IDEA OF THE ACADEMY

Identification is one of the mechanisms of socialization, based on the acceptance or permanent internalization of the values, norms, and behaviour patterns of other individuals or social groups. It plays a fundamental role in the development of personality, morality, and individual identity .
Participants of the Academy will practice, explore the city, discuss, conduct research, and learn from one another. We will start with the concept of identification and the need for a sense of identity. Do we have such a need in today's cosmopolitan times? And if so, what for? Does identification broaden or narrow our horizons? Does it help us grow or does it limit us and smother our selfhood? How does individual identification as the creation of oneself shape our future? Can we simultaneously be ourselves while identifying with someone/a group or a phenomenon? Identification with the place/city we live in and function is a defence against exclusion, an attempt to assimilate and to develop social skills. It fulfills the need to belong to a group, a collective. At the same time, it can be oppressive, excluding, and enforce adaptation to new conditions. It can be used to establish someone's identity, to recognize someone or something on the basis of some features. The combination of two words: Identity vs Identification, makes the issue even more intense. While identity is who you are, differentiating an individual from others of the same kind, selfhood or identification is the act of identifying with something, opting to be the same.

Curators: Maria Wilska & Joanna Nuckowska