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My Class Creative Thining Exhibition Friday 16 Nov 2007 from 7pm to 9pm.

Do you know what is behind this poster?
My Class of 49 people will act in this creative performance.
Will upload the performance pictures/videos once it is available from our publicity/marketing/advertising side, stay tune.

G17 CT Final Exhibition - Conformity
A Painted Canvas

Conformity is the process that causes a change in the belief or behaviour of an individual, either due to real or imagined pressure. Choices are made for, and not by, the individual, and even if he disagrees with these choices, he is often unable to overcome the pressure to conform to societal norms.

It is pervasive in every aspect of life. On a daily basis, conformity can be seen via peer pressure, where the individual conforms and abides by the decisions made by those around him. In such a situation, it is possible that the individual has himself chosen to adopt the behaviour and beliefs of a group. However, there exists a greater and subtler form of conformity that affects the individual on a subconscious level, over which he has no control, and often little, if any, awareness.

This intangible conformity exists in the form of societal norms. Societal norms do not exist because of any particular individual, but rather as part of the culture and thought of that age. Much like zeitgeist (the intellectual and cultural ‘spirit of the age’), this works on the subconscious level, whereby the individual follows a set of patterns and reasoning that has been instilled in him as he grows up as a part of society. In this sense, conformity has been slowly shaping the mindset of every individual from the moment they become a member of society.

Experiments conducted by Solomon Asch and Muzafer Sherif highlighted two forms of conformity, that of compliance and internalisation. Compliance refers to normative social influence, whereby the individual changes his public view to suit that of the majority even if he privately disagrees, while internalisation refers to informational social influence, whereby the individual changes his private view, believing that the majority is correct and he is wrong. It is this latter view of internalisation that is expressed in the art piece: true conformity, whereby the very thought process of the individual conforms to society.

An extreme example of conformity can be seen in Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, where, in Camazotz (a representation of Earth), the houses are ‘all exactly alike, small square boxes painted gray’, and even the children bounce their balls and skip their ropes to the same beat, in the same way, at the same time of day, failing which they get sent for reprogramming. They are all controlled by IT: the functional part of cloud of evil known as the Black Thing,
whose sole goal is the absolute conformity of society on Camazotz.

The message here is clear: the dark cloud of conformity blots out the sky, preventing individuals from flying freely. However, rather than being an outright criticism of conformity in society, the message of the art piece is that conformity is inevitable, and, as a part of society, we have already gone through this shaping and moulding; our thoughts and ideas have been conformed by society. It is only through the self-realisation of this process that we will be able to break free from the shackles of society, and truly express the individualism that makes each and everyone of us different, and not just clones of society.

How the piece works

By slotting the coloured card with the word ‘ME’ into the black voting box, the subject submits his individualism to the black void of conformity in society. By painting the canvas he is about to wear, the subject expresses his individuality and identity. As he makes his way through the gauntlet that represents society, he is subjected to various influences over which he has no control, and he is unavailable to prevent his canvas from being painted on. In this sense, the black (societal norms) overcomes the myriad of colours (individualistic views), one stroke at a time. This is a slow but steady process that occurs through the subject’s life as a part of society. The masked painters represent the intangible forces at work on the individual; the norms that are forced upon the individual are nameless and unknown in origin. Finally, as the subject reaches the end of the gauntlet, he is handed a little coloured card, with the word ‘society’ in black bleeding over it. This represents the pervasiveness of conformity in our lives, as it creeps over every last vestige of individualism. The poignancy of the piece stems from the physical contact as the subject is painted on, followed by the self-realisation at the end of the journey through the gauntlet.

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