Auto meta ality

[automediality]

December 2, 2021: “Life Matters”

I’ve posted this photo in conversation with Poletti’s conclusion in Stories of the Self. In her conclusion she acknowledges that we attach linguistic and symbolic significance to different forms of self life inscription, but suggests that significance materializes through the very forms we engage in. This brings to mind Marshall McLuhan’s quote of “the medium is the message.”

[automediality]

November 18, 2021: Surveillance Data and Embodiment

Questions of surveillance, especially regarding self-surveillance, bring to mind Foucault’s adaptation of the “panopticon.” The above photo shows a guard tower in the centre, with cells circling around it. Foucault claims that the tower functions through the ability to look in without being seen, and without cell mates knowing when they’re being watched. Eventually, cell mates will begin to police themselves whether or not they are actually being watched. 

The memes about “our phones listening to us” also relates to the panopticon. The idea of an omnipresent “eye” watching and listening to us, without us being able to necessarily look back are like that of a digital panopticon. This also relates to issues of privacy and surveillance.

[automediality]

November 4, 2021: #InfiniteKusama

The infinity mirrors used in Yayoi Kusama’s installation, mimics an early technique used by Vivian Maier in her self-portraits. In a way, both artists engage in conversations of the fragmented self. I’m not entirely sure if Vivian was making a commentary on the experience of mental illness, considering she was creating in the 1940s-60s and that language wasn’t very accessible.  However, the notion of the fragmented self or simply fragmentation could be used to describe the alienating feeling of experiencing mental illness. Literature and poetry written in the early 20th century often uses this language to address similar concepts that Kusama addresses in her work. 

[automediality]

I place Michael Yaksich and Anna Poletti/Julie Rak’s articles in conversation. Where Poletti and Rak speak about drag automediality as a hopeful opportunity to increase the visibility of queer culture, Yaksich suggests increased visibility means increased commodification. 

[automediality]

October 21, 2021: “Random, Messy, Funny, Raw: Finstas”

Finstas are understood as alternative instagram accounts, created to share an intimate space between creators and users. Ironically the name of Finsta is the combination of fake and instagram. The concept of fake instagram brings up the question of the fake user, and fake content. If the more intimate and vulnerable space of finsta is the fake altnerative account, then what does that say about our main accounts and our main content. More importantly, what does that suggest about our main online persona?

[automediality]

October 7, 2021: Feeling Photography

Thinking of affect and photography, makes me think about Mary Ellen Mark’s famous photo “Amanda and her Cousin Amy.” The photo caused rage when it was first released in the 90s, hence making it her most memorable shot. The sight of a 9 year old smoking a cigarette evoked a the type of response that suggests art is doing as art does: tipping the world on its head in hopes of evoking emotion. But the job of affect is much more significant than aesthetics or connecting one to their emotions—it is a social commentary and an invitation. An invitation to consider societal roles, hierarchies, a norms we take for granted. 

[automediality]

September 30, 2021: Updating to Remain the Same

“We are forever trying to catch up, updating to remain (close to) the same.”

When Chun said we update to remain (close to) the same, I think she had apple’s IOS update in mind. The enduring ephemeral seems to also be captured in the second photo...a sense of in betweenness that is neither waiting nor moving. Chun’s Habital New Media and Enduring Ephemeral may just be in conversation with one another here!

[automediality]

September 23, 2021: What does the selfie say?

Senft and Baym consider what the selfie reveals about a society’s cultural values. Here the photo trend presents a theme of “vulnerability” and “revealing.” Only what is being revealed is the manufacturing of vulnerablity, revealed not by the “author” but the mirror in the back. This vulnerability is revealed through an intersection of mediums, old media and new media, creating another dialogue between what different mediums in conversation might look like.

[automediality]

The images above are quite meta in my opinion. They demonstrate that as much as we are consumers, we are also products to be consumed. Additionally, the images present an intertextuality between stationary and digital text. This could also be seen as old media and new media coming together. 

The intersection of consumer and consumed can be seen through the readers (consumers) who then become memes (consumed). While transit is often a place of anonymity, there are aspects of surveillance and self surveillance that play a role. The humour in these images lies in the irony that those who are surveilled have not self-policed. It’s funny because “why would they ever read that in public?” In acknowledging that public spaces are places of surveillance as much as they are places of anonymity, the gentleman in the last image purposely reads books with fake and eye-catching covers in order to evoke a response. He is a known prankster on the internet, with youtube videos showing him reading different books with different titles. You can find more information about him here; https://www.boredpanda.com/funny-fake-book-covers-nyc-subway-prank-scott-rogowsky/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

[automediality]

One of the good things about digital communication is that it compresses time, while being at the mercy of our own time. In other words, we are able to choose when to respond, putting off messages if needed. It’s interesting to see that while we have access to long-distance communication and enjoy a level of impersonality, we still experience the same social anxieties that might make us avoid an old colleague at the grocery store. 

In relation to my final paper, this makes me think about the concept of authenticity and how digital communication is changing its meaning. I’m curious about the new adaptations and avoidance methods we develop as we are given new digital affordances. Choosing to view messages through the drop menu and turning off “read receipts,” are just a few avoidance methods we’ve adopted.