Selfies

[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.

This dissertation analyzes the postfeminist tendencies and biopolitics in contemporary media practices by considering the pop culture exemplar, the Kardashian-Jenner family.

This dissertation received First Class Honors from Trinity College Dublin.
Vanessa graduated with Distinction in B.A. English Literature and Media Studies.

This article takes us into the heart of the complexities of the concept of narcissism, which has been deployed by psychoanalysts, film theorists and cultural critics to various and often contradictory ends. I begin by considering the use of narcissism as a diagnostic category used to examine the ills of modern society, especially in the work of writers like Christopher Lasch. This discussions leads me to the theorisation of narcissism in the work of Sigmund Freud, and I suggest that the concept is much more contradictory and complex in Freud's work, which makes its usage an act of interpretation—an interpretation, I will suggest, with crucial consequences for how we conceptualise the modern subject's relationship to new media technologies, as well as the politics of representation. The Lacanian concept of the 'mirror phase' is an important intervention in the theorisation of narcissism and is discussed in this chapter in order to understand the smartphone screen as a field of representation and identification. By extending the problematic of the mirror to the screen, and by taking into account Joan Copjec's critique of psychoanalytic readings of the cinematic screen, we will examine the specificities of the mobile screen in relation to ego formation. This account makes a break with Foucauldian theories of the subject, and I offer a psychoanalytic critique of panopticist theories of subjectivity, which I suggest, lead to an impasse in how we think about the screen—whether in the cinema or as the surface of a modern day mobile phone.

Este artigo busca, por meio das selfies-retiradas do aplicativo Instagram com o auxílio da hashtag #Holocaustmonument-clicadas no Memorial do Holocausto (Holocaust-Mahnmal), analisar como as pessoas estão se relacionando com os espaços de luto e silêncio dentro do contexto de uso dos smartphones e de suas câmeras. O objetivo é fazer uma breve contextualização da selfie e sua historiografia dentro da História da Fotografia e do Retrato e mostrar como as selfies geram um novo paradigma de experimentação de espaços de luto e silêncio. O uso das selfies em memoriais traz uma nova forma de presentificação do sujeito no contemporâneo, colocando em questão os significados que o passado dos memoriais pode evocar dentro de um contexto de produção de memorialização na contemporaneidade. Além disso, selfies ajudam a localizar como o ocidente tem pensado o luto e o comportamento esperado em locais específicos. ------- This article searches through selfies-extracts from the Instagram app with th...

Patricia Routh finds that images are not the only things being transformed during selfie production, as groups of people once marginalised in society by the dominant commoditised cultural visual rhetoric now have the power to control their images in ways that break from the societal norm. The selfie is a digital exploration of identity, a therapeutic way to transform individual experience, a way for marginalised people to find control and empowerment, transforming and fostering an unconventional mode of knowing people’s daily use of technology.

Former President of the Media Ecology Association, Dr Phil Rose, ran for
office in the 2015 Canadian federal election. This article presents an interview with Rose in the wake of his defeat. To stimulate and organize the flow of the interview, and to guide our interrogation of Rose in an exciting way that is in accord with McLuhan’s media ecological approach, this article uses probes derived from reflections on McLuhan’s life-long study of politics and the political.

Today, ‘the selfie’ has probably become the most prominent cultural artifact of our online sociality and subjectivity in the form of image driven, autobiographic ‘streams of the self’. At the same time, ‘the selfie’ is considered the indicator of the excessive, nearly pathological self-centeredness of a whole generation, and a sign for wider cultural decline. Nowhere is this stigma as evident as with the moral outrage caused by the ‘Auschwitz Selfie’ in 2014, which has issued concerns over the exploitation of a historic disaster for the means of narcissism, and the lack of digital decorum of the ‘me-generation’. However, selfies taken at concentration camps are widely distributed on social media platforms such as Instagram and assume highly diverse aesthetics. Particularly selfies, in which the photographed subject has chosen a position that complicates his/her definite identification via the turning away of the face, require a closer reading than provided by existing scholarly research ranging from Holocaust, Tourism and Media Studies. These anti-selfies are characterized by tropological constitution and multi-referentiality, thus pursuing an anti-narcissist agenda. Understanding photographs as texts, the conflation of Roland Barthes’ work on photography and Paul de Man’s concept of ‘defacement’ provides the theoretical framework to deconstruct the tropological constitution of the (photographed) self in selected anti-selfies. The troping of the self via de- and refacement, ‘the giving and taking away of the face’, into a non-essential, multi-referential silhouette along with a distinct abstraction of color and composition further function as an aesthetic strategy to respond to the traumatic sublime aura of Holocaust signifiers and the ‘trauma of interpretation’. As such, anti-selfies offer a self-reflexive engagement with the Holocaust for all actors of the specular trio (photographed, photographer, viewer) without decontextualizing or appropriating the traumatic ‘event’ itself and acknowledges its retrospective reconstruction in employing the aesthetics of the traumatic sublime.

