Weekly Selfie 6 - Aileen Herrera

 Chapter 1 - How We See The World by Nicholas Mirzoeff

“The selfie resonates not because it is new, but because it expresses, develops, expands, and intensifies the long history of the self-portrait.” (Mirzoeff 29) 

It’s so interesting how we went from painting that took months or even years to complete and done by professionals in art to something that could be done in less than a second by anyone. I think this expands our view on self-portraits and makes it universal. Before only the wealth and nobel were able to have protarits done for them but now anyone all over the world can do the same. Granted it’s change but the meaning is still there.

“One place where we can catch sight of these glimpses is the selfie. When ordinary people pose themselves in the most flattering way they can, they take over the role of artist-as-hero. Each selfie is a performance of a person as they hope to be seen by others.” (Mirzoeff 62)

Before this reading and even this class, I never would’ve thought that selfies were performative. Not even when seeing filters or photoshop, did I think it was performative, it was just selfies. But now given a chance to really think about selfies, I now see how they are performative. We don’t our true selves or lives, but I personally don’t think that means it’s fake. At the end of the day everything we do, say and see is to an extent a performance. 

Instructions:

Beach Piece

go to the beach 

build a sandcastle near the waves 

stomp on the sandcastle 

watch the remainder of the sandcastle get swallowed by the waves

lay where your castle was and get pulled into the ocean 

never to be seen again

Room Piece

sit in an empty room and watch the walls bleed 

get up and touch the walls smear the blood on your clothes 

sit back down 

drown in the blood

For this weeks selfie I did not get the chance to go to a gallery or museum, but I saw this really funny and cool street art of a pigeon with a coffee cup.