Desire

I have the desire to know what desire is. I think it is very interesting how desire can have so many different interpretations and definitions. I find it quite humorous that when unable to obtain a concrete definition of desire people attempt to define desire with things they desire. For example, one may reason that desire is lust or attraction. Well is desire really lust or attraction to something or do you desire to have attraction and lust or something?

Some choose to solely point fingers at science others argue that desire is beyond genetic make-up. Some find a happy medium stating that "built in components of behavior are supplemented with add-ons" or in other words desire is a result of genetics with a stimuli combination, as according to the reading. I found this inconsistency most interesting and comparable to the results of the most commonly know tropism in humans- the positive urge to eat. This seems to be what most people immediately think of when trying to rationalize exactly what desire is. I believe that the pondering of desire is similar to how people think about a result of food intake-an inherent urge or an outside stimuli? How people think about obesity is similar to how people think about desire. One doctor stated, "this is a disease that everyone thinks they understand, yet nobody really understands". That is how I feel when thinking about desire, everyone thinks they have a good idea of what it is yet nobody really knows.

This parallel was my inspiration for my work where I will experiment with scanning food, wrappers and other objects to create a piece that makes a connection with the tropism or desire to overeat and overindulge through the examination of motives. I am most interested in questioning how people think and why people think the things they do. Hopefully my work will allow people to question what they may think they already know about obesity.