REGARDING
In December 2020, artist Megan Jones produced a cyanotype self-portrait from a selfie that utilized an Instagram filter I created in 2019 (Daydream). I then created a new filter from Megan’s self-portrait, called Regarding. This piece has interactive sound design by sound artist Les Stuck.
Regarding claims both the cultural relevance of a selfie and the artistic legitimacy of a self-portrait. A viewer can regard the self-portrait in an exhibit, and then become the portrait subject using the Regarding filter. The treatment, location, audience, and frame are provided by the refiltering of self-portrait cyanotype print. Both embellished photographs exist in an immense photography universe — but only some may have a lasting impression. The piece was exhibited at the Currents New Media Festival 2021.
“The self-portrait and the selfie are two separate, though at times overlapping, efforts at establishing and embellishing a definition of one’s self. Qualities like medium specificity, deeply rooted histories, and traditions (or lack thereof) that define these efforts only superficially differentiate the two.
What has greater weight is the selfie’s inherently replaceable and even disposable quality. If after taking a picture of oneself the results are unsatisfactory, it is easily forgotten and replaced by a new picture.The self-portrait, whether it is a carefully composed study or created in haste, often contains more decisions than could be easily erased...selfies promote active discussion and responses that can be instantaneous and—more importantly—in the form of a selfie.”