The Wednesday Lecture, Documentary: Artist Ryan Gander
Wednesday 18th November 2020, Willow Fisher
Ryan Gander: Me, My Selfie and I
Ryan Gander is an British conceptual artist who in this documentary embarks on a digital pilgrimage to explore the identification and understanding of a self portrait, and how forever evolving and adapting over time. The documentary begins with the artist informing the viewers factual information about the term the “selfie”, reminding us of its modern and new involvement into our life, and that actually the selfie didn't exist so prominently ten years ago. Whereas now it is a part of our identities and is a normalised sense of communication and self identification. Ryan implies that technology that we all embrace in our life is radical, and that in a way it is a contemporary reinvention of who we are, furthermore it is changing who we are and who we see. Our online personas we create through this modern technology is transforming us more and more everyday, as well as this it is changing what it means to be us. It makes you wonder, what is it that makes you the type of person you are? This realistic conception in many ways for the majority juxtaposes with the online recreation because of its idealised qualities we have created. The idea of our actual selves is enabled within the continuous development of technology.
The selfie is an everlasting and prominent symbol of our age, and in fact the selfie or self portrait doesn't just have to be a photograph. It can vary from mediums through technology within the online involvement. It can interpret a like, hashtag, comment, retweets, subscribers, what we post, and what we share. The decisions we make, whether they may be conscious or unconscious and natural responses to modern tech, help to communicate messages and ideologies about us. Ryan informed viewers of the documentary that he doesn't have twitter or facebook, but that he did start an instagram account a few years ago. He went on to reveal the impacts of this involvement in social media to say that it affected him quite negatively and unhealthy. For him he felt almost addicted to the online platform and struggled to disassociate himself with it to return to his physical life, reality. He also stated that time spent separated from his phone felt like a detox for him. The smartphones have managed to reach into lives and position themselves in a very dominating place in our routines and lifestyles, smartphones have created a culture, which everyone is a part of. Due to this Ryan believes that we are all living in the sense of self promotion and gratification.
The first person the artist talked with was a woman called Sophie. She’s an influencer predominantly acknowledged on the platform instagram. Her then career was a firebreather and she suggested that her online persona really helped with her success, posting pictures of herself, selfies, with positive connotations and happy context which her followers buy into and adore. Sophie said that she “wants to be known before I die” Which I think can relate to her bold and passionate online profile. However she revealed she was in a fire breathing related accident which led to her face being partially scarred. This damage not only impacted Sophie physically but also mentally. She informed Ryan and us that she continued to post on instagram but uploaded old selfies and images of herself, pre accident. She made the choice not to share her traumatic ordeal online for a while because her mind was burdened with negative thoughts about her online appearance and the reception she would receive. I think she was afraid of damaging her idealised life online so was avoidant in being truthful to herself and her followers. Sophie was lying to herself procrastinating the experience and felt that the accident she endured was too personal to share online. However she eventually used her courage and told her story online with an image revealing the truth, this was real. The reception was overwhelming in its positive and heartwarming responses from her followers and strangers. Her post led to becoming viral, with Sophie receiving more attention and interest now than when she was previously posted images of herself. She has more followers now and feels as though people are able to really know her and understand her for the person she really is, not just the staged images they see with the automatic expectation of ideal identities. Due to this dangerous experience she fell victim to Sophie was able to make a strong change for herself. She managed to bring authenticity into the fake world of social media platforms. Sophie suggested that she has rediscovered herself and her purposes. For her the platform is now a place that portrays her strength and her pride.
