DeGenerations: I, Me, Mine
Exploring Youth Identities in the Museum of Youth Culture's Collections. Curated by the Museum of Youth Culture's Youth Curators
Through three galleries of images, I, Me, Mine explores expressions of individual identities across generations. From bedrooms to badges to photo booths, we've explored how youth culture identities are expressed in the most private and public of ways. Combining new submissions with material from the Youth Culture Archive, this exhibition speaks to the ageless experiences of growing up. Instead of viewing youth culture through divisive decade or subculture categories, the images are organised by theme. This approach works to show that today's generation share the same hopes, dreams and fears of generations gone by.
Words by Dora Housham
BEDROOMS
"Their rooms contain all of their possessions, and yet these are the last moments they will be living in their parents' homes. The past is crammed into the same shelf as the future" - Adrienne Salinger
From carefully curated band posters to chaotic spray-paint, teenagers have always declared who they are across the walls of their bedroom. In these portraits, spanning the last fifty or so years, the bedroom is the place where identities can be freely explored.
BADGES
Badges are strong signifiers of identity, revealing their wearer's music tastes and political allegiances amongst other things. Whilst the content of our bedrooms normally remains private, pin badges are made to be worn in public, and youth cultures throughout modern history have used badges to wear their hearts on their sleeves - and jackets.
PHOTO BOOTHS
With only a flimsy curtain to separate their sitters from the outside world, photo booths offer a space for self-imagining somewhere between the public and the private. Even with today's readily accessible 'selfie', photo booths are far from obsolete, and the instantly printed pictures hold even more sentimental significance in the face of the overwhelming move towards digital. The photo booth snapshots collected here show the shared desire across generations to capture memories of ourselves, friends and lovers.
youth identity today
DeGenerations Digital Festival is celebrating youth culture across generations, finding solidarity -not division - between youth subcultures past and present.
We did a call out for your photos, stories, poems and memories, across the key themes of resistance and rebellion, family ties and individual identity, we'll be exploring the universal experiences of growing up - from fitting in to standing out, and standing up for what we believe in.
Two young creatives responded to the call out around identity.