У доповіді проаналізовано феномен селфі як наслідок поступового збільшення соціальної дистанції між людьми, відповідного перенесення реального життя у віртуальний простір і вибуху так званого «кліпового мислення», коли лайки та світлини заміняють глибші форми комунікації, притаманні старим формам епістолярного жанру. Описано також емпіричне дослідження певних особливостей самоставлення та нарцисизму студентської молоді, які проявляються через наявність або відсутність селфі-активності. Виявлено, що серед українського студентства селфіманія не отримала загрозливих розмірів, як це засвідчують зарубіжні дослідження, хоча і має певні негативні наслідки для особистісного стану. З’ясовано, що в цілому певна адаптивна селфі-активність студентів (до 10 світлин на тиждень) з викладенням їх у соціальних мережах не є шкідливою, навпаки, сприяє зниженню соціальної ізольованості, особливо в умовах переважання віртуальних контактів в часи вимушеного карантину. Проаналізовано позитивні аспекти селфі-активності (можливість самореалізації, покращення матеріального становища, один із засобів досягнути соціального успіху, популярності; можливість для самовираження, пізнання себе, підвищення самооцінки; розвиток творчого потенціалу; спілкування без меж, спосіб познайомитися з іншими) та негативні (селфі-адикція, заохочення духовної ліні, плекання поверховості, удавана само-реалізація, подоба  осмисленості, оманливе благополуччя, розвиток селфізму, відмова від реального спілкування, зниження самооцінки, фальшиве «Я», залежність від «лайків», психотравматичні епізоди, Інтернет-булінг, секстинг, харасмент). Феномен селфі в сучасних умовах усе більше пов’язаний із особистісним та сексуальним благополуччям. Зазвичай сексуальне благополуччя природно розглядати в
контексті парних стосунків чи взаємодій. Однак у віртуальному середовищі «парна взаємодія» відбувається з кожним, хто розглядає представлене на всезагальний огляд зображення в соцмережах з метою отримання позитивної реакції.
Ключові слова: селфі-активність; самопрезентація; самоставлення; психологічне благополуччя;
сексуальне благополуччя.

Following up on current discussions of digital youth culture, this article examines the concept of assemblage and its potential for understanding the ambiguous forces that shape young people's everyday media practices. In the first part of the article, we argue for approaching these forces in their affective materiality. To provide a situated example, in the second part of the article, we explore the distribution of relations between hashtags #selfie and #antiselfie attached to 200 photos that were publicly shared on Instagram between August 1st and 30th of November 2019. By focusing on the network of tagging, liking and sharing selfies, we consider the resulting hybrid assemblage of Instagram youth in its multiplicity -- from the digital affordances of connectivity and relations of identity performance to the attention economy of Instagram and its manifold affective dynamics that are at play.

Resumen:

En primer lugar, el fenómeno selfie consiste simplemente en volver del revés la sintaxis fotográfica con el fin de hacer coincidir en la misma instancia al fotógrafo y al objeto fotografiado. No obstante, más allá de esta operación, el selfie tiene que ver con el régimen escópico de la sociedad de comienzos del siglo XXI. El presente ensayo analiza un archivo de fotografías digitales tomadas y publicadas en Internet durante el año 2014, todas ellas compuestas de acuerdo con esta estructura enunciativa auto-consciente. En último término, se tratará de establecer una tipología cultural semiótica en torno a la estructura del ver y del ser visto a través de la web 2.0.