Self portraiture is now so powerful and empowering, being full of possibilities for many to discover and experience. Ryan looked at two really old photographs, implying that they were in fact the first forms of a selfie. It's really an open ended debate, open to interpretation of its qualities. The man in the first photo is looking directly into the camera giving the audience that direct mode of address creating an almost intimate experience between him and the viewer. Within his stare Ryan suggests that there's a sense of uncertainty apparent in his facial expression. It's almost like he’s realising what he's done, opening up the opportunities of the selfie and aware of what is in hold of the potential future. The second photograph is also an example of an early experience of a selfie. It is of a group of men on the roof of a building holding in front of them this giant heavy camera. We are able to see their arms outstretched forward and there protruding shoulders holding us up in order to capture the moment between the men. Ryan stated that he liked this image a lot as being an early example of a selfie because it's being self actualised.He visited the National Gallery of London and looked at two paintings by the artist Jan van Eyck, the first was, portrait of a man (self portrait?) What Ryan admired about the painting was the question mark in its title, the piece has not been confirmed to be a definite self portrait. What appeals to him the most of the artwork is the engravings within the frame, he describes it as a presentation of transition in persona, almost like the frame is speaking for itself in first person. Towards the top of the frame it translates to “as well as I can”, this phrase embedded into the piece encourages the audience response, we are left wondering has Eyck created the best version of himself? I would describe its presence on the work as being enigmatic and rhetorical. The gaze in the painting is piercing immediately attracting the viewers own gaze establishing the artist as the focal point. During his time amongst the artwork Ryan wondered how we differentiate between what's important with self imagery, quite simply, who decides what's important? The second painting by Eyck actually has a self portrait established and hidden away in the commissioned painting. The artist has subjected the self portrait in a mirror behind the focal subject matter, you can visibly see the artist reflection creating that sense of suggestion. It resembles a modern sight of a photobomb in photographs, which I find quite intelligent and humorous. Above the mirror Eyck has written that he was there, again similar to modern tagging and graffiti. Evident in these two paintings is a prominent sense of gratification of being there.
A recurring thought in Ryan’s mind that often bothers him is the concept of how normal it is to see individuals take photos of themselves alone. He went on to say that he used to find it really vain and embarrassing, but now due to the increasing climate of our generation doing it the action has now been normalised. It's almost as if we’ve become immune to vanity and narcissism, that we throughout our lives crave that gratification from our individual egotistic admiration. The next place Ryan visited was the Freud Museum in London. The exhibition presents to its visitors what the experience would have been like whilst Freud was present and working, it's a rather accurate portrayal of his life and own experiences. It shows where he sat and worked, featuring his desk, chair, sofa and other primary objects of his life. A mature connection was made by Ryan, between his mobile phone and Freud’s sofa, with them both being vessels from different times, which I find quite entrancing. That unconscious juxtaposition between the two objects, they are almost personified revealing themselves despite their ordinary forms. He also linked their personification and vocalisation of narcissism to our generation, that everyone talks about themselves on social media, and in many ways enjoy it and receive pleasure from it. Freud’s theory transcribes and explores our fascination with talking about our ego’s, impulses, desires, and gratification. There's a vast amount of moral ethical grounding, now that we can all compare this theory to the uprising of social media. Its most significant and apparent more than ever during this crucial modern time with all of the technical advancements made. We all brag about ourselves online, and Ryan implies that social media platforms create idealised versions of ourselves and portray who we want to be, rather than who we actually are.
A comedian called David Baddiel is who Ryan spoke with next. As an audience for the documentary we were informed that David uses social media as an advantage and incorporates his online experiences into his comedic practice and career. They both pretty much confirmed that his twitter is a controversial part of his identity, with the platform being most prominent in its toxicity and abuse towards others. However David doesn't seem phased by the demanding negativity present in the platform as the controversies he shares provokes a lot of people, which in the long run benefit him and his comedic career using these abusive experiences as material. David revealed that Twitter is a place to vent, it's an aggressive online platform that doesn't bother David because he recognises it as an artistic project for him as a comedian. He acknowledges likes as applause's, it's as if he is virtually receiving a big laugh from his audiences likes and retweets. He implied that the more you get retweeted the more your jokes will spread, leading to the more hate you’ll receive. But it's about finding that common ground of being acknowledged and getting attention, whether it's positive or negative reactions, it's still feeding our ego.
