16/11/20

I Want to See You:

Summary: define a space with the body, to upset.

The practical tasks today were really enjoyable. It felt very much like playing, and with video it is far easier to experiment with ideas than with other media. I did not feel a lot of pressure to get things right. The group task made us define a space with our bodies. We chose to do this by putting shoes on Cleo’s hands and ‘walking’ them on the ceiling. In this way we were able to redefine the purpose of the ‘ceiling’ and the space around it. In the personal project, I chose the verb ‘to upset.’ I think this was subconsciously influenced by something that I experienced earlier in the day. Whilst in the toilets, I heard a girl crying in the stall next to me. Staff were brought in to help her, and other students came to her aid: I was just a brief observer. At the time of choosing our verbs, I did not purposefully consider this event, but looking back on it, there must have been a reason why the idea of somebody crying and being upset came to mind. This revelation was really interesting to discover.

4D Project Day 2 preparatory reflection:
The real self, the fictitious self, the ego.

How do we present or represent ourselves through the use of images and social media?

In my opinion most people, including myself, tend to present themselves as more beautiful or more interesting than they truly are. It is always so tempting to tweak a tiny thing, to make it appear as if you’re having more fun than you are, that you’re always made up, or that you have lots of friends and events to go to. Sometimes people use editing apps such as Facetune or Meitu (translated as being for ‘drawing on beauty’) to literally represent what we look like.

How are we perceived by others through these mediated devices and means?

We are mostly perceived in the way that we want to be perceived. So rarely are bad moments posted online that the narrative you create on your Instagram feed becomes everyone’s idea of who you are, or how your week was. So many people admire influencers, believing that they are perfect and faultless, which is strange since they must have some understanding that nobody has a perfect life. People like to believe what they see.

Consider the selfie as a representation, and explore the ways in which this mode of revealing yourself is mediated by internet’s code, ownership and abstraction.

A selfie is often a display of confidence about the way you look in that moment, or perhaps just in general for people who believe they are on the more attractive side. It is a capturing of one’s best moments. A posted selfie quickly attracts attention, and often the most attention out of any other content that you might post. The feedback focuses solely on your physical attributes and gives you credit for looking nice. It can really boost your ego: it is an addictive feeling to get complimented by a mass of people. It becomes so easy to get these affirmations when you want them.

What does the representation of the self reveal about our identity, ethnicity, gender and social expectations?

I suppose my ethnicity is expressed rather bluntly, just as it is how I look, and my gender is assumed by most through the way I dress. We are expected, as people, to do interesting things. Our fictitious identities are perhaps better, cooler, more liked than our true identities. What we put out in the world is perhaps what we want to be or aspire to be. There becomes no reason why we cannot make people see us in a better light, so we simply do it. We erase our faults, and we manipulate the way that our characters are perceived, so that we can meet our own personal standards of what we should be like. If other people see us like this, then we must truly be like this. We try to convince ourselves.

Reflections

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