Abstract:

First of all, the selfie phenomena consists on turning inside the photoghraphic syntax, in order to concentrate into the same instance the photographer and the object of the photography. In addition to this, it has to deal with the visual structure of the society at the begining of the XXIst century. On that way, this essay may analyze some digital pictures which has been taken and published on the Internet during the year 2014 which have been composed according to this self conscient enunciation. At least we may be able to build a semiotic cultural typology about the structure of watching and being watched through the web 2.0.

Palabras clave:

selfie; sí mismo; cultura visual digital; fotografía digital; panopticon; semiótica.

Keywords:

Selfie; Self; Visual Digital Culture; Digital Photography; Panopticon; Semiotics.

Citar: Broullón-Lozano, M. A. (2015). “Por una semiótica del selfie en
la cultura visual digital”. Fotocinema. Revista científica de cine y fotografía,
11, pp. 215-234. Disponible: http://www.revistafotocinema.com/

A cross-cultural reading hosted by Carleton University and covered by CBC In Town and Out interview

The diagram interfaces geometry and anatomy, humanity and nature, architecture and cosmos, microcosm and macrocosm. It transcends the ancient architect Vitruvius’ text and intersects with ideas prevalent among Leonardo’s contemporaries, at the threshold of modernity. Interweaving many strands of history and encapsulating the diverse interests of Leonardo, his Vitruvian Man was Renaissance’s archetypal selfie.

Second in a series of Three Cinquecento Lectures delivered at Carleton University on the occasion of Leonardo Da Vinci's 500th Anniversary in 2019
1. "Leonardo Da Vinci: From Baghdad to Bayezid"  (Oct 1)
2. “Vitruvian Man” as Renaissance Selfie (Dec 7)
3. "Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mirror Writing" (Dec 12)

"Mintha mindent megírt volna a szerző a digitális médiáról és az azzal érkezett új társadalomról. Ahogy látom, mindent meg is írt, vagy ha nem, én nem jöttem rá, mi az. Hihetetlenül szórakoztató, nagyon jól demonstráló, érdekes példákkal alátámasztott magyarázatok, amiket élmény olvasni. Intellektuálisan izgató könyv!" Heal Edina igazgató, Google Magyarország

"A kötet alapmű a digitális trendek áttekintéséhez és megértéséhez. Egyszerre ad muníciót több szakmának - az IT-tól a marketingig, az üzleti döntéshozástól a felsőoktatás-kutatásig és a művészetig. A szerző átfogó nemzetközi tapasztalatát kamatoztatja példáival és illusztrációival. Az olvasó végül egy hosszabb távon érvényes kötet birtokosa lehet a gyorsan változó trendek világában." Akadémiai Kiadó

[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.

This chapter will examine the ways in which feminism manifests on social media platforms, such as Instagram, through both a resistance to and compliance with the protocols of the medium. For example, by playing with the expectations of social media for complacency and objectification through self-imaging, selfie-takers are able to subvert the medium’s expectations of beauty and, in doing so, gain control over their own objectification—turn object to subject.

