Writing Assignment on The Art of Self Invention

Gabriela Ortiz

Self I as Image

Prof. Doris Cacoilo

April 17, 2017

                                                 Writing Assignment: The Art of Self Invention

            Self invention is typically the idea that one gets to come up or be whoever they want to be physically, through social media, or through images. Self image are the set of ideas we have about our own qualities and abilities, which are what makes us unique in this world. With self invention one gets to come up with anything they want about themselves. Most people find themselves through activities, their surroundings, others perspectives, what they learn, etc.. In my opinion, most people don't even notice or realize that they have mastered self invention through social media (images) rather than in person, which matters most. This can be misleading to the audience or the people that don't know you personally. It creates a misconception and a lie to who you really are sometimes. The concept of self invention in images can be a tad vague. "The photographic image and film are about looking at oneself as others might," (The art of Self Invention. Finkelstein, pg. 183.) Through images you can fashion your identity and put out a filter to your life, who you really are, and how you really feel to probably make you feel better and to look good or bad in front of others. Images create a different reality for everyone. We get to pick what we want others to see.  

Inspired by Sophie Calle

        How we present ourselves in images depends on our situations and/or our surroundings. I feel we represent ourselves in images in a such a way where we want to most likely fulfill the expectations we want to create of who we are or what we want others to think or know about us. A lot of people mostly care about what others may think about them. I believe human beings have multiple personalities that fit certain situations and surroundings. Art and media teaches us that we can express our ideas and creativity through a painting or a visionary work like Ana Mendieta did. Art and media really does teach us to be true to who we are. It teaches us that art can simply be something or nothing at all. We can find meanings to things, helps us learn others perspectives on an image or a painting, and also helps us develop knowledge and skills. Art can help us understand and be more accepting of difference when it is shown. Art can really help us express our emotions, our personalities, and more. It is something we all carry in us and something that we all are. We may all be and carry art but we just sometimes don't see it, but art is absolutely beautiful, astonishing, and breathtaking. Art and media can make you feel and question things. To me, art is like the imagery of philosophy (if that even makes sense.) 

My self portrait inspired by my interests and  a silhouette self portrait online

          Human beings learn about identity and culture through images. We learn about identity and culture through books, magazines, social media, school, etc. A book can be more expressive to me since it'll have images and words written down to describe and express what an image may mean. For example, Ways of seeing by John Berger talks about the manner in which males and females are culturally represented. "She has to survey everything she is and everything she does because how she appears to others, and ultimately how she appears to men, is of crucial importance for what is normally thought of as the success of her life," (Ways of seeing. Berger, pg. 46.) The representations of men and women in visual culture attract different ways of how these genders are looked at. John Berger explains  how men have the right to examine women, and after the women are examined, the women examine themselves, too. Both genders can survey themselves but the only gender that will be more self conscious and will care more about their appearance and their worth will be females. The woman tends to over think and surveys herself and by doing this, the woman's identity will eventually split between the surveyor (which is the men) and herself. Anyway, yes, we can learn about identity and culture just by looking at the images. 

Inspired by the Guerilla Girls

     

     If we create and control the images of ourselves that we share out publicly, this can communicate who we are, even if it is not who we really are physically. Nowadays, technology is super advanced and will continue to bloom even more advanced later on in the future. We have social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram where we tend to post most of our life (even if it's our reality or not) onto these pages. There are so many applications one can use such as Photoshop and other filter apps we can use to change and filter our images. In my opinion, everyone can have a different perception of how you look like or how you really are. No one will ever see you the way you see yourself. I do not think at all that an image should certainly change and depict who you truly are. An image is an image regardless of how you choose to present yourself in it. Everyone will have their own opinions regardless of how the image of you looks like at the end, so to me it really does not matter. Images up on social media shouldn't be taken so serious or personal, because everyone changes at the end. You can have an accident, gain/lose weight, cut your hair, change your style, and age as time passes by, but what truly matters is who you really are on the inside. There is nothing wrong about controlling the image of yourself. Controlling the image of yourself just simply shows that you know yourself and what you like. Nobody knows you like you know yourself and what you want. For example, when a person takes a picture of me, I end up coming out disgusting (in my opinion) but when I take a selfie of myself, I end up really liking it (after 100 tries) because it shows I know my angles. It is a tad weird how we seem to look different when someone captures an image of ourselves because it has you thinking if you really look like that. You see yourself, and you completely see a whole different person, but when various of people see you, they might see different yous... Intriguing.. It all depends on the lighting, the angles, and the makeup (if it's a female). An artist we learned about in class that I ended up really liking was Cindy Sherman. I was so intrigued in Cindy Sherman because of her artistic abilities of capturing herself in different characters for her portraits. It was just amazing to see how many characters a person can transfer to and be completely unrecognizable.  

Inspired by Cindy Sherman 

Readings: Ways Of Seeing by John Berger, The Art of Self Invention by Joanne Finkelstein, and Sophie Calle's reading.  

Sites: cindysherman.com, guerrillagirls.com, artsy.net/artist/sophie-calle, and www.warhol.org