Digital Expressions of the Self(ie)

During 2021-2023, this research project engaged in sustained, critical questioning of what differences the selfie makes in terms of one’s subjectivity. Selfies are no longer merely records of ‘moments that happened’, they define reality. It is the way the digital-natives access the external world. Selfies do not capture us as immersed in the world that exists around us; it is a digital imprint of the self upon the world. A selfie, while in its techno-aesthetic architecture might seem to be generic, the different roles that it takes are quite bewildering. They have become ways of self-expression and also experimentation. Especially with young users selfies become a way by which they experiment with their gender, bodies, sexualities and identities, creating a polyphony of visual self-representations unavailable to any preceding generation. Thinking in these terms, the project sought to understand: How do the aesthetic choices of expression-of-the-self negotiate with the circulatory options of the selfie? What constitute the claims of authenticity from the stand-point of the selfie-taker? How does the control exercised on the sharing of the self through flimsy social media privacy controls forge link(s) with the default opt-in mass-circulation of the selfie? As a pilot study, this project pursued these questions, while looking at how the self gets portrayed, communicated, expressed and desired in the digital rendering of ‘self-portraits’. It drew on ethnographic studies using the methods of participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and go alongs. It also engaged in content analysis of images sourced from certain digital archives. 

This was a 3-year research project (2021-2023) that was principally funded by the Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC), Ministry of Education, and led by Dr. Avishek Ray (NIT Silchar), Ethiraj Gabriel Dattatreyan (Goldsmiths, University of London), Usha Raman (University of Hyderabad) and Martin Webb (Goldsmiths, University of London). This project received additional funding support from the UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI). 

For more details on the project, please write to: avishekray@hum.nits.ac.in.