Blog Prompt #23

1. Depending on who I'm with, my personality and projection can be very constructed. With some groups of friends I am the "athlete friend," while with others I'm the "artistic friend," or the "smart friend", and because I'm aware of this, I tend to stick to the correct role for best group cohesion. On Facebook, obviously, I carefully choose the image of myself I most want others to see, and categorize my interests into simple lists, groups, and "likes". On a physical level, I dress a certain way in order to project a particular image of myself. I schedule my day in order to feel like I have some control of the things that happen in my life as well. All is constructed, though.

2. Like I said before, we each play our particular role amongst our group of friends, and this may or may not differ from the roles we play in class, at work, or with our families. What we wear emphasizes our chosen identity, but it is a chosen identity--one we've constructed ourselves. If we determine our own personalities, than everything we are is constructed to some extent. We have constructed our reality.

3. Obviously, humans construct our environment; it is evident in the buildings we live in, the landscape we alter. We don't live by the dictates of nature. We create institutions, like schools for example, and even make rules as to the kinds of buildings that can be used for academic purposes. We make lines on a map and designate one country from another, and although we speak the same language, or even share many of the same traditions, we are loyal only to our own "country."

4. In my own life, I would consider things that I can sense with my five senses to be real. Eating food is a real experience, since it is required to stay alive. Although, I have to admit, that there are things that I've never encountered that I still believe to be real. Things I would consider truly fabricated would be the division of my day by a clock.

5. I would love to re-enact a historical or mythical tableaux. I think it would be fun to orchestrate (ha, that's a fitting word) a tableaux set up to look like some sort of a stage, with my friends as opera singers--either re-enacting a scene from our own lives, or one from an actual opera. A scene from real life could actually be pretty humorous considering how over- dramatic and unusual it would seem. Or perhaps a combination of the two--a re-enactment of an opera scene in modern times, or a mythical scene in a mundane setting. That could actually be pretty cool. I'll have to think of some locations, but if I can get volunteers, I'd like to try this.

6. I think it would be interesting (and again, humorous), to see an image of a scene of great historical importance re-enacted with strange or unseemly objects, such as Macdonald's toys, or stuffed animals. For instance, if you could create a tableaux of the signing of the Declaration of Independence with various souvenir toys or stuffed representations of the founding fathers.