The Selfie and the Face (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Human Use of the Human Face: The Photographic Self–Portrait in the Age of the Selfie
2016
[Karen ann Donnachie, PhD // Doctoral Thesis: Full-text] This multidisciplinary, practice explores the phenomenon of the selfie (understood as a networked, vernacular, photographic selfportrait) in order to propose a new critical understanding of its effect on wider photographic self-portrait practice, and photography in general. Significantly, “The Human Use of the Human Face” depicts the selfie as more than a mere vernacular object or action and is not satisfied with the dismissal of the selfie as a direct remediation of the traditional self-portrait. Instead this thesis maps the complex, and sometimes controversial genre of amateur self-portraiture as it sits somewhere between performance, narcissism, social tic, intrinsic desire for self-projection and a possibly irrational quest for authenticity in the photographic image. This practice-led research is articulated through the creation of original digital and electronic artworks including speculative camera design, social media web apps and immersive installation; through interviews with contemporary artists; and finally through the discussion of cultural, aesthetic and photographic theory. This research examines the privileged position the selfie holds inside a rapidly expanding and evolving social media ecology as it becomes both vehicle and tool, a symbol of personal, social, cultural and political identities. Along with the prevailing concerns surrounding the selfie and its reflection on contemporary society, this thesis inserts notions of human affect, connectedness, belonging and being human into the discussion concerning the motivations behind, and social consequences of, the selfie in three areas: first life, second life, and afterlife. This thesis was presented in 2016 for my PhD (Art), awarded from the School of Design & Art, Curtin University, Western Australia, 2017.
Perspectives of Culture, Vol. 42, No. 3, pp. 201-225, (pp. 25), 2023
Abstract: The essay attempts to outline the issues of the visual culture of the selfie from the perspective of “visual identity” that has referred to contemporary art. In this paper, I analyze examples of the following artworks: The Reincarnation of Saint ORLAN by the French artist ORLAN, the Bodies© INCorporated website, designed by Victoria Vesna, The Little Revenge from the Periphery by José Bedia Valdés, The Chief: He Who Sold Africa to the Colonists and Autoportraits by Samuel Fosso. In addition, this paper is focused on an analysis of the “biopower” concept which refers to Michel Foucault’s “docile bodies.” This concept is based on the neoliberal power process over the production of living beings and exercising control over them is an updating of the development of political, democratic, and economic institutions, as well as information and biocybernetic technologies. The “docile bodies” concept strengthens the conviction of the bodies must become the object of biopower interventions for the “perfect body” concept to act upon the strictly defined appearance of the body consistent with the standards and norms of “beauty” adopted by visual culture. In this situation, the selfie and photographic images produce homogeneous images, which function as “ideological texts” making our “visual identity” and self-image. This concept is given a lot of considerable space in this paper because the selfie can be regarded as an “personality identity” shaping the visual appearance of our bodies. In the essay’s conclusion, I claim that the visual culture of the selfie seems to be an aesthetic phenomenon shaped by a visual medium such as digital photography. However, photography does not is the key medium of the selfie. My analyses were aimed at showing that this role plays an “image,” no matter how it can be understood.
Recent Zones of Portraiture: The Selfie
European Journal of Life Writing, 2017
In the “age of the selfie” (Jerry Saltz), we gauge the self as active. This paper proposes to engage the selfie as a dominant and enlarging practice of assertion and performance of lived existence. I align the selfie with the snapshot, making a point about their extraordinary cultural force and productivity determined by their distinctive economies and technical bases as well as cultural statuses. An expression of our desire to be visible in the social world, the selfie, I argue, is a sub-genre of portraiture which exposes and “proliferates” our face as an activity promising interaction. In the “post-face” phase of our culture this performative face is a surface of the visual present, always in the making.This article was submitted to the European Journal of Life Writing on May 24th 2016, and published on July 12th 2017.
The Selfie: More and Less than a Self-Portrait
Moritz Neumüller, ed., Routledge Companion to Photography and Visual Culture (London, New York: Routledge)., 2018
In this chapter, I summarize the findings from my extensive research on the selfie and photography on social media in general between 2014 and 2016. This research begun with my participation in the pioneering research project Selfiecity (2014), led by Lev Manovich. I argue that the selfie is more than an image, and more than an image of the self. Apart from the image, other essential attributes of the selfie include metadata, consisting of several layers: automatically generated data (like geo-tags and time stamps), data added by the user (hashtags), and data added by other users (comments and “likes”). At the same time, the selfie is also less than a self-portrait. One popular way of looking at selfies is as if they belonged to the same category of images as the famous painted self-portraits of the past. The similarity lies in the fact that both can be described as “images of the self.” But focusing on this one aspect can only lead to sweeping comparisons across cultures, centuries, and media, ignoring the historical specificity of each image and overlooking their radically different social and cultural functions. For example, one author compared selfies with self-portraits by Rembrandt and argued that “The selfie threatens to distract us from what Rembrandt did: looking at ourselves closely, honestly, but compassionately” (Judge 2014). Such comparisons are helpful only as much as they let us notice how different selfies on Instagram are from Renaissance paintings in museums.
