WEBVTT 00:00:15.694 --> 00:00:19.222 Hello everyone, today we're going to talk about selfies. 00:00:19.920 --> 00:00:26.280 Selfies are the most modern way we have of people showing images of themselves. 00:00:26.280 --> 00:00:29.584 But we've been showing images of ourselves for thousands of years. 00:00:29.584 --> 00:00:31.983 So, in our talk we're going to look 00:00:31.983 --> 00:00:34.852 at the relationship between what we're doing now 00:00:34.852 --> 00:00:37.682 and what we've done previously. 00:00:37.682 --> 00:00:40.136 Say for example you don't know what a selfie is, 00:00:40.136 --> 00:00:43.171 you don't have a tween with an Instagram account. 00:00:43.171 --> 00:00:46.091 I'll tell you, a selfie is an instant self-portrait 00:00:46.091 --> 00:00:48.111 which you take from a mobile device, 00:00:48.111 --> 00:00:51.122 you outstretch your arm and you snap it. 00:00:51.122 --> 00:00:52.352 It's all you, 00:00:52.352 --> 00:00:55.010 there's no professional photographer, there's no editor, 00:00:55.010 --> 00:00:56.563 there's no curator 00:00:56.563 --> 00:01:01.106 and then you instantly upload it to the Internet for global consumption. 00:01:01.106 --> 00:01:05.576 So your private life is exposed for everyone to see. 00:01:08.159 --> 00:01:10.636 Being a selfie maker, 00:01:10.636 --> 00:01:13.983 you're both the creator and the subject, and you choreograph 00:01:13.983 --> 00:01:18.720 how you're going to look in a selfie: you decide your body language, 00:01:18.720 --> 00:01:21.660 your proximity to the camera, where you're going to look, 00:01:21.660 --> 00:01:22.980 what you're wearing, 00:01:22.980 --> 00:01:26.335 your milieu and very importantly your facial expression. 00:01:28.060 --> 00:01:31.912 The medium itself has a very specific aesthetic. 00:01:32.456 --> 00:01:35.474 First of all, most selfies have a square format, 00:01:35.474 --> 00:01:37.852 usually they're viewed on an intimate scale, 00:01:37.862 --> 00:01:40.790 maybe on your cell phone or mobile device. 00:01:41.510 --> 00:01:45.270 They have a very specific photographic distortion 00:01:45.270 --> 00:01:47.570 which usually is from the arm's length, 00:01:47.570 --> 00:01:49.839 of the proximity of the camera lens, 00:01:49.839 --> 00:01:54.118 so this can make your face distorted, or maybe part of the background distorted, 00:01:54.118 --> 00:01:57.664 and then also because of the arm's length proximity, 00:01:57.823 --> 00:02:01.122 the picture itself has a very shallow collapsed sense of space. 00:02:01.122 --> 00:02:03.095 Many selfies, 00:02:03.095 --> 00:02:07.290 maybe it's because of expertise or not, have a blur within the image itself, 00:02:07.290 --> 00:02:11.783 and finally a lot of the selfies have this almost soft, unsaturated sepia tone 00:02:11.783 --> 00:02:14.978 that have an almost nostalgic quality to them. 00:02:17.400 --> 00:02:22.790 Many people dismiss selfies as being narcissistic, frankly many of them are, 00:02:22.790 --> 00:02:25.183 and most people can't help looking at themselves. 00:02:25.183 --> 00:02:26.916 I mean if you walk past a mirror, 00:02:26.916 --> 00:02:30.335 almost everyone takes a look to see how things are going on. 00:02:30.335 --> 00:02:31.854 (Laughter) 00:02:31.854 --> 00:02:34.563 But let's think of selfies in relationship to art history. 00:02:34.563 --> 00:02:37.830 Are they traditional, or are they revolutionary? 00:02:37.830 --> 00:02:40.923 Traditionally, when people had their portraits taken, painted, 00:02:41.763 --> 00:02:43.266 they were done by an artist, 00:02:43.266 --> 00:02:45.429 and they were seen through the artist's eye. 00:02:45.429 --> 00:02:49.790 Here we have Louis XIV as the Sun king, the artist has expertly 00:02:49.790 --> 00:02:55.716 expressed his view of the world of how he wanted to express himself. 00:02:56.177 --> 00:02:58.009 Sometimes, 00:02:59.950 --> 00:03:02.625 even if you are the most powerful person in the world 00:03:02.625 --> 00:03:05.300 and you hire the greatest artist, 00:03:05.300 --> 00:03:08.872 the portraits weren't particularly always flattering. 00:03:10.963 --> 00:03:15.865 But now we've gotten rid of the artist as the conduit, as the intermediary. 00:03:16.186 --> 00:03:18.172 And everyone is an artist, 00:03:18.317 --> 00:03:21.278 so they can decide how they want to brand themselves. 