The Elemental Citizen Project seeks to challenge concepts of national identity and invite citizens to create an artefact that assembles their own identity on self-determining and multicultural principles, away from governmental perversion.

By creating a step-by-step, downloadable “make your own passport kit” (available via a project website), individuals can use botanical matter associated with their cultural identity to create a living documentation intrinsically connected and intertwined with that living space. The first stage of The Elemental Citizen Project, explores my own mixed heritage to create a ‘passport’ that explores my Serbian roots and cultural associations. I use an anthotype photographic printing process that combines blended paprika, red pepper and homemade rakija to produce a light-sensitive emulsion. I then expose a passport-like photograph of family members onto the prepared paper. Some of the botanical materials used to make the light-sensitive solution were from my mother’s garden, thus linking points of identity for me with my London home. The project forms a living documentation as a performative act of self-identification and determinism.

Typical documentation for passports is observed, such as name, date of birth, identifying headshot, document/passport number, and date of creation. This artefact will also meet universal standard passport criteria for sizing and upon completion I will distribute my assembled identity to be reviewed, as well as distributing the methodology on a free to access project website.

This project borders on several sensitive topics including access to documentation used for freedom of movement, elements of self determinism, and nationalistic principles. However, The Elemental Citizen Project, by being a free and open kit to be downloaded and freely distributed, pushes individuals to explore their own identity within pluralist societies, as championed by the likes of Arturo Escobar and Rupert Emersom, and away from conventional nationalistic symbols. Instead, this project invites the user to engage with organic matter associated with their identity to explore issues around land ownership, but more broadly asks, what constitutes a nation or national identity?

The Elemental Citizen Project website: www.elementalcitizen.wordpress.com