My final project is a continuation of my performance piece. I wanted to explore the behavioral shifts encouraged by social media and new technology. I decided to go through my daily routine while very obviously taking videos on snapchat of myself. I had been thinking of ways to push my earlier piece to become more dynamic. I decided that putting my Snapchat experiment in both private and public settings would be an interesting way to compare the dynamic. I tried to take a few videos everywhere I went in an afternoon. It was much more difficult than I expected. I found myself joking about the project or trying to defend it to friends I encountered along the way. I felt extremely uncomfortable in front of camera in a way I’ve never experienced before. The camera’s presence gave me a heightened sense of self-awareness. Snapchat is ultimately a social platform, and constantly Snapchatting my day made me grow more and more concerned with how much time I was spending on social media, others perceptions of me and my own image.  The video piece would up inducing a sense of paranoia and discomfort which we all feel in an age where media has become relevant in all areas of our life. I hope my video performance piece alludes to the obsessive, invasive nature of social media.

Lately, I’ve been reevaluating the amount of time I spend on social media. I had read a quote that really resonated with me: “there’s a fine line between social networking and wasting your life away.” I decided to use my video performance to explore this concept. I went through snapchat and tried every filter. I sat with the filter for the longest amount of time Snapchat would let me – 10 seconds. I captioned the videos with blunt titles to get at the monotony and sheer waste of time I spent trying each filter. I slowed the videos down in post-production to exaggerate the amount of time I wasted. If I continue this as a final project, I’d like to involve more people and focus on a few particularly absurd filters. I will interplay a video shot with a DSLR of the subject using snapchat with the actual footage from snapchat.

My friend has gotten into these mid-2000s online games and I was intrigued at what she saw in them. I filmed her playing them. I thought it was bizarre that so many broader issues you here about in the media about video grames – violence, sexualization, etc. – played out in these extremely short, 15 second games. IMG_9820.MOV IMG_9821.MOV

My project was centered on finding the moments when women I know first became aware of beauty. I began with a sex-ed book from the 1800s. I wasn’t necessarily surprised but still disturbed by the emphasis the author placed on beauty. What was even more disturbing was the fact that many of the assumptions the book placed about beauty and femininity are still tightly held by many today. I decided to guide my piece towards looking at how women internalize these notions of beauty. I was also drawn to a poem which retold the story of Black Swan. In the film, the protagonist struggles with body image, perfectionism, mental illness and fitting into a very structured role. I had also recorded a friend reading excerpts from the sex-ed book but ultimately decided against including them in the piece.  This was largely because I assumed that the listener can begin to make assumptions about what they pertained to and I wanted to focus my attention and time on the interviews. I edited the audio clips and recorded a friend reading part of the poem. I then interspersed my own commentary, interviews and the poem to form what I hope will be a nuanced look at how we think about beauty. This topic certainly isn’t under-covered by any means. However, I was struck by the responses my friends gave me and hope that the piece offers an interesting look at the internalization of social pressures. I wanted to create a cohesive narrative for my piece but am worried that it comes across a bit too much like a podcast. Ultimately, I was hoping to create an intimate, personal look at the experiences of several different women.

I don’t feel like what I have is enough to post on social media yet but I feel like my interactions with friends surrounding the project mirrored the response I may receive on social media. I approached one friend asking him to be the “Voice of the Patriarchy”. By that, I meant read excerpts from a 19^th century sex-ed book. He appreciated the concept and understood the criticism I was making but had further questions – what other texts was I considering? What did I want to get out of my criticism? This opened up a discussion about our experiences reading the text. We share a lot of the same political beliefs but could imagine a world where someone could read the text without seeing what we thought was glaringly wrong with it. As a result, I decided I wanted his delivery to be as patronizing and condescending as possible.

I received very positive feedback as I was asking friends for their perspectives on beauty. Some said they were looking forward to seeing the final piece. It sparked an interesting conversation  among a few friends and myself about our understanding of beauty. My understanding of the project evolved as I talked about it with friends. It also opened up a discussion about whether I should include male friends.

In terms of authorship, I found that sharing the work with friends influenced the direction I was going to take the work. The public experience of sharing was integral to workshopping and building upon my ideas. For example, I initially planned on interspersing the sex-ed excerpts with recordings of a few friends reading poetry. The conversation that stemmed from recording poetry is what pushed me towards asking friends about their perceptions of beauty.

1. Writing/recording noises (pen on paper)
2. typing (when I go to type these)
3. Putting pen down
4. AC hum
5. Weird beeping (somewhere outside?)
6. Car coming to stop
7. Cars going by on road
8. Footsteps approaching room and then becoming quieter
9. Hammer
10. Ambiguous construction noise
11. People talking outside house (words too quiet but voices are apparent)
12. Air shutting off
13. Rattle sound
14. Phone vibrating
15. Voice of someone entering house
16. Door opening
17. Door closing
18. Breathing
19. Microwave turning on in other room
20. Running sink

It was hard for my phone to pick up some of the noises, but I’ve included the recordings of a few. Most sounded the same.

Social media platforms like instagram are inherently performative. Users often will devote an account to a specific purpose. For example, a fashion blogger may have an instagram through which they are sponsored by brands and can form relationships with PR and industry professionals. Even users who have personal accounts are aware of their audience while they are posting. With this in mind, I decided to complete the assignment by using a social media platform as part of my performative photography series.

I liked the idea of creating an instagram after the examples we looked at in class. I was drawn to finstas (fake instagrams) since they are allegedly a more authentic way to reach followers. They’re typically visible to a smaller circle of friends and are supposed to be more candid or honest. However, I began by questioning whether finstas can ever truly achieve this authenticity. Given that finstas are supposed to be a more personal reflection of a user, authors are inherently aware that their finsta will create assumptions and perceptions about themselves. Thus, finstas inevitably raise questions of authorship.

I also thought finstas would be an interesting form of performative photography because of the specific types of characteristics they tend to convey. Most that I follow are extremely self-deprecating. They’re typically on the more sarcastic side. They give the impression that the user is willing to bare all to the audience, but only to an extent. I kept these in mind when deciding which images to take and post. I wanted to give the impression that I would put just about anything on the internet while actually revealing very few details about myself. My finsta persona became a character which I based the content I was posting around.

Most finstas I follow range from absurd pictures to paragraph long confessions. I decided to make a finsta and spend a day posting whatever came to mind in an effort to be authentic. This was a performance given that very little of what I actually posted was authentic. They were mostly dumb snap chats, overdramatic captions and shots of moments of my day that weren’t particularly significant in the long run. My performance of authenticity only created an account that stands as a caricature of myself. Some of my followers knew that I was creating the account for class. Others thought I had genuinely created another account and went along with it. My ultimate goal was to be obnoxious enough that my close friends would unfollow me or tell me to stop. However, after posting six times in one day I realized that a different standard exists in the finsta world where oversharing is encouraged.

I realized I never put my glitches up – here ya go!