Flow in Form
Sydney Perkins is an artist and graphic designer based out of San Diego, California.
Art of Anomie was created to house a collection of creative pursuits. It is built on the idea of straying from the conventional career path and leaning into a more inventive route.
After graduating with a degree in Criminology and Mathematics and working within the sphere of social services, she spent the better part of the next few years traveling, working odd jobs, and living life a little more creatively. With more time and freedom of mind, her personal art practice turned from past time to slight obsession. She went on to study graphic design at Shillington College in Manhattan and has been freelancing and creating full time ever since.
Art of Anomie came to life during the pandemic, at a time spent mostly indoors and inside the mind, where Sydney created art out of the experiences she had gathered over the past couple years.
About
WTF is “Anomie”?
Anomie is a theory in criminology
and sociology describing a state of normlessness (a state of Anomie).
Anomie occurs during and follows periods of rapid change to social, economic, or political structures.
It is a social condition in which there is a disintegration or disappearance of the previously common norms
and values of a society, but new
ones have not yet evolved to take their place.
The theory states that when society does not provide the necessary legitimate means that allow people
to achieve culturally valued goals, people seek out alternative means that may simply break from the norm, or may violate norms and laws.
If, for example, a society impelled it’s members to acquire wealth, (achieve the American Dream, get the white picket fence, etc), yet offered inadequate means for them to do so (selectively oppressive systems, low wages, debt traps), the strain would cause many people to violate traditional norms.
Social behavior would thus become unpredictable. Merton, (another OG criminologist) defined a continuum of responses to Anomie, including conformity, social innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion.
What does that look like?
Committing crimes, making art, moving to a deserted island, creating new norms, and overhauling the system. In other words, society as we know it today.
