Mini Project - 1

Shannon Taylor

Although we know document ourselves online, has it really changed much from how we have previously documented

ourselves over time?

The Problem

The problem is not about how we archive ourselves on line, but more about the shift from photo albums and camera negatives, to everyday posts about our daily life.

The artifact is not to challenge us so much about what we do or post online, but about how this is documented and how this has changed from pre-social media times.

Context

• Sherrie Levine - remakes of old images by re-photographing them

• The idea of the avocado breakfast on toast posts• Online self representations – affects majority of

people• Internet accessibility and technologies

increasing allowing ease of us

Literature Review• Lev Manovich• ‘In my view, photography today – and Instagram platform in particular –

gives young people at least as much power in crafting unique identities as music. And in comparison to writing music, Instagram is much easier to use. To establish a visual style, chose particular subjects and compositions for your photos and use Instagram or VSCO app to apply the consistent edits, filters, and presets to all of them. Between different subjects, compositions, color palettes, contrast levels, and other adjustments and filters, the number of distinct styles that can be created is very large.’(Manovich.net, 2016)

• - this in relation to his project ‘Instagrammism and contemporary cultural identity’ when talking about his book "Instagram and Contemporary Image" to be released late 2016

Literature Review – Damon BrownIn his book ‘Our Virtual Shadow: Why We Are Obsessed With Documenting Our Lives Online,’ he draws upon a idea he calls ‘anchors of memory’. In a Ted talk blog interview he explains what he means by this by saying that ‘It could be a photo of your grandfather coming back from the war or simply a Facebook check-in saying you are at a rock concert. You make them for something you deem important enough to note. Our anchors of memory today are becoming more virtual than physical, like our Instagrams and tweets, but they are just as valid as the physical photos and letters of yesteryear.’(Daly, May and Author, 2016)

• Importantly he then goes on to stress his concern about how these anchors of memory seem to be much more frequent, and also how with the constant use of technology, by updating our status and check ins, over all it actually begins to take away from the whole experience.

• In this book he also focuses on a question I find most interesting if ‘does documenting our lives keep us from living it?’ (Brown, 2013)

Damon Brown

(Brown, 2013)

Literature Review – Jan Van Dijk

• Jan van Dijk

‘Mass Communication can be defined as a type of communication using media to distribute sound, text and IMAGES among an audience. Until recently, most networks used for this purpose were connections by air’

(Dijk, 1999, p.51)

Literature Review – Jill Walker Rettberg

• ‘Images are the primary content of many services such as instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat and We Heart It. The earlier internet, on the other hand, relied on words and conversations … We position ourselves as readers, as voyeurs and as an audience.’(Rettberg, 2014)

• Focuses on the change, and how we read others photographs

Ted Talk – Wry photos that turn stereotypes upside down

https://www.ted.com/talks/uldus_bakhtiozina_wry_photos_that_turn_stereotypes_upside_down

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxEqV8WtfOo

(Bakhtiozina, 2016)

Method & Outcomes

My approach to solving this problem is to make a old style photo book using new images from Facebook and Instagram. This will be practice based and will be drawing upon my findings in my content analysis and survey.

The outcome of this artifact will make people question whether or not how we archive ourselves has changed, or not changed at all. It will also make us think about what we post online and why. This applies to all people that are regular users of social media, especially Facebook and Instagram.

My Methodology

I have chosen to use the content analysis method. This is a analysis of visual data, and my case is the trends in older photographs, and the content posted now online.I have chosen this because it is able to show themes and content within texts with my target texts being photographs. It also allowed for a procedural approach to finding repeated observation and shows development of categories.

My MethodologyAfter doing a content analysis on peoples Facebook and instagram posts this is what I found-people mostly post Selfies (like portrait photography or stage family photo-shoots)-Food/drinks – any – instead of old events/birthday cake?-Where they have been – not just holidays or big things but daily check ins with pictures ‘ coffee dates’-What they have bought – pictures of prized possessions-Constants updates – most posts contain a pictures-Happy birthday posts with pictures – rather than a birthday card

Survey Results

Survey Results

Pseudo personalities• Definition of pseudo

‘A combining form meaning “false,” “pretended,” “unreal” (pseudoclassic; pseudointellectual), “closely or deceptively resembling”.’(TheFreeDictionary.com, 2016)

• Definition of personalities‘ The totality of qualities and traits, as of character or behavior, that are peculiar to a specific person.’(TheFreeDictionary.com, 2016)

• Drawing on these two together – this ideas that this is what we are online

• False personality and a not a completely truthful reflection even though we think we may be fully truly representing ourselves - its still a online ‘representation’

My artifact

• Mimicking Facebook/instagram posts into 1970s style photos

• To show we haven't changed how we archive ourselves • What it does – make you think your looking at old

photos, then realize your not• What it doesn’t do – shows a range of photos from

online for the sake of showing what people archive • Working backwards, not forwards• 1970’s style photography

Studio Practice

How I have created my artifact:• After looking at 1960’s-90’s photographs I

decided to take peoples everyday photos from Facebook and instagram and make them look like photos from an earlier

• I want the viewer to think they are looking through old photos, to then realize they are photos from today.

Studio Practice

Studio Practice

Results

-I feel the artifact made has effectively drawn out the ideas behind the research of what we post online, why we post it and the idea of mimicking.-I think the results are positive as I have created a photo book by using photos from profiles that use filters and a presence of technology, to create a old style of photo that includes our modern day technology.-I think this has been effective, as by using Photoshop I have been able to create photos that look like 1970’s style photos via the use of filters, colours and vignettes.- How I could have done it differently for better results

ConclusionIn Conclusion

-We can see what everyone collectively posts, and how this is actually not so different from previous self documentation- Via the use of social media and networks we build up an online archive of who we represent ourselves as- Raising questions such as will be a shift back to older self-documentation, already a rise in new style polaroid pictures?Where would we post photos without Facebook and Instagram?If it has developed this far, will it develop further – other social media areas for photo genres?- More focus on actual themes posted, rather than a range. Focus on what one person posts over a period of time

References & Bibliography• TheFreeDictionary.com. (2016). personality. [online] Available at:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/personality.• TheFreeDictionary.com. (2016). pseudo. [online] Available at:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/pseudo.• Daly, J., May, K. and Author, T. (2016). The asocial side of social media: TED Book author Damon

Brown on our “virtual shadows”. [online] TED Blog. Available at: http://blog.ted.com/does-documenting-your-life-online-keep-you-from-actually-living-it-an-excerpt-from-the-new-ted-book-our-virtual-shadow-2/ [Accessed 18 Nov. 2016].

• Brown, D. (2013). Our Virtual Shadow: Why We Are Obsessed With Documenting Our Lives Online,. 1st ed. TED Conferences (25 April 2013).

• Bakhtiozina, U. (2016). Wry photos that turn stereotypes upside down. [online] Ted.com. Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/uldus_bakhtiozina_wry_photos_that_turn_stereotypes_upside_down.

• Dijk, J. (1999). The network society. 1st ed. London: Sage Publications.• Manovich.net. (2016). Lev Manovich. [online] Available at:

http://manovich.net/index.php/projects/notes-on-instagrammism-and-mechanisms-of-contemporary-cultural-identity [Accessed 18 Nov. 2016].

• Rettberg, J. (2014). Seeing ourselves through technology. 1st ed.