Universität Wien

170521 VU Selfies. Eine Kultur- und Mediengeschichte der Selbstdarstellung (2014W)

Continuous assessment of course work

Studying Selfies: Evidence, Affect, Ethics, and the Internet’s Visual Turn

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 50 participants
Language: German

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

Monday 03.11. 13:15 - 16:30 (Schreyvogelsaal (THW) Hofburg, 1.Stock)
Monday 10.11. 13:15 - 16:30 (Schreyvogelsaal (THW) Hofburg, 1.Stock)
Monday 17.11. 13:15 - 16:30 (Schreyvogelsaal (THW) Hofburg, 1.Stock)
Monday 24.11. 13:15 - 16:30 (Schreyvogelsaal (THW) Hofburg, 1.Stock)
Monday 19.01. 13:15 - 16:30 (Schreyvogelsaal (THW) Hofburg, 1.Stock)
Tuesday 20.01. 13:15 - 16:30 (Schreyvogelsaal (THW) Hofburg, 1.Stock)

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

As a cultural practice, however, selfie circulation grows by the moment, moving far beyond the clichéd province of bored teenagers online. The rapid spread of camera-enabled mobile phones worldwide means that selfies have become a global phenomenon. As a media genre, we are interested in the relationship of the selfie to documentary, autobiography, advertising, and celebrity. As a cultural signifier, we ask: What social work does a selfie do in communities where it was intended to circulate, and what happens when it circulates beyond those communities?

Assessment and permitted materials

Prüfungsimmanente Mitarbeit und schriftliche Prüfung am Ende des Semesters

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

As an emblematic part of the social media’s increased “visual turn,” selfies provide opportunities for scholars to develop best practices for interpreting images online in rigorous ways. Case studies of selfie production, consumption and circulation can also provide much needed insight into the social dynamics at play on popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, WeChat and Tumblr.

Examination topics

What is the history (or histories) of the selfie? What are the epistemological ramifications of the selfie? How do selfies function as evidence that one attended an event, feels intimate with a partner, was battered in a parking lot, is willing to be “authentic” with fans, or claims particular standing in a social or political community? One uploaded, how do selfies become evidence of a different sort, subject to possibilities like “revenge porn,” data mining, or state surveillance?

Reading list

Ardévol, E., Gómez-Cruz, E., 2012. Private body, public image: Self-portrait in the practice of digital photography. Revista de Dialectologia y Tradiciones Populares 67, 181–208.
Bolton, R., 1989. The Contest of Meaning: Critical Histories of Photography.
Davidov, J.F., 1998. Women’s Camera Work: Self/ Body/ Other in American Visual Culture.
Dijck, J. van, 2008c. Digital photography: communication, identity, memory. Visual Communication 7, 57–76.
Dobson, A.S., 2014. Performative shamelessness on young women’s social network sites: Shielding the self and resisting gender melancholia. Feminism & Psychology 24, 97.
Doy, G., 2004. Picturing the Self: Changing Views of the Subject in Visual Culture.
Durrant, A., Frohlich, D., Sellen, A., Uzzell, D., 2011. The secret life of teens: online versus offline photographic displays at home. Visual Studies 26, 113–124.
Edwards, M.D., 2010a. The digital self-portrait: a malleable image and a post-medium (Thesis).
Fausing, B., 2013a. Selfie and The Search for Recognition.: See for your Selfie. Academia. edu.
Fausing, B., 2013b. Se Selfie: Selfies og jagten p\aa anerkendelse. Kommunikationsforum. dk.
Fausing, B., n.d. To Become An Image: On Selfies, Visuality and the Visual Turn in Social Medias. Digital Visuality.
Gai, B., 2009. A World Through the Camera Phone Lens: a Case Study of Beijing Camera Phone Use. Knowledge, Technology & Policy 22, 195–204.
Hassapopoulou, M., 2013. Authentic Hybridity: Remix and Appropriation as Multimodal Composition. Journal of Interactive Technology & Pedagogy 1–4.
Hayward, M., 2013. Atms, Teleprompters and Photobooths: A Short History of Neoliberal Optics. New Formations 194–208.
Iqani, M., n.d. Spectacles or Publics? Billboards, magazine covers, and “selfies” as spaces of appearance.
Ivashkevich, O., 2013. Performing Disidentifications: Girls “in Trouble” Experiment With Digital Narratives to Remake Self-Representations. Studies in Art Education 54, 321–334.
Lasén, A., Gómez-Cruz, E., 2009. Digital Photography and Picture Sharing: Redefining the Public/Private Divide. Knowledge, Technology & Policy 22, 205–215.
Lüders, M., Prøitz, L., Rasmussen, T., 2010. Emerging personal media genres. New Media Society 12, 947–963.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Sa 24.04.2021 00:19