Reflection - nomad figure

Within the torrent of the nomad, we found a group of people swept by the big system and in the situation of what we called modern nomad (seafarer, offshore engineers, etc). We used rhythm, network, and the view of the sea to present their unique lifestyle during the “figure” analysis in Studio 1. To push the study, we tried to analyse and reveal the actual condition of modern nomads as well as their differences from citizens. We found the modern nomads are

1.Briefly stripped of their individual identities

2.Merge within a restraining collective

3.Only at work or waiting to be deployed, no more separation of living/ work

4.Precisely operated (by the schedule or implicit discipline)

In brief, the modern nomads are inside a big interior they cannot leave. The nomad space can relate to the disciplinary institution by Michel Foucault who describes it as “ a type of power that traverses every kind of apparatus or institution, linking them, prolonging them, and making them converge and function in a new way”. In a way, each of them plays a part in the system and operates as a resource. This new understanding builds up a foundation for our critical thinking in Studio 2.

"Thingness" is pressed to the point of caricature. He is indeed artistically reborn as he moves freely among the physical and symbolic materials of his environment, but mockery is his birth certificate and his passport A sense of having no outlet for his loyalties and no symbolic structure for his achievements. This is the guilt of social breakdown.

He is profoundly attracted to the idea of making all things, including himself, totally new — to the "mode of transformation." But he is equally drawn to an image of a mythical past of perfect harmony and prescientific wholeness, to the "mode of restoration." His difficulty is that focused indignation is as hard for him to sustain as is any single identification or conviction.