An auto-ethnography in exploring a social media persona through self-portraiture

Abstract

This work explores the ways in which one's identity is divided into an inner and outer ‘self’ in today’s digital age; the real me and the persona/s which I have created for social media. This self-observation research revolves around exploring my ‘self’ through the performative act of self-portrait photography, mixed media sketches as well as two journals; the artist’s journal, where I kept a visual record of my findings, other artists’ work, thoughts and ideas, and the second journal; a personal diary of my thoughts which was the key inspiration for my final work. The data collected through my practical experiments in distorting self-portraits, journal keeping and observations, led to a deeper understanding of how my ‘self’ is represented on social media. The study of self-portraiture photography consisted of experimenting with various styles of self-portraits. Natural and man-made elements were used to portray a visual representation of distortion which is to reflect how my online identity has also been distorted and deconstructed into different selves and illustrates an illusory essence of my ‘self’. All the accumulated data flowed into the creation of the final work. This practice-based research was conducted from an auto-ethnographic perspective. It was a continuous self-discovery through the use of distorting elements such as the flexible mirror, water, glass, fractal filters, digital and physical collages. Throughout the whole process, the self was confronted and questioned. The resulting work, presented as an installation is the conclusion of my research inspired by my journals. This represents how I feel my ‘self’ has been represented on social media especially as a result of having to highly depend on social media during the past year due to Covid-19 restrictions. This research sheds light on the link between the inner and outer persona and how social media can affect or alter the other as well as how people’s identities are formed as a result of this process.