In the beginning of this project week we decided to look closer at the phenomenon of the „mirror stage“. I was especially interested in the splitting of the persons Identity, the changing or even turning of its perception of itself and others. I believe, that we experience this turning point in perception, not only this one time, but again and again in life, since life is change itself.
I was intrigued by the fact that a person, that has lived its whole life thinking one way, can still change its complete mind with a small bit of information. In the case of the mirror stage this information is the mirror and the childs reflection. But I’ve experienced this same change already in different situations and in different ages myself. I feel like the best example would be sleeping and dreaming of something realistic, and then waking up and realizing that it was just your imagination.
The relationship between imagination and reality is also really important in the mirror stage — or should I say mirror stages? Until this point, there was a certain picture, a concept of the world in the head of a small child which was just so suddenly in such a short moment completely destroyed. The child now questions everything and views it from a completely different perspective. It can produces kind of a crack in its world view, which is being fed with uncertainty. Another Example would be looking at objects that you see daily from a completely different perspective. Or if you read fun facts that blow your mind and that fascinate you. What I’m trying to say is, that for me obviously the first time the mirror stage happens is as a child, actually looking into a mirror and seeing the own reflection. But especially looking at the change thats happening in that particular moment: The change from the object, the „it“ to a subject, the „I“, never stops. The search for yourself always continues and sometimes even gets reversed again, as in for example women being sexualized in the media. And another perspective would be: There are a lot of different aspects and personalities in every person. We behave differently when we visit our conservative grandparents compared to our behaviour around friends, or with a life partner or your future kids.