Essay: Reshaping reality - by Daniela Tenenbaum & Niv Fux

ESSAY
Reshaping Reality: New realms of being through the phenomenon of AR filters on social media

In 1839, Robert Cornelius, an amateur chemist from Philadelphia took a self-portrait photo which today is considered by many to be the first selfie.^[1] For Cornelius, this was probably a way to experiment with the new medium of photography and test its ability to represent reality and himself within it. Nowadays, as any smartphone holder can produce self-portraits in varied forms, self-documentation has become inseparable from the way we interact with each other, share, and mediate our experience online. As pointed out by researcher Mariann Hardey, selfies can function as an extension of our natural identity.^[2]

The recent emergence of Augmented Reality (AR )^[3] technology on social media, opened the possibilities to continuously reinvent ourselves and alter our online persona. With Instagram’s face filters and Snapchat’s ‘Lenses’, users can edit, adjust and alter their own image in various ways by adding different virtual elements such as makeup or fashion products; to reshape their facial features and ‘better’ their looks (e.g., bigger eyes, contoured cheeks, fuller lips); or reconstruct their visual identity altogether. The quest to adhere to impossible beauty standards also infiltrates the ‘real world’. It was found that AR filters may negatively affect our self-image and the way we perceive others, in some cases leading people to undergo plastic surgery to resemble their online persona (known as Selfie dysmorphia).^[4]

Since 2017, the use of AR face filters in social media platforms has been rapidly increasing. Snapchat claims that 200 million of its active users engage with ‘Lenses’ daily. According to Facebook and Instagram, over 600 million people have used at least one of their AR features so far. The popularity of AR filters on social media is also seen through its impressive volume – more than 400,000 creators issued over 1.2 million effects, with over 150 accounts surpassing 1 billion views.^[5]

But the magnitude of the phenomenon not only derives from its growing use. The images produced through AR technology can be so convincing and compelling, that they make us wonder what is real and what isn’t and question the clear boundaries between the digital and physical realms. What we used to view as two separate spaces, is now gradually becoming intertwined and difficult to distinguish from one another. The growing popularity of face filters and their persuasive and impressive visual qualities raises, therefore, urgent questions on self-representation, redefining beauty standards, and the way we perceive ourselves and others.

Many of these questions form the basis of works by contemporary digital artists who are pioneering the use of innovative technologies to explore new opportunities, as well as to critically examine the impact of these technologies on our online presence and self-image.

In a panel held at the Netherlands Film Festival in collaboration with the Noorderlicht Festival, Daniela Tenenbaum & Niv Fux will host the artists Ines Alpha, Marcela Baltarete, and Andy Picci to explore these questions and discuss the different ways in which their work challenges the boundaries of being.

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INES ALPHA
Paris-based 3D artist Ines Alpha creates hyper-realistic, but at the same time otherworldly, face filters that playfully explore conventional beauty standards. After working as an art director for beauty and luxury brands, Alpha found a way to connect her craft with her passion for technology by creating 3D makeup looks for major companies in the fashion industry such as Nike, Burberry, and Selfridges. In these creative designs, much like with ‘real’ makeup, Alpha used 3D elements to change and highlight natural facial characteristics. The artist drew inspiration from sea creatures and combined fairy-tale-like features to create a supernatural look that sets an alternative for traditional beauty ideals.

AR filter Rojo by Ines Alpha

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3D makeup look for drag artist @isshehungry by Ines Alpha –

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3D makeup for Selfridges by Ines Alpha

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MARCELA BALTARETE
The works of Marcela Baltarete, a non-binary 3D artist based in the UK, present another example for the exploration of physical limitation. Baltarete works with 3D animation as well as AR and VR technologies to reimagine a world that is not confined to gender and human constructions. In a series of animation videos titled A Journey of Digital Introspection and Relief parts I and II, the artist designs an imaginative figure who embodies the flexibility and emancipation of a gender-neutral body. Baltarete describes their work and their choice of working with AR as a response to their gender dysphoria. In this way, their work can be considered therapeutic for those battling with similar feelings. This opens doors for alternative realities where people can alter their physical entity and bring their own vision of themselves to life.

A Journey of Digital Introspection and Relief – Part 2 by Marcela Baltarete

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Image from A Journey of Digital Introspection and Relief – Part 3 by Marcela Baltarete

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ANDY PICCI
Andy Picci, a contemporary Swiss artist who focuses on digital art, also grapples with questions of self-identity. While Alpha and Baltarete used digital technologies as a platform to explore alternative realities, Picci’s work seeks to confront the viewer with the harsh implications of reality and the increased use of social media. Through his work, Picci raises crucial questions about the ways social media is reshaping one’s self-identity and the risks of being absorbed in one’s own image. The face filter Absorbed is a primary example of our immersion with our digital selves.

AR Filter Absorbed by Andy Picci

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AR filter Fame by Andy Picci

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Instagram filters and Snapchat lenses introduced a new scope of possibilities of virtual experimentation and expression of our self-image. Technologies such as AR, VR, and 3D animations liberate the user from physical boundaries, they allow for heightened creative freedom and introduce new ways to reconstruct one’s self-identity. As our dependency on digital interactions increases and our physical being becomes almost overshadowed by the virtual one, we recognize not only great importance in acknowledging the new opportunities for self-exploration, artistic expression, and experimentation they invite, but also to critically look at the societal, cultural, and political implications arising from reshaping our digital self-image. Join us to the discussion panel – Boundaries of Being, in which we will examine these questions and explore alternative realities through AR and digital technologies.

^[1] https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/picture/2014/mar/07/first-ever-selfie-1839-picture-from-the-past Some suggest Cornelius had the help of an assistance to take this picture.

^[2] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jul/14/how-selfies-became-a-global-phenomenon

^[3] AR technology produces an enhanced version of reality by adding layers of digital information to an image, creating a combination of the ‘real’ and the virtual world. See: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360131512002527?via%3Dihub

^[4] https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jan/23/faking-it-how-selfie-dysmorphia-is-driving-people-to-seek-surgery

^[5] https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/04/02/1021635/beauty-filters-young-girls-augmented-reality-social-media/

 

>> Read more about the panel ‘Boundaries of Being’