The phenomena that is complete image control.
Stop, Let’s Take a Selfie
Monaya MaGaurn 2017
Introduction
From my father using the word to seeing an exhibition featuring it in a museum, it can’t be ignored. The selfie. After studying its history and intoxicating nature over thirty days, I will constantly refer back to this exploration. Trends show the selfie is not going anywhere. The selfie is morphing into something bigger with platforms, techniques, and applications surrounding it evolving every day.
“Man, in effect, knows how to play with the mask as that beyond which there is a gaze. The screen here is the locus of mediation” – Lacan.“
What is a selfie?
The selfie has many definitions according to the time period and popular culture. Some say a selfie is any image, focusing on the subject, produced by the subject. Examples of this loose definition sprinkled through history include Jan Van Eyck’s “Portrait of a Man” -1443, Van Gogh’s many self portraits and Frida Kahlo’s never-ending series starting in the 1920s.
Photos
Monaya MaGaurn
Cindy Sherman
Others define the selfie as…
Being taken by a handheld camera, this meaning recognizes selfies from the time of the camera on – this can be seen in “Women and Cameras” Anne Collier’s slide show exhibition. Others say the image must be taken by a smart device IE a phone. With the development of this last definition the selfie has exploded, modifying into several sub-categories such as beauty, fitness, reality, groups, and critiques are now saying art.
When and How…..
The venue and accessibility are responsible for multiplying this trend like an atomic bomb. Where we regard Van Eyck’s as the first selfie to exist, it was not always that we, the viewer, gazed upon it with such esteem. When it was painted in 1443, did viewers see it as a profound and valued work of art? Was it looked upon the same way we see our sister’s new selfie on Facebook? Did it present luxury, prestige, or beauty? Or was it filtered through the matrix of social norms the way we do on Instagram today? The strongest question I asked about this particular selfie was, what was the intended venue? Who did Van Eyck have in mind to view it? Who will view our selfies in 600 years?
To bring the venue into the modern-day. Instagram has hyperbolized the selfie, the subject, and the gaze of the audience. Instagram has made every handheld device in the world an art gallery and public photo album. It has allowed us to view extremely close-up and personal moments not always intended for public viewing.
Let’s stop here for a minute with the art history and get into that.
Wait, what? You have your Instagram set to private?
After spending 30 days exhibiting the most vulnerable thing I have in public or what I thought was a semi-public display. I dug a bit closer into how private the subjects of Instagram and the gaze of the viewer are. There are apps to see who has unfollowed, what time is best for posting with an audience, who has liked photos repeatedly but not followed, and other statistics to grow an Instagram account. Some users have apps that will show exactly who has viewed your account, when, and how many times in a day. But very few users know or understand there are loopholes to all of these.
The rarest Instagram awareness being those that use applications that override privatized account settings. This may come as a shock, no matter what you do, your Instagram account is not private. This drives home the point of the hyperbolization of the subject and especially the gaze of the viewer. Our culture is currently at an all-time high of visual distortion, social boundary mess, and extremely false reality.
Back to the selfie and the power behind it. The momentum behind the selfie finds its metaphorical mitochondria residing in self-representation both as subject and the viewer gaze. The spectrum of social reality and normality for the selfie is comparable to all current lifestyles. Revealing those living in absolute supreme luxury to those rooted deeply in transformation and grit. Many users on Instagram hate the beauty selfie and will immediately unfollow. An unfollow can be described as ripping a painting off the wall of your gallery and lighting it on fire. Or at least that’s how most Instagram users see it. Most Instagram users only liking photos that pertain to their idealized subculture. This includes identifying with luxury, stereotypical body perfection, money, and the ideal life. Yet, most live a very different reality.
An immense part of what is left out behind the scenes of the selfie and Instagram is the algorithm of the liked and followed. These two signifiers being deeply personal to the user. Whether you are the supportive: “Double-tap squad for life” or the extremely selective: “I only heart my subculture”. Instagram users should know if you like a photo your explore feed changes based on that like. This algorithm is prolific in what we all see on Instagram. The faster a photo is liked and a user is followed the more it is promoted via the algorithm within the platform. To really cook a user’s noodle – yes, there are purchasable bots that will like up your photo and push you into Instagram stardom.
Agency
Make it Obvious. Find out more at youragencyworks.com
Digital Rhetoric is found in the media, image, caption, tags, alt text, metadata, platform and or host. Somewhere in between all of that is a creator’s intention.
Some interesting statistics about Instagram
- It was founded in 2010.
- There are 800 million users.
- There are 500 million daily users.
- There are 4.2 billion likes on a daily basis
- 95 million photos are uploaded every day
- 68% of users are female and 80% of users are from outside the US.
- 1,000 selfies are shared on Instagram per-second
Some interesting statistics about Selfies
- The first selfie was produced by Jan Van Eyck in 1443.
- 74% of images on Snapchat are selfies.
- 55% of millennials have shared a selfie.
- 48% of selfies are shared on Facebook.
- 36% of selfies are altered or enhanced
- Philippines is the selfie capital of the world. Makati City produces more selfies per capita than any other city in the world, with Manhattan and Miami following.
- 55 percent of millennials share their selfie on social media. But, 24 percent of Gen X do as well, and even 9 percent of Baby Boomers.
Sources
The Female Gaze of Petra Collins, The New Yorker October 6th, 2016
selfies cities world rankings, Time magazine.