ELLUCIDATION

“We are all chimeras, theorized and fabricated hybrids of machine and organism; in short, we are cyborgs.”   — Donna Haraway

 

    CYBORGSPACE arose from my growing interest into the effects of technology on an individual’s creation of and autonomy over their own identity, as well as how that identity may differ between reality and virtual spaces. My interest peaked at the question of how to visualize this dualism between who someone is both on and offline. The term “digital footprint” is used to describe the trail a person leaves behind in any given digital space, such social media, frequent online searches, or virtual reality games. For this project, I decided to focus on a way to use imagery to unify a person’s “real” and “virtual” identities, using this digital footprint as a core link. Additionally, I aimed to explore how intersections between humans and machines should not be viewed as a detriment to our own humanity. Instead, we can imagine them as providing a useful tool; meaningful extensions for constructing ourselves, and to better depict a fuller view of who we are.

    Donna Haraway’s essay “A Cyborg Manifesto” on the fragmentation of identity faced by humans as a result of evolving technology served as the main inspiration of my concept. The film “Arrival” contributed to my rationale into how best to visualize this concept. A core theme of the film is the exploration of of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: a theory of linguistic relativity that, in its strongest form, argues that language affects thought. I wanted to apply elements of how this theory was used in the film to my project, as the plot centers around symbolism and language. I decided to use QR codes merged with portraiture as my way of depicting this dualism between the self online and the self in reality. In a way, QR codes function as a kind of virtual language, almost like a bridge connecting two worlds; they allow for one piece of technology to understand where another wishes for it to go, with those intentions generally being set by a human behind their screens. Through this process, we are able to observe humans and machines working and speaking with each other, and are given a visualization of how human and digital footprint intersect. 

    I wanted to use a more traditional medium in order to best contrast with the more contemporary and conceptual nature of the project itself, but to keep my photos digital so as to continue the theme of intersection with technology. I felt that basic portraits with minimal editing would serve this best, so as to also show how technology may allow for an evolution of better understanding in art. As a result, I chose to create large prints to emphasize the larger than life hold of technology on our society. 

    I believe a portrait in photography is a way to see someone, a viewer is presented with a face with which it is possible to tie an identity to. But how much information can one really get about the subject through merely a photograph? This is where technology comes in. A portrait created through QR codes allows a viewer to access a more intimate view of the portrait’s subject, to have a broader and deeper understanding of their identity beyond merely a visual. These QR codes can be linked to any place: social media platform, personal website, videos, music, etc. Imagine a world where we didn’t just look at a person through their outward appearance, but were able to simultaneously access a sort of database of their personality (favorite songs, their social medias…) to flesh out our “view” of them, in an aim to achieve better understanding and connection between all. 

    My aim was to create fully readable QR codes embedded into portraiture in a natural way. As my work progressed, I began by embedding normal QR codes, but they felt too heavy and distracting for the kinds of images I wanted to create. I later realized that in order to keep an organic feeling to the images overall, I would need to strip down the codes, which rendered them unreadable. To rectify this, I accompanied each portrait with a more standard and fully scannable QR code, each created from an image of the subject it accompanies so as to continue the theme of identity through technology. The places the codes link to are websites or other virtual media platforms chosen by the image subjects themselves as something which represents an aspect of themselves. For some these were personal social media pages, while others chose music playlists they felt connected to, foundations or organizations they were passionate about, or even artists they recommended. These links form a link into viewing an aspect of these individuals’ virtual footprints, their identity online, and thus their full identity as a person. 

    Through their “readable” portraits, I aimed to create a way for an observer to engage with the individual they are looking at beyond merely “seeing” these people in an image before them and knowing nothing more. I felt as though this combination of photograph and code seemed to mirror social media, in the way that our feeds are constantly in flux to appeal to what the algorithm learns about us through our actions & various interests. As our digital footprints become better understood through algorithms, our social media’s “portraits” of us become more accurate, in the same way the QR additions to my portraits aid a viewer’s understanding.

    I believe this project to be in the early stages of its conception. Moving forward I am considering developing it further, possibly on an international scale so as to have data from individuals across a multitude of societies.  And of course, as positive as greater interconnectivity may appear, my research doesn’t escape the graver implications of such an enhanced network of accessible information, which bring to light more sinister questions regarding the identity that can be accessible to all. I hope my work will evoke questions regarding data privacy and the extent to which we should intertwine our offline identities with our online ones. I hope a viewer to take away questions of the effects this kind of publicized personal information may have on the already worsening problem of identity fragmentation, identity theft, and possibly, even erasure or evolution of the very elements which we use to discern ourselves as humans? The ultimate goal is to evolve this project to include images embedded with fully scannable QR codes in a non distracting way, which will aid my research into the different ways our society’s interconnectivity with technology influences evolution of more traditional forms of art such as the photographic portrait, and individual identity.