wellness culture in digital spaces
themes:
- algorithmic bias
- commodified healing
- femininity as an online performance
- labour both visible and hidden - the illusion of effortlessness vs ritual theatre, 'daily shed'
- digital self surveillance, performance of care 'get ready with me' 'what I eat in a day'
- food as prop, curated identity
- over consumption/plastic waste - hauls, reset my fridge
- internet language, gendered language too - girl dinner, hot girl walk
- wellness trends, digital snake oil sellers - the language that surrounds this is interesting also - detox, optimise, cleanse, balance your hormones, lower your cortisol, heal your gut biome, boost your immune system, flush toxicity, reset your metabolism
wellness & diet culture online extends to beauty - all under the umbrella of self care content:
- facemasks, eyepatches, facial slimming devices, facial massage tools
visuals:
project 2, 2020 vision
(click the oyster card to jump to project 1)
project 1
notes:
when I first saw these stickers, studded across bins in the street like confetti - I had no idea what they were. It turns out they are the sticker tabs from disposable vapes, pressed onto surfaces as if by instinct, grouped together in a kind of accidental mark-making. why do people do this? who started this?
the mass of them is unsettling, the plastic waste, a disposable culture, the evidence of nicotine addiction in a new form, a habit and a ritual
this image would only make sense to someone post lockdown, post covid, when disposable vapes gained their popularity and access. It visually cements a time, a before & after. If he could see the bins in his street today, he wouldn’t recognise or understand it. It makes me wonder about other changes that have passed by without notice. & now I’ve identified these, I can’t stop seeing them, and will always make that ‘then & now’ connection
(depending on your browser, you may have to zoom in/out)
notes:
- a moving collage, about loss, memory, lockdown
- scanned relevant objects and imagery
including: cut outs from lottery tickets and maps,
screen recordings & shots from google maps, shop signs, street names
- audio samples credit: Samuel Organs
'Guidance' & innerinnerlifes 'it reminds me of U'
before & after
- time
- constant change
- buildings appearing/disappearing
- stripped back to reveal a new view
(that bit in London Bridge where the houses opposite can now see across the river from their window bc the building has been removed)
- but temporary, fleeting, a new building will reappear
marks left behind, traces of before, what once was
screen recording these is good - but the images taken by google sometimes do not line up on each date, the angles are different etc - makes it quite jumpy to watch as one film. not necessarily a bad thing but could be interesting to try and smoothem the transition
POV shift, the view from above: distance
symbols and signs, the language the makes up our daily lives, given new meaning
google maps glitches, shadows & panorama errors
during my process of collecting imagery on google maps - I overloaded my laptop, and GM started malfunctioning. as I moved around on street view, images from previous locations & photos from user uploads began to appear in squares across the screen, warped, fitting the panoramic view. I clicked screen record, and began 'walking' around various locations. I realised the longer I paused on an area - the more likely it would reappear in a different area, at a later point. I had some level of control over the image, but also, an element of chance
digital blemishes & glitches
accidental moments - reflections, shadows
a panorama from a google user, taken at a street party: the legs and chair fading into the image, fading into the light, disjointed, you don't notice it at first
collage work - attempted to morph this collected footage from YouTube/instagram, but found the different pacing, clip length & rhythm quite jarring and visually difficult to read