Cultural identity and what it means to view oneself as self and the other as other, is so intricately complex as to avoid characterisation, yet too socially relevant to not have been a focus for thousands of years.

The World Values Survey is a comprehensive questionnaire administered by a global network of social scientists and researchers in order to study changing values and their impact on social and political life. To date, interviews consisting of approximately 200 questions have been conducted on nearly 400,000 respondents in order to understand changes in the beliefs, values and motivations of people throughout the world. And the questions are fascinating: “Of the following, which would you not like to have as neighbours: heavy drinkers, homosexuals, people of a different religion, etc.”

The results are unabashedly honest in revealing deep seated and pervasive attitudes of mistrust and prejudice of the other. But more often than not, the WVS reveals the fragile and sensitive nature of cultural, ethnic and national identity and the common dream of a better tomorrow.

Peter Crnokrak is a London based computational artist whose practice utilises design language to communicate meaning in complex systems with work integrating research, analysis and experimental technologies.