Esta tese de doutorado coloca em questão os autorretratos digitais comumente nomeados enquanto “selfies” como práticas que revelam diferentes modos de experimentação cotidiana. O objetivo principal, portanto, é seguir a experiência relacionada à produção de fotografias digitais chamadas selfies. O direcionamento para a pesquisa não está na investigação do caráter imagético da selfie, ou na exploração de redes sociotécnicas associadas ao dispositivo fotográfico, mas em sua constituição enquanto prática – cotidiana, situada e em constante transformação através da experiência. A partir de um diálogo com o empirismo radical de William James, apresenta-se o problema em termos de suas consequências práticas: O que constitui, em termos práticos, fazer uma selfie? Quais as diferenças localizadas produzidas ao se pensar na selfie não como um tipo de imagem, mas como uma prática? Ou seja: através de quais processos a prática de selfie se constrói em um cotidiano fotográfico? São essas questões, conjuntamente com uma proposta de seguir a experiência, que guiam a construção de uma investigação realizada enquanto uma etnografia diante da prática de selfie. Dessa forma, traça- se um modo de seguir a experiência que se desenvolve no rastreamento das diferenças práticas, em um caráter processual de propagação e conexão a partir de novas experiências, e na constituição de um trajeto a ser seguido. O ponto de partida para a investigação localiza-se em uma praça, na qual começa-se a observar e interagir – considerando os espaços geográficos e digitais como um contínuo ambiente de observação – com diferentes práticas de selfie. A partir dessas primeiras observações, as possibilidades de novos caminhos passam a ser delineados, e começa-se a acompanhar o cotidiano fotográfico de diferentes pessoas que se tornam, aos poucos, personagens etnográficos. Essa trajetória, de seguir a experiência conjuntamente com os personagens, demonstra uma prática de selfie que se constrói nas diferenciações cotidianas e modos de experimentação que passam pelas maneiras através das quais se desenvolvem: negociações entre vergonha e visibilidade; co-construção de práticas através de performatividades algorítmicas; possibilidades conversacionais em práticas material- discursivas; e modulações da intimidade em experiências afetivas. Aponta-se, ainda, que esses modos são transpassados por um trajeto de aprendizagem de relatar a si mesmo, através do qual a selfie vai se constituindo enquanto prática. É nesse sentido, em conjunto com as particularidades da prática cotidiana de selfie apresentadas em cada capítulo, que se propõe (e experimenta-se) uma tomada de posição investigativa baseada na experiência – e, através dela, argumenta-se e chama-se atenção para a necessidade de aprender a articular modos possíveis para segui-la levando em consideração as produções de diferença práticas.

The stares of others driving and encouraging the deliberate transformation of one's body into a fit body has become a common narrative of fitness selfies. Research findings show that women who share self images on social media have higher levels of dietary restraint and overvaluation of shape and weight than those who do not (Mclean 2005). Similarly, women who post fitspiration images on social media have a higher drive for thinness and compulsive exercise (Holland 2017). This paper attempts to study the process behind fitness influen-cers' production and sensory-motor performance of 'fit' visuals as factors contributing to anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders. The theoretical framework of the study draws from semiotic photography theory, which explores the gestural aspects of a visual. Participant recruitment used a purposive (a type of non-probability sampling) approach, coupled with snowball sampling. In-depth interviews were conducted with the participants who are female fitness influencers from India. The semiotic analysis of the selfies shared by the participants substantiated the interviews. The selfies analysed were chosen on the basis of their curation choices, as well as on the number of likes and comments they receive.

The selfie is a contemporary form of self-portraiture, representing a photographic image of the human face. The selfie is created for the purpose of reproduction and to communicate images visually with others from a distance. The proliferation of web 2.0 technologies and mobile smart phones enables users to generate and disseminate images at an unprecedented scale. Coupled with the increasing popularity of social media platforms, these technologies allow the selfie to be distributed to a wide audience in close to real time. Drawing upon Erving Goffman’s approach to the study of face-to-face social interaction, this article presents a discussion of the production and consumption of the selfie. We draw upon Goffman’s dramaturgical approach, to explore how the ‘presentation of self’ occurs in the context of a selfie. Next, we consider how the selfie as a form of visual communication holds critical implications for mediated life online as individuals go about doing privacy. We conclude by reflecting on the role of the selfie and its impact on the boundaries between public and private domains in contemporary social life.

This chapter addresses the impossible situations, decisions, and what-if imagi- naries researchers are faced with daily, especially if undertaking qualitative and/or internet research and/or with vulnerable populations and/or on sensitive topics. It aligns with voices arguing that standardized procedural research ethics are inad- equate, and builds on existing work in situational, practice based and feminist ethics to suggest a care based ethical practice. The key to this care based practice of research ethics lies in a particular kind of relationality. This relationality, in turn, is fed by trust, and germinates empathy. The chapter works through the concepts and the phenomena of significant relations, trust, and empathy by drawing examples from my ethnographic research with a community of people, who post (semi)naked selfies of their bodies online (constituting a qualitative, internet research study of a sensitive topic, and thus arguably with a vulnerable population). I describe some of my choices and actions that seem to have worked well to build trusting, emphatic and ethical research relationships, and finish the chapter by offering some suggestions and questions that might help those trying to practice an ethics of care.

