INGA ANGERMANN LSBA GRAD PROJECT- GENDER, BODY IMAGE, AND SELF-REPRESENTATION IN DIGITAL CULTURE

click here to read about the artist

Artist Statement

GUILTY OF– SUMMER/FALL 2014

Read about GUILTY OF

junkfood

… loves junk food

About this photo

trends

… trends don’t fit me

Read about TRENDS DON’T FIT ME

bathingsuit_Snapseed

… not bathing suit material

About THIS PHOTO

expectations

… not living up to mom’s expectations

About NOT LIVING UP TO MOM’S EXPECTATIONS

numbers_Snapseed

… ignoring the numbers

thighs

… thunder thighs

Read about IGNORING THE NUMBERS and THUNDER THIGHS

tutorials

… watching too many makeup tutorials online

About this Photo

pretty

… not as pretty as you

About NOT AS PRETTY AS YOU

THE SELFIE PROJECT– SPRING 2014

180 Minute Selfie

gettin ready to head out with the gurlz- just took 3 hours- lol

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Gender Bender Selfie

boy_selfie

who can tell that it’s me?

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We are What We Consume Selfie

selfie3

Sunday morning- enjoying my Starbucks in the Spring sun- delish

MORE ABOUT THIS SELFIE

Perfect365 Selfie

selfie1_edit

perfect smile for a perfect day- heading out to a meeting at work

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Selfie Plus

totem_Snapseed

just hangin with the totem pole guy at Squamish Nation urban reserve

MORE ABOUT SELFIE PLUS

Las Meninas Selfie

ferry

taking the last selfie of the day on the late ferry back to Vancouver- what a weekend 🙂

ABOUT THE LAS MENINAS SELFIE

At the Bar Selfie

burlesque_selfie copy_Snapseed

letting my wild side come out at the bar- lol

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Ugly Selfie

photo1

my ‘it’s too late in the day’- face … don’t ask

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Works Cited

THE SELFIE SCREENTESTS PROJECT- SPRING 2014

For my third tutorial I partnered with Brian Ganter from the English department, as I had taken several lectures with him during my four years at Capilano University and liked his interest in film, media, and gender-related topics. Building further on the research and work of my other two tutorials, we took an approach of looking at visual culture more closely, focusing specifically on works of art and the image in particular. Supplementing the readings I was doing, I had a chance to look at a wide variety of artist’s works, which greatly inspired me for the projects of this tutorial. I enjoyed the visual aspect of this tutorial and one of the assignments even sent me to the Vancouver Art Gallery to get inspired for a self-directed piece of work, which deconstructed the idea of ‘landscapes.’ I also really enjoyed watching the many assigned films, including Slavoj Žižek’s Pervert’s Guide to Ideology, which the relationships between ideology and visual culture.

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When the time came to begin working on my final project for this tutorial, I wanted to focus on the selfie phenomenon that is so popular at this time, while I was also working on a selfie-related project in my other tutorial. We came up with the idea of a ‘Selfie Curation’ and I asked the Capilano University community to submit their own selfies so that I could analyze them based on the research I had done. Unfortunately, due to a lack of submissions, we had to abandon this project about two weeks later. While this was disappointing, it pushed me to think about something else and I believe that the resulting project is better than the ‘Selfie Curation’ would have been.

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Using Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests from the 1960s as inspiration, I proposed to create a short film, which would consist of ‘Selfie Screentests.’ I created a one-way mirror, with my cell phone mounted to the other side. With a small set up of a black backdrop, a single light, and a tripod I set up at two locations at Capilano University and asked passerbys to participate in my project. I provided my subjects with a little background of my project and the tutorial and had them sign an image release form. Out of 21 participants I chose 15 subjects for the finished product. I edited the film in various ways, slowing down the speed, changing the colour to a high contrast black and white (similar to Warhol), removing the sound, and adding a slow soundtrack. I wanted to keep the look of my Selfie Screentests similar to Warhol’s original, yet I wanted to make visible the selfie element by adding the mirror and having the subjects see themselves. I asked all the subjects to look at and interact with their reflection, giving them no other directions- they were free to do what they felt was appropriate, as I wanted to record how people interact with their own image. I find the finished result quite fascinating and weirdly mesmerizing, as it allows the viewer to become part of an intimate moment between the subject and their own reflection. Being able to see on film how the introduction of technology and the maker of the film plays into this dynamic is also noteworthy; the subjects were aware that they were being filmed and had agreed to participate, yet as the film reveals, some were more comfortable with this than others and this poses interesting further questions.

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See the full video here:

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/93088249″>Selfie Screentests</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user15103390″>Inga Angermann</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

PICTURE PERFECT– FALL 2013

Picture Perfect was the result of my first tutorial and with this short documentary I started to explore some questions women may ask themselves when they encounter different types of media.

REISE – FALL 2013

Reise is my final project submission for a fourth year English class, in which I share my own struggle with gender inequality.

bernardino-luini-head-of-a-woman

SEE REISE HERE

WHO HAS MADE MY BODY?– SPRING 2014

I created Who has made my Body? for an assignment for a third year English course about Electronic Literature.

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/63981522″>Who has made my Body?</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user15103390″>Inga Angermann</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

TAC– SPRING 2013

TAC was another assignment submission for my third year Electronic Literature class.

The work is based on a piece of Electronic Literature called my body- a Wunderkammer by Shelley Jackson, which can be seen here:

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/110855391″>TAC Inga</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user15103390″>Inga Angermann</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

Gender Bender Selfie

boy_selfie

As John Suler suggests in his book, The Psychology of Cyberspace, online gender switching “offers the opportunity for people to experiment with their identity” (n.p.). With this selfie I was trying to make visual how easy it could be to ‘switch’ genders in cyberspace by using selfies. Suler asserts that females may switch their gender online, in order to conduct research, to learn what it takes to be a seductive male (n.p). For this photograph, I had a professional make up artist help me apply some make up to my face to make me look more masculine, I wore male clothing, and I attempted to use a masculine facial expression, channeling what I thought would be manly. This photo, due to my posture and the photo’s angle and lighting could be successful at communicating that I am a male in the online world. The very nature of the selfie allowed me to take many pictures and select the one I thought made me look most masculine. If I had gone out into public in my disguise, I do not think I would have attracted much positive attention, as the make up looked quite ‘clownish’ in real life, however this may have been different had I posted this photo online- perhaps on an online dating profile.

As Suler points out, some women may switch their gender online in order to “experience power that [they have] not been able to experience in real life” (n.p). Rather than feeling powerful however, this selfie evoked a lot of challenging emotions within me. It proved to be much harder to take on the mannerisms, gestures, and posture of a man than I had imagined it to be. Not only did I feel extremely uncomfortable in my costume and make up, I also really did not want to leave the house made up like this. I did not want to be seen out in public as something I do not identify with. This made me think more about what assigned gender means and how important it is for most of us to ‘fit into’ certain prescribed gender categories and how crossing these boundaries would be very complicated. As Suler suggests, gender switching in the online world may be more ‘safe’ than doing it in real life (n.p.) and this experience made this very clear to me. Having a presence online gives a certain sense of security, similar to the security I felt while I was inside the house behind closed doors, while this would have been very different had I actually left the safety of the house- if not in a physical way, at the very least in an emotional way.

*Special thanks and credit to Beth Lomond for helping me with the make up for this photo*