Arbitrary Identities

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Arbitrary Identities is a set of 12 cards and
a guide book archiving the Tumblr meme,
"The signs as..."

In order to emphasize the arbitrary nature
of this meme, I took answers for each sign
from real Tumblr posts out of the context
of the meme.

The guide book shows the full context of the
original tumblr post from which the zodiacs
on the cards came from. The reader is able
to see everything from the URL down to the
background of the poster's tumblr theme.

The book can only be read collaboratively.
The reader can only find out his or her zodiac
identity by asking a secondary person to read
the meanings from the opposite side of the book.
This interaction represents how the zodiac
sign meme is essentially a stranger who knows
nothing about the reader assigning roles
for that reader.

Initially, I was amused by the meme's intent
of making fun of the arbitrary nature of zodiacs.
However, as I read reactions by Tumblr users
that reblogged the posts, many of which were
a complex mix of satirical amusement and serious
reactions, I realized that the meme that critiqued

the zodiac signs actually became just what it was
critiquing. No matter how stupid people thought
these posts were, no one could resist looking at
their own sign to read what they were.

I became interested in the innate human curiosity
we have when trying to find out who we are, what
identity we should possess, or what others think
of us. No matter how ridiculously arbitrary the zodiac
memes get, we will all still read them to try to find
out more about ourselves.