El fenómeno selfie expresa la relación que establecemos con autorrepresentación y la tecnolo-gía de los smartphones. Al poner en nuestras manos una cámara fotográfica y usarla como espejo, los teléfonos digitales nos permiten, simultáneamente, mirarnos y hacernos visibles en las redes sociales. La velocidad y profusión con las que hemos incorporado los autorretratos a nuestra práctica comunicativa cotidiana, nos llevan a reflexionar sobre ese deseo de cons-truirse frente al espejo para exponerse luego en el espacio público. La fotografía comenzó siendo la posibilidad de documentar el mundo ante nuestros ojos. En las autofotos digitales el sujeto fotografiado es el propio fotógrafo. Mediante un giro visual se ha incluido a sí mismo dentro del encuadre y participa del paisaje que comparte y muestra al mundo en las redes sociales. Un selfie lo es porque se comparte; así, autorretrato digital cum-ple una función comunicativa en la que la fotografía ha visto desplazada su función documen-tal hacia un territorio nuevo. Internet permite que los individuos creen espacios sinópticos −inscritos en un gran panóptico digital− en los que muchos verán a unos pocos en el caleidoscopio de la autorrepresentación digital. ¿Cuáles serán las derivas de esta masiva autoexpresión visual? ¿Cómo afectará esto a nuestra autoestima y a nuestra forma de socializar? Necesitamos explorar sus implicaciones éticas y estéticas y esbozar la fenomenología de una nueva gramática con la que construimos nuestra imagen y buscamos nuestro lugar en el mundo… virtual.

How have biomedical innovation, regulation, and distribution of pharmaceutical testosterone prescribed to trans men created new forms of medical, community, and individual surveillance of masculinity and masculinization? Our systematic analysis of more than one hundred trans men's testosterone vlogs provides evidence for the production (and consumption) and reproduction of a very narrow set of hegemonic scripts about what a male body is, how it is achieved, and what it means to become a man. We find in this medium, multiple overlapping agents of surveillance: the state, the medical-industrial complex, the interactive loop between ourselves and our screens, the videographer and the trans man, the viewer and watched, hegemonic masculinity and its internalizations. We offer a critical feminist reading of the way that surveillance technologies produce a particular type of transmasculine subject with consequences for cultural understandings of gender nonconformity.

O presente artigo faz uma revisão bibliográfica para compreender quais os motivos que levam
o sujeito contemporâneo a expor-se, cotidianamente, em selfies – autorretratos postados nas
redes sociais digitais. A hipótese sustentada é de que as selfies são um caminho pelo qual o
sujeito contemporâneo passa para consolidar seu próprio Eu. O trabalho baseia-se nas teorias
dos regimes de visibilidade e discussões acerca dos regimes disciplinares, da sociedade do
espetáculo e da visibilidade midiática. Nos apontamentos finais, em oposição à compreensão
das selfies como patologia psicológica, apreendemos o fenômeno como marca de nosso
tempo – como possibilidade de exibir um Eu construído em uma sociedade sem regras
definidas e em que a mediação é feita por imagens, ou seja, onde apenas o que se mostra
existe. Não se trata, portanto de um sujeito em busca de atenção, mas de um sujeito que
acredita ter prosperado no seu processo de subjetivação.

Selfies have become means of self-expression and validation. Posting selfies on social networking sites have become a global phenomenon. By uploading selfies to social media, users seek to gratify their needs. However, there are psychologists that point out that the trend of taking and posting selfies is related to self-esteem values. This research examined the most sought and least sought gratifications in posting selfies on Facebook, and the relationship between gratifications and self-esteem levels of the users.  Social-connection was identified as the most sought gratification and attention-seeking as the least sought gratification. Also, it was found that attention seeking was positively associated with low self-esteem level, social-influence was positively associated with high self-esteem level, and habitual was positively associated with low self-esteem level.