00:03:21.278 --> 00:03:24.234 And with every image, they can change 00:03:24.234 --> 00:03:26.284 their brand, their image, to the world, 00:03:26.284 --> 00:03:28.286 advertising themselves to the world. 00:03:28.286 --> 00:03:33.327 So, your self is a very fluid concept that is constantly being able 00:03:33.327 --> 00:03:37.006 to be moved and developed unlike the portrait of Louis XIV, 00:03:37.006 --> 00:03:40.515 which we now know hundreds of years later what his message was. 00:03:41.945 --> 00:03:44.797 Let's think about self portraits, 00:03:44.797 --> 00:03:46.499 traditionally self portraits 00:03:46.499 --> 00:03:49.693 we think of Dürer here as a self constructed artifice, 00:03:49.693 --> 00:03:54.463 he took ideas, what he wanted his beliefs and his ideas and put them in a painting. 00:03:54.463 --> 00:03:58.826 Here we have Dürer equating his artistic genius 00:03:58.826 --> 00:04:01.979 to that of almost a Christ-like creator. 00:04:01.979 --> 00:04:04.145 And then we have the contemporary selfie 00:04:04.145 --> 00:04:09.238 showing us his superiority with his all-knowing facial expression. 00:04:11.051 --> 00:04:15.480 So let's think about selfies that fit into other traditional categories. 00:04:15.955 --> 00:04:17.954 Let's consider body language. 00:04:17.954 --> 00:04:20.970 Here we have a senator, this Roman senator, 00:04:20.970 --> 00:04:22.146 Audience: Aw! 00:04:22.146 --> 00:04:24.244 with this very frontal facial expression, 00:04:24.244 --> 00:04:27.225 this unflinching expression, 00:04:27.225 --> 00:04:29.106 looking straight at the camera. 00:04:29.106 --> 00:04:32.509 And today, when people want to express power in their image, 00:04:32.509 --> 00:04:35.451 they use this exact same body language. 00:04:36.376 --> 00:04:39.432 Let's think about... Here we have a Hellenistic Aphrodite, 00:04:39.432 --> 00:04:41.958 her head is tilted in coy flirtation, 00:04:41.958 --> 00:04:44.799 as she is flirting with the Satyr next to her. 00:04:44.799 --> 00:04:47.249 And over and over in contemporary selfies, 00:04:47.249 --> 00:04:49.955 we have the same exact body language. 00:04:51.353 --> 00:04:52.597 Many times - (Laughter) 00:04:52.597 --> 00:04:54.873 Here we have Hercules, 00:04:54.873 --> 00:04:56.730 his head is bowed down, 00:04:56.730 --> 00:04:58.857 his arms are away from his body, 00:04:58.857 --> 00:05:02.490 so that we can look at his toned, muscular, powerful torso, 00:05:02.490 --> 00:05:06.496 because this is what defines him as who he is, as his character. 00:05:06.496 --> 00:05:10.072 And again and again, in contemporary selfies, we have the same idea. 00:05:10.072 --> 00:05:12.708 Even in this contemporary work, 00:05:12.708 --> 00:05:16.277 the subject's head is even distorted by the camera lens, 00:05:16.277 --> 00:05:20.846 it's back and a blur because his focus is his chiseled physique. 00:05:21.436 --> 00:05:24.810 So his physicality becomes an expression of who he is. 00:05:26.330 --> 00:05:28.885 Here we have Rembrandt as a young artist: 00:05:28.885 --> 00:05:31.450 his eyes are sunken and dark and deep and moody, 00:05:31.450 --> 00:05:33.207 he's got pursed lips, 00:05:33.207 --> 00:05:35.958 his hair with his golden highlighted coifs, 00:05:35.958 --> 00:05:38.824 and we have this contemporary selfie 00:05:39.709 --> 00:05:43.031 attempting to express the same exact poetic angst 00:05:43.031 --> 00:05:46.235 and anguish of youth and talent. 00:05:49.343 --> 00:05:51.661 Not only can we refer to 00:05:52.590 --> 00:05:54.287 art history for references, 00:05:54.287 --> 00:05:55.433 but also to Hollywood, 00:05:55.433 --> 00:06:00.193 so here we have Mary Pickford as a certain type of ingenue 00:06:00.639 --> 00:06:04.534 with her golden locks, her doe eyes, her can-do spirit, 00:06:04.534 --> 00:06:08.299 and we have the contemporary selfie modeling herself 00:06:08.299 --> 00:06:11.508 almost exactly with that same idea. 00:06:14.036 --> 00:06:16.866 Not only are selfies about 00:06:16.866 --> 00:06:19.716 modeling yourself, but also showing people who you are, 00:06:19.716 --> 00:06:21.532 where you've been. 00:06:23.239 --> 00:06:27.600 No matter who you are, they want you to know where they've been 00:06:27.600 --> 00:06:30.393 and they want you to maybe be jealous. 