and with the other foot i sewed.” (Multiplicity 156) She could only do this because she worked at home. However on the other hand, some of the inhabitants complain and say “they use us” or they’re being employed illegally, which correlates with less than legal pay. In Elche, this shoe industry creates a completely new hybrid identity for it’s occupants. These people live for work; they’re hybrid, only in that they make it possible for the selfish “other” classes around the globe to benefit.

As humans we do have this natural tendency to think stereotypically. For most of us, if we saw someone from either of these places randomly put into a room, we would think about what we have learned about their “race”, from our experiences. We have no idea, the identities some of the people on this earth really hold, where they really work, or even where they really live. Physical landscapes and landmarks mutating can add on to and transform an identity. Both of these essays illustrate perfectly the fallacies of our ignorant instincts. Thinking “essentially”, and seeing that people have a multiplicity of identities, may be the only way that we can overcome this.

Elche/Building from Distance

street view les olypiades, paris

Les Olypiades

Elche

jessica KNAP

My Case study focused on the African American modern installation artist Fred Wilson. Wilson creates and explores with humorous and ironic metaphors of excavation of forgotten ideas in museum archives. Taking artifacts, archeological findings, and other items given to him he uses the history behind these items to create a new form of special art. A common theme consists of his expressing feelings of being left out due to his skin color and his acknowledgement of black artists exhibitions not being prevalent in galleries and museums. Wilson describes his inspiration and art, “I get everything that satisfies my soul from bringing objects that are in the world and manipulating them, working with special arrangements, and then having things produced the way I want to see them.”