Autobiografia, 2015
Film cameras made it possible for individuals to present themselves to others, to assume and feel agency, also to change it, to utilize agency to claim participation in diverse collectivities. Most recently, digital cameras have presented their users with astonishing ways to encourage but also to disseminate diverse acts of agency. In this paper the author proposes to bring to the fore the selfie (an emerging sub-genre of portraiture) as a new cultural product responsible for mediation, production, and transmission of subjectivities in the global mediascapes. Framing the subject in ways which defy ennobled aesthetic principles of photography, its cultivated artistry, selfies reconfigure and adapt ways the subject represent and understand themselves. This paper argues that selfies create visual spaces of novel modes of selfhood, of its certification and assertion.
Institute of Network cultures, 2017
Culture of the Selfie is an in-depth art-historical overview of self-portraiture, using a set of theories from visual studies, narratology, media studies, psychotherapy, and political principles. Collecting information from various fields, juxtaposing them on the historical time-line of artworks, the book focuses on space in self-portraits, shared between the person self-portraying and the viewer. What is the missing information of the transparent relationship to the self and what kind of world appears behind each selfie? As the 'world behind one's back' is gradually taking larger place in the visual field, the book dwells on a capacity of selfies to master reality, the inter-mediate way and, in a measure, oneself.
"Ancient History" of the Selfie Portrait: Reflecting the Body
Realistic self portraits are a modern phenomenon of the west (though not all are realistic). The study of self–portraits in painting and photography provides interesting insights about self and self awareness. Self is often a constructed identity in the modern era defined by various reflections. However, when we consider the origins and elaboration of self awareness in the modern era we realize that “reflection” is a polysemic embodiment and we will elaborate on three modes of reflection in this study: proto-reflection, reflection, and multi-reflection. This presentation goes to the heart of “subjectivity” as self inclusion (Mickunas) which, when considered phenomenologically, is not centered on the ego, but on self in context. This study is illustrated by a selective history of self portraits in painting and photography and closes with my own self–portrait photographs.
Self-media. The self. the face, the media and the selfies. (Extended version 2015)
Triade. Communicao, cultura e media, vol 3, no. 1 2015 , 2015
The self and identity are not only topics related to the selfies. They are connected to the development of media since the renaissance, the self-media. This is the thesis of the following. The subject, the self, is most clearly exposed in the face, and face and identity becomes important in the media since the renaissance. The selfies is just the newest development is this tradition, which began with the invention of the mirror, the book (printing), and the small painting. They all put the subject as both maker and receiver in the center. It was the beginning of the modern subject. The development continued throughout the coming centuries. The selfies is the newest creation to discover, explore, visualize and find the self of the subject. The following will thus emphasis the self, the face, where the self is most noticeably expressed and seen, and the self-media, where the individual can face him- or herself. (This is an unabridged, extended, revised and better version of the article, which was uploaded in August 2014. It was originally a keynote lecture from July 2014).
Selfie: Reflections of the Self… The Resurgence of Self-Portraiture in the Digital Age
Contra Costa College. California, 2023
In the digital age, the act of taking selfies has evolved into a complex and multifaceted form of self-expression, akin to the historical tradition of self-portraiture. While psychologist Jean Twenge argues that selfies can promote narcissism, their responsible use can foster self-esteem and personal creativity. Selfies, like the intricate self-portraits of past artists, allow individuals to capture and convey their identities, emotions, and experiences through a modern lens. This digital self-representation, enhanced by the accessibility of social media, transforms selfies into a legitimate art form, bridging personal narratives with broader cultural and social contexts. By meticulously selecting environments, lighting, and filters, individuals use selfies to document significant moments and engage in a deeper exploration of self, fostering connections and preserving memories. In this light, selfies emerge as intimate time capsules, embodying the enduring legacy of artistic expression and the contemporary quest for identity and belonging.
Postdigital Science and Education (2019)
Books about selfie-culture – a very contemporary phenomenon in our society – are surprisingly rare. Ana Peraica’s open access book, Culture of the Selfie: Self- Representation in Contemporary Visual Culture (2017), presents author’s broad research about the phenomenon of the selfie and also distinguishes between selfies and self- portraits. Peraica considers histories of self-observation and self-recording, the history of space in self-portraiture based on the grammatical structure of Henri Lefebvre (1991), the role of the viewer, and the technology of self-recording. Furthermore, Peraica treats related issues such as ethical problems and psychological disorders.