In 1929 Nikolas Calas photographed himself in a mirror of a wardrobe, in a room in Tinos with a hand-held camera (ΕΛΙΑ L003.124). The camera is not visible at first sight, as Calas tries to ‘hide’ it, positioning it in front of his tie. This self- portrait is a manifestation of early self- portraying in photography and can be compared to other modernist self-portraits of the time, especially the ones, where the camera is not visible but somehow hidden in the shadow (for e.g. Lotte Jacobi, ‘Autoportrait’, 1937).
When examining Calas’ poetry and prose texts it is noticeable, that mirrors are a constant motive, as I will try to show. Especially interesting is the connection between mirrors and translation, for example in the correspondence with Williams Carlos Williams, regarding the translations of Calas’ french poems ‘Wrested from Mirrors’, ‘The Agony Among the Crowd’, ‘Narcissus in the Desert’ and ‘To Regain the Day Again’ into American. Williams is borrowing the metaphor of the mirror from Calas thematizing the translator as the other, as a reflection of the original. By analyzing the metaphor of the mirror it is possible as well to reconsider the use of the Pseudonyms of Nikolas Calamaris as a reflection of himself.
After this considerations I will end my talk with the portfolio of prints and objects by eleven artists (Vincenzo Agnetti, Arakawa, Joseph Beuys, Marcel Broodthaers, Richard Hamilton, Roy Lichtenstein, Bruce Nauman, Meret Oppenheim, Robert Rauschenberg, Man Ray, James Rosenquist) introduced by Nikolas Calas and edited in 1975 with the title Mirros of the mind.

The growing presence of selfies on the Web proves how personal photography is changing its role: from a tool for documenting everyday lives to an identity-building resource used to create life narratives, to be shared with a public that is constantly connected online. Our definition of a 'selfie' includes those personal snapshots that: (a) are created with the awareness of belonging to a specific genre of self-portraits; (b) combine textual and iconic dimensions; and (c) are distributed in one's own social network. Our claim is that selfies offer the opportunity to experiment with diverse prospects of self-presentation, especially thanks to their framing power. Using Goffman's theory, we claim that every selfie produces a framing effect that can relate more or less with the main frame in which the snapshot is taken. The aim of this paper is to explore how the framing effect of a selfie affects the politics of self-representation of individuals whose role expectations are quite obvious, such as political figures. Taking advantage of this framing effect, our findings show how politicians use selfies as a strategic self-promotion tool.

Drawing on empirical data derived from an online survey, this paper examines the fan-celebrity relationship within participatory media culture through an examination of the fan-celebrity selfie and the classic type of autograph-taking. We argue that the fan-celebrity selfie is a new media genre whose value emanates from the possibilities of online publication and sharing, provided by the increasing number of digital platforms with user-generated content. Although both autographs and selfies signify a conquest on the part of fans, the achievement of a coveted or long-awaited contact with the celebrity world, selfies provide fans with an enhanced experience of a greater proximity, paving the way to a more intimate relationship.

This paper explores interpersonal meaning in social media photographs, using the representation of motherhood in Instagram images as a case study. It investigates the visual choices that are made in these images to construe  relationships between the represented participants, the photographer, and the ambient social media viewer. I draw upon existing work on the visual systems of point of view and focalization to explore interpersonal meaning in these images, and propose that an additional system, subjectification, is needed to account for the kinds of relationship between the viewer and the photographer that are instantiated in social photographs, as well as the ways in which subjectivity is signaled in these images. The corpus analysed is the entire Instagram feed of a single user who posts images of her experience of motherhood.

Drawing from a subset of data from a multi-year connective ethnographic study with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth, this article explores the scriptural counter-economy of composing new media narratives across online/offline contexts. Combining theoretical constructs from “multi-” literacy studies alongside visual and textual analysis, this article describes the influences of Web 2.0 technologies and photo-based composing tools on contemporary configurations of LGBTQ youth identity making. Giving visuality a place of primacy, this article focuses on two larger thematic findings: snapping selfies as sedimentary identity texts and curating lifestreams as operationalizing community. Focusing on how youth use these material, embodied, and visual texts to reinforce, challenge, combat, and/or resist identities of difference, this article considers how the so-called visual vernaculars and material texts of youth lifestreaming offer alternative conceptions to contemporary new media writing and storying of the self.

