“With how routinely social media platforms are now derided for fomenting surveillance, conspiracy, and polarization, it can be easy to forget that they were once heralded for ushering in a new emphasis on self-expression. If you signed up you could “share” your activities and ideas to a wider range of people and seem to expand the contours of what the self could be. Initially, this process was a novelty, but as social media became more routine, skillful self-presentation became a familiar and necessary skill, almost a self-care ritual, driven by how other people and algorithms respond to your posts.
With traditional markers of life progress and self-definition — home ownership, marriage, kids, stable careers — becoming less normative as well as less broadly attainable, it can make sense to treat social media as an opportunity to restabilize identity, a chance to turn inward toward something we can control: the aesthetic and the personality we project, the labels we apply to ourselves. Many social media bios are a collection of such identifiers: astrology sign, pronouns, gender and sexual orientation, political orientations, mental illnesses, disabilities, location, age, Myers-Briggs type, fandoms, jobs, hobbies, and more.”
Munson, I. (2021)
Munson’s comment in Real Life Magazine has resonated with my own perspective on social media, whereas once the novelty of social media was about the identity of the self you shared, the novelty has long been lost, leaving a wake of echo chambers via algorithms and self censorship, whilst during my MA my previous bodies of work have addressed, identity, ownership, authenticity and the manosphere, I haven’t addressed what ultimately connects them altogether – algorithms and self censorship, or lack of. My current intentions are to create a multi-pathway visual novel using Ren’py as a vehicle, with the intent to simulate navigating the pixellated minefield of social media.
Due to feedback in previous modules, that my GIF output was somewhat lossy and didn’t do my outcomes justice I’ve been experimenting with an abstract image I have taken with the intention of using as a background for ren’py, using APNGs and webp formats, to produce higher quality animated images. When I first began experimenting with cinemagraphs and animations back in 2012, GIF was pretty much the only option you could easily access other than video or flash, with APNGs and webp formats hard to gain access to, despite offering a wider palette.
Whilst it’s been a fun experiment and proved useful for subsequent series, I’ve found despite Ren’Py supporting the webp format it is limited strictly to still images. The only way I will be able to display animations within Ren’Py will be to layer transitioning layers of stills or encode a movie format within, so far I have only experimented with the former and not the latter (as seen in Figure 2, a demo test version, largely I had been focusing on the coding elements, so if I persist with this path the basics have been done and I can just place my images into the system, however aesthetical the start screen and the text options are the standard offerings and haven’t been customized visually like I would do if I carry on with this approach as a method of display).
I’ve also been experimenting visually these past few weeks both in camera and with digital manipulation. Figure 3, is created in part as a reference to the work I had produced for 701, 702 and 703, in the use of vibrant neons (in this case EL wire lighting), the presence of the human doll merging with computer and the suggestive element of a dystopian orwellian sci-fi realm, as an almost introductory image to the distraction technique/push of the algorithm towards those bodies of work and away from my main work this module on censorship, so the viewer has to participate and actively seek the main ending. In case I opt to not take the path of Ren’Py I have also been experimenting visually with 3D rendering and AI assisted animated photos.
Figure 4 was my first test, transforming Figure 3 into a 3D moving Kaleidoscope, however I don’t think this process really works for my current intentions as it doesn’t really add anything to my decided narrative, however it did give me insight into how the technique works, which led to me produce Figure 5, a 3D moving face using one of my phicen dolls face close up. The outcome is disturbing and definitely triggers a sense of The Uncanny, however I feel the outcome has become less photographic and more graphical in nature, and doesn’t really evoke the realism I want to convey, in that she has become cartoonish.
Lastly, I’ve been experimenting with AI assisted animated photo software (Figure 6), testing both dolls and some archival portraiture of my maternal great-nan and paternal nan. The effect and output has been disturbingly uncanny on many levels, whilst my merged self-portraiture with e-maGen (top right), makes it pretty obvious it is a still image that has been brought to life, and not simply a moving image. The other 3 outcomes are far more successful in output, and are thus more uncanny. Whilst to the average viewer the phicen (top left) is likely to feel the most uncanny in it’s breach of real and the unreal, personally I found those of my ancestors to be more uncanny, especially my nan (bottom right) as the animation is not too far off how she herself looked in person in terms of mannerisms. These latter attempts lead to questions on what we as users should put onto the internet in terms of content, given the potential for images to be appropriated into a new animated life be that as an outright deep fake or a simple animation. Should we as users self-censor what we do put up of our day to day lives?
Figure 6 Murray, J. (2021) Experiments with AI Animation Photos
References
Figures
Figure 1 Murray, J. (2021) WIP – Experiments wih APNGs and webp formats for animation
Figure 2 Murray, J. (2021) Silicone Valley Ren’py test run
Figure 3 Murray, J. (2021) Experimentation with motherboards and neons
Figure 4 Murray, J. (2021) 3D Kaleidoscope Test
Figure 5 Murray, J. (2021) Experiments with 3D face
Figure 6 Murray, J. (2021) Experiments with AI Animation Photos
Bibliography
Munson, I. (2021) Real Life: Mirror of your mind; How algorithmic feeds conflate identity with diagnosis. [Online] Available from: https://reallifemag.com/mirror-of-your-mind/ [Accessed 20/2/2021]
Jasmine Murray Photography 