00:06:31.643 --> 00:06:35.666 So not only look where I am, but look what I have. (Laughter) 00:06:35.666 --> 00:06:37.526 Do you value what I have? 00:06:37.526 --> 00:06:39.319 Do you judge me by what I have? 00:06:39.319 --> 00:06:41.355 Let me show you what I have. 00:06:41.472 --> 00:06:42.753 Look who I'm with. 00:06:42.753 --> 00:06:46.434 No matter who you are and no matter how powerful you are, 00:06:46.434 --> 00:06:48.859 you still want to legitimize your time 00:06:48.859 --> 00:06:52.047 by showing that you're with someone who's of import. 00:06:53.662 --> 00:06:58.606 We live in a world where we're constantly being documented and documenting. 00:06:58.768 --> 00:07:03.158 Because of this, we're very self-conscious of the photographic process. 00:07:03.158 --> 00:07:04.916 So as a response, 00:07:05.030 --> 00:07:08.055 when we're taking selfies, a lot of people 00:07:08.055 --> 00:07:10.639 make a very exaggerated facial expression, 00:07:10.639 --> 00:07:13.388 freeze it and then take the picture. 00:07:13.388 --> 00:07:15.748 Because they want to make sure 00:07:15.753 --> 00:07:20.685 that you know that they're choreographing that instantaneous expression. 00:07:20.958 --> 00:07:25.390 Certainly they don't want to be caught in a photograph where they're actually 00:07:25.390 --> 00:07:28.611 instantaneous, unflattering and real. 00:07:30.079 --> 00:07:32.326 Exposure to Hollywod has shown us 00:07:32.538 --> 00:07:35.223 how to pose for pictures, how to smile for pictures, 00:07:35.223 --> 00:07:37.704 but now this awareness of constant documentation 00:07:37.704 --> 00:07:42.454 has made a very new expression that is really very specific to selfies 00:07:42.543 --> 00:07:44.982 and has been dubbed the duck face. 00:07:45.334 --> 00:07:47.775 Selfies are part of the whole history 00:07:47.775 --> 00:07:50.219 about looking and being looked at. 00:07:50.219 --> 00:07:53.802 Every selfie is an act of having yourself on display. 00:07:53.802 --> 00:07:56.968 Every selfie is an act of self-voyeurism. 00:07:56.968 --> 00:07:59.840 So let's consider the gaze in some of these pictures. 00:07:59.840 --> 00:08:02.187 Here we have Manet's Olympia. 00:08:02.187 --> 00:08:04.883 She is challenging us as we look at her nudity. 00:08:04.883 --> 00:08:07.051 She's looking at us looking at her. 00:08:07.051 --> 00:08:08.872 And we have this contemporary selfie, 00:08:08.872 --> 00:08:13.515 taking this very same pose, using the same eye contact, 00:08:14.104 --> 00:08:16.963 everything is very deliberate and purposeful. 00:08:18.296 --> 00:08:21.854 Another idea of looking at the gaze is when a subject is looking away. 00:08:21.854 --> 00:08:23.991 Then they are part of the landscape, 00:08:23.991 --> 00:08:26.526 part of a still life, an object to be admired, 00:08:26.526 --> 00:08:30.509 without letting the viewer know that they're being looked at. 00:08:34.197 --> 00:08:37.471 So ultimately, who is the visual consumer of the selfie, 00:08:37.691 --> 00:08:39.485 and how do we understand images 00:08:39.485 --> 00:08:42.899 when they're taken out their content and context? 00:08:42.899 --> 00:08:45.179 Maybe one person will read this in one way, 00:08:45.179 --> 00:08:47.207 and another person in another way. 00:08:47.207 --> 00:08:48.684 So what we do is 00:08:48.684 --> 00:08:50.481 we place our individual perceptions, 00:08:50.481 --> 00:08:52.119 our individual experiences 00:08:52.119 --> 00:08:56.039 and perspectives on the image, and that creates a multitude of readings, 00:08:56.039 --> 00:08:58.153 a multitude of stories. 00:08:59.259 --> 00:09:02.418 Because ultimately selfies are a poignant 00:09:02.418 --> 00:09:06.550 example of the fact that people crave to be recognized, 00:09:06.937 --> 00:09:10.020 they crave to be remembered, validated. 00:09:12.499 --> 00:09:14.845 This is an attempt to do these things. 00:09:17.359 --> 00:09:20.002 But this medium, you can look at so many images 00:09:20.002 --> 00:09:23.179 at one time that can be compared, contrasted, 00:09:23.179 --> 00:09:24.709 dismissed, juxtaposed, 00:09:24.709 --> 00:09:28.239 and every subject creator is always searching for originality 00:09:28.239 --> 00:09:30.245 when they're making their images. 00:09:30.245 --> 00:09:33.584 We have to think, when we're looking at these pieces, 00:09:33.584 --> 00:09:36.327 when you're looking at a selfie or you're taking a selfie, 00:09:36.327 --> 00:09:39.805 you have to think, how do I fit into the historical context? 00:09:39.805 --> 00:09:41.143 Thank you! 00:09:41.143 --> 00:09:44.063 (Applause)