CAA 2016
Session: Material Culture and Third-Wave Feminism
Chair: Deborah Johnson
At Gagosian in the fall of 2014, Richard Prince exhibited a series of now infamous appropriations from Instagram.  Among the many pressing questions that Prince’s “New Portraits” series provokes, perhaps none is as interesting as the question of the selfie. What are we to make of Laura Mulvey’s famous ideological critique of the apparatus in the age of the selfie?  If women control the camera they pose for, does it remain an always already patriarchal apparatus?  It seems that, for a new generation of third-wave, post-selfie feminists, Mulvey’s definition of the gaze may no longer be a given. To support this assertion, this paper will consider Prince’s Instagram series in the context of a much broader self-obsessed and gender-bending visual culture; possible objects of comparison include James Franco’s “New Film Stills” series, the media coverage of Bruce Jenner’s transition to Caitlyn, and Kim Kardashian’s recently published collection of selfies, Selfish.

Este artículo plantea un acercamiento teórico desde la semiótica social de Bajtin y Voloshinov a una modalidad textual que ha sido ampliamente difundida a través de Internet, dispositivos digitales portátiles y redes sociales. Esta modalidad es la selfie de protesta. En este trabajo se afirma que los usuarios, a través de estos mensajes políticos multimodales, se manifiestan, protestan, dialogan y ejercen agencia social. Lo anterior es posible gracias a la instrumentalización de los códigos y a la subversión de los usos tradicionales de la fotografía.

A very condensed summary of the findings of my study indicate that according to an online questionnaire of 42 female avid-selfie takers from the Vancouver Lower mainland, coupled with four in-depth phenomenological interviews (conducted earlier in the summer), the digital subjectivities that these young women experience through the phenomenon of selfies parallel the multimodal format of the selfie itself.  If the selfie is a camera, a mirror, and a stage, then through the image making phenomenon, young women experience themselves at once as if they were in a photo (as a model), on a mirror (as the #realme), and on a stage (as, what I’m calling a self-conscious thespian).

A decade ago, in 2007, it was an important year in the realm of celebrity studies, Britney Spears had a meltdown and shaved her head, Lindsey Lohan checked into rehab and in February, Ray J “leaked” a sex tape exposing little-known Kim Kardashian. Kim Kardashian West is a fascinating case of celebrity because she helped build a media empire and a powerful brand at a crucial time, when reality TV was at its prime and when social media brought the idea of celebrity further into the mainstream of everyday culture. Kim’s celebrity persona is, therefore, an important artifact into understanding the matrix of celebrification (Grindstaff) and the fame cycle (Deller). The following essay will then consist of a handful of components charged with situating Kim Kardashian West within the field of popular and everyday culture. Kim Kardashian West’s Selfish is the most compelling artifact in understanding the new celebrity fame cycle and the social construction of the celebrity persona. To support this claim, I will briefly overview the state of celebrity studies and the fame cycle in hopes of showcasing the dynamics that are currently at play (Choi). The discussion will then lead to a substantive framing of the Reality TV genre as the catapult to Kim’s celebrity persona (Lueck). Subsequently, a discussion on the photographic image (Jerslev) will then be undertaken to explain its importance within the essence, creation, and propagation of the celebrity persona (Heinich). Only when all moving components of this essay are anchored together can we examine Selfish as an important contribution to the understanding of celebrity, the fame cycle and the personal brand through the analysis of the selfie. To understand the fame cycle vis-à-vis Kim Kardashian West’s cultivated celebrity persona, I will be looking at the 2006, 2011 and 2015 chapters of the second edition of Selfish. The specificity in the analysis of this academic essay will provide the field with an additional useful roadmap on alternative, yet analytical ways of contributing to celebrity studies by advancing ethnographic studies on one of Hollywood’s most dynamic personas, Kim Kardashian West.

This work explores how the Narcissus myth has been inaccurately
adopted by media, specifically in the reporting of selfie-related
deaths. Narcissus, a boy in love with his own image, loved himself
so much he would not share his image with others. Considering
sharing is an integral part of the selfie phenomenon, this work
seeks to dismantle the narcissism misuse in media coverage of
selfie-related deaths. Through critical textual analysis of six major
newspapers, I argue that exhibitionism is a more accurate critique
of the selfie. Furthermore, it is a critique that fits more in line with
the digital age, as opposed to the analog nature of narcissism.

