Original sin, sin of identity

Abstract

At a time when the concept of national identity is becoming more and more a feature of political debates and programmes ("what we are"), and when individualism combined with the quest for self is shaping our lives ("what I am"), the verb "to be" is establishing itself as the key verb on which everything is based, in our relationship with others, with ourselves, with the world. Far from liberating us, this tendency can only lock us up in prisons. Firstly, our bodies, which are proving to be effective and dangerous abstraction machines. The prisons of our systems, our representations, our theories, and indeed our beliefs, which make us project onto the world what we know of it. These prisons are also machines for excluding, brutalising and even killing. So how can we demonstrate both humility and daring, by ceasing to confront the world and beginning to be part of it? The answer lies in the power of design as a project culture. A project that is necessarily political