IVP #3 “Social Structures” Work in Progress
My aim of this project was to explore the effect of social structures on the “self.” Portraits traditionally have been an artist’s interpretation on an individual. Images have always mediated the viewers’ experience and interpretation to some degree. In today’s postmodern world, a person’s identity has become the image he or she creates of themselves and projects to the world. A new social structure has been created through the media, and specifically through the worlds of Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. For my final project, I am in the process of creating two images. The first is a traditional self-portait with graphite pencil, attempting to look somewhat “real.” The second is a photo mosaic, with the larger image of myself being a self-portrait. The hundreds of small images composing my self-portrait are images of Facebook, Twitter, Duke, my sorority, my friends, and other social realms. Essentially, the first “traditional” portrait serves as a foil to the photo mosaic. What the photo mosaic essentially gets at is that all the small images are the social structures I use to project my identity.