Although many studies have investigated individual differences in online social networking, few have examined the recent and rapidly popularized social phenomenon of the ''selfie'' (a selfportrait photograph of oneself). In two studies with a pooled sample of 1296 men and women, we tested the prediction that individuals who score high on four narcissism sub-scales (Self-sufficiency, Vanity, Leadership, and Admiration Demand) will be more likely to post selfies to social media sites than will individuals who exhibit low narcissism. We examined three categories of selfies: own selfies; selfies with a romantic partner; and group selfies, controlling for non-selfie photographs. Women posted more selfies of all types than did men. However, women's selfie-posting behavior was generally unrelated to their narcissism scores. In contrast, men's overall narcissism scores positively predicted posting own selfies, selfies with a partner, and group selfies. Moreover, men's Vanity, Leadership, and Admiration Demand scores each independently predicted the posting of one or more types of selfies. Our findings provide the first evidence that the link between narcissism and selfie-posting behavior is comparatively weak among women than men, and provide novel insight into the social motivations and functions of online social networking.

Resumen: El selfie representa un giro de 180 grados en la representación. Desde que la tecnología ha puesto en nuestras manos los smartphones, unos dispositivos que permiten guardar las imágenes de nuestros rostros que en ellos vemos reflejadas, la fotografía de los objetos ha pasado a poder ser la fotografía de los sujetos. Ahora nuestro espejo nos guarda las instantáneas. El observador ha pasado a ser lo observado.

The International Journal of the Image, Volume 6, Issue 2, June 2015, pp.1-16 (Online first: http://ijx.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.202/prod.246)

Coined word of the year by Oxford dictionary in 2013, the selfie, or self-portrait posted via social media, is a global  online  phenomenon  defined  in  mass  media  discourse  and academia predominantly  as  a  text.    This  paper summarizes  an online  survey  of  female university  students  (n=42)  aged  18-26  from  Surrey,  Canada.  The  survey examined selfies as a phenomenon, rather than just a text, aiming to explore what “avid selfie-takers” (takes >1 selfie/week) feel and experience when taking selfies.  A content analysis of the open-ended questions suggested two overall findings: first, the multimodal technology of the smartphone—which acts at once as camera, stage, and mirror—parallel  the  digital  subjectivities  experienced  by  these  plugged  in  young  women,  and  second,  further  research incorporating phenomenological theories and methods would be useful in understanding the nuances of these multiple lived subjectivites.

El uso de aplicaciones móviles o redes sociales que, a través de filtros, permiten mejorar o cambiar la propia imagen, podría estar condicionando la percepción entre los jóvenes que uti-lizan los selfis como referencia para calibrar su autoimagen. Mientras la tecnología posibilita retocar supuestos defectos en el rostro, aumenta el número de menores de 30 años que acuden a las clínicas de estética para solicitar tratamientos que asemejen sus rostros al de sus mejores versiones de selfis. Se ha denominado "dismorfia de Snapchat" a la creciente tendencia a que-rer parecerse a esos autorretratos retocados. Se presenta como una preocupación excesiva por un defecto percibido en la apariencia física y que muchas veces, incluso, es imperceptible para otros. Este trastorno, que afecta al 2% de la población (Europa Press, 2018a) y se clasifica dentro del espectro obsesivo-compulsivo, puede hacer que los afectados recurran de forma habitual y poco saludable a medidas para ocultar sus supuestas imperfecciones, incluida la cirugía estética. Pensar el selfi y sus derivas patológicas nos hace recordar la obsesión de la madrastra de Blancanieves ante su espejo mágico y preguntarnos por qué necesitamos ser in-cluso más bellos que nuestro mejor retrato. Urge pensar en qué está sucediendo con el auto-rretrato y la autorrepresentación de la propia imagen en la era digital.

During the last couple of years, the action of taking selfies has emerged as a common everyday life practice, mainly among young people, but not limited to them. Selfie-taking is a meaningful practice that requires a semiotic analysis. In this paper I reflect on the semiotic character of selfie-taking, particularly by discussing its nature and a possible segmentation in smaller units. Moreover, I argue that in the current scenario of extended online exhibition that anthropologist Paula Sibilia calls ‘show of the self’, selfie-taking plays a key role as a way of making evident the presence of the ‘real’ offline author in the identity narrative that is being constructed online. Within the dynamics of online self-representation and in line with the idea that online identities are actively constructed, I discuss why selfies should be regarded as heterogeneous and semiotically complex devices, and particularly how they contribute to the creation of the online identity of its authors.