Wales was Ryan’s next visiting place in his digital pilgrimage, to meet a woman called Emma. The underlying purpose of this visit is to experience what it's like to live without being self interwoven with technology, from a woman who has completely separated herself from it. Emma lives off-grid, away from society and all of its modern developments and technical achievements. She lives alone, naturally, in a mud hut obtusely living directly from the Earth and appreciating it. To begin with Ryan was instructed to leave his phone in the car, and he revealed that this was a strange experience for him because he couldn't remember the last time he ventured without his phone. His contact Emma strongly believes that phones cause enormous amounts of stress and worry so she doesn't want her interaction with Ryan to be burdened by this technological disturbance intruding on her peace. Therefore she doesn't want any phones brought into her space, which I understand. She boldly revealed that she wants everyone to evolve over time collectively to a time in space where we don't have to rely so heavily on technology and centre our lives around it. It makes her content to live from the Earth and unfortunately believes that people don't care so much about the world anymore because they are so preoccupied. Emma realised that she can't make people change, but that she can however try to help them to understand. That we can indefinitely live simply and be happy, that this lifestyle is possible if we just try. Through this experience with visiting Emma and detaching himself he spoke about us currently living through an age of an era of oneself, therefore craving a lifetime of attention. Living the way Emma does enables her to evolve her consciousness, and finds the whole ordeal and change in lifestyle personal for her. She believes it to be a highly emotion provoking experience to connect with the Earth in such a natural and real manner, that impacts her personally. Finally Emma strongly values that change depends on you, it's up to you where your thoughts begin and end, that is something you have dominant control of, and only you can alternate from. Love is what she densely feels as well as energy living this way, and through this has made an unconscious position to project the land she is living on. Away from the camera’s Emma asked Ryan about his life as an artist and wanted to know what artwork he created. This is where he reached for his phone and realised it wasn't with him. This evidently intensifies Ryan’s journey through this research that he himself centres a lot of his life around his phone, and that technology is so dense to his identity, and as an artist. He described this as feeling as though a part of him was gone, unconsciously reaching for the phone only to realise that you are alone and detached from that piece of technology at that moment in time. A prominent recurring theme that Ryan became aware of during his time with Emma and communicating with her was time. That we are simply losing time due to our own accords. He realised that it is time to be in the present, but currently the vast part of our generation is throwing it away and wasting this valuable time. There's so much we can do with the time we have but unfortunately we're too preoccupied with the past to live in the present and experience the moment during this time, living in the present and experiencing all that comes with it. Ryan implied that he registers time as a currency of our digital economy, which I strongly agree with.
Next Ryan spoke with a youtuber called DanteTDM, who earns a small fortune from his followers. During this social call Dante explained that his subscribers that he has earn the trust and interest of over the years are buying into persona’s of him, created through his online identity. However this doesn't mean that his digital appearance is fraudulent like other social influences, being a youtuber enables him to share his life with the world, documenting every aspect he experiences so his followers can too experience it. This communication and validation of normality allows Dante to be relatable, his audience can relate to him and the content he is creating because to them and him he appears to be a normal guy. The only adjustments he's made to himself is that is produced an alternate exaggerated version of himself, which is completely understandable for his platform and intentions. He also revealed to Ryan that youtube tends to have a strong loyal following, compared to others he's talked to who describe their experience on social media as negative like twitter, a platform to hurl abuse and toxicity. Whereas youtube allows you to find people that you can relate to and your interests, and has followers willing to buy into this lifestyle observing youtubers life, respecting them and motivating them to continue to record and upload. The life of Dante is shared online and he feels that due to orchestrating to live through this structure he's stuck on this cycle, trapped within the digital cycle of recording and uploading videos, his subscribers are always waiting for his next video. This repetitive pattern is restricting him from fully experiencing his life not enabling him to detach himself from his online presence, he simply feels like he cannot separate his two lives and that they are gradually merging together creating an unhealthy lifestyle.
The focal point of his online identity consists of videogames as well as vlogging his life, Ryan pointed out the beauty of the games he was playing, that they are in their own sense works of art, portraying beautiful landscapes and experiences. To this Dante commented that the majority of people recognise video games as an escape from reality, again relating back to the separation of worlds and lives, online and reality. Ryan kept reflecting on the concept of slowing down in and out of digital reality to fully immerse in the experience and take in the full experience within the digital atmosphere. He even took the controller from Dante mid gaming and stopped to be in the present moment in the game, which he replied with he’d never done that in a game before. For Dante technology has enabled him to become himself and for him the best version of himself, explaining that without it he would be a very different person. To conclude technology has transformed our sense of self.
Relationships are the next aspect Ryan looks at in this documentary. Beginning with Molly, the first cloned sheep. Reiterating that human cloning has not yet been given the green light, but maintaining that concept of reproduction, whether its scientific or natural. Conventional reproduction that we have all experienced and can define in the real world by creating new versions of ourselves, through babies, from parents and overall originating from relationships. Placing relationships into our modern society, online attributes do exist for enabling an easier experience with relationships through dating apps. Even for something so normal to us and essential to our life we associate with digital interference, which I find strange and unnatural. He goes to Silicon Valley, California to speak with a lady called Christie. That uses online platforms to meet ,and to eventually meet her match romantically. She explains that there is an online service called Vita that in a lighter sense impersonates her, through the communication and involvement of professional ghost writers. The anonymous writers write the profile for her, depicting her and the reality of Christie so that she can meet people easier and more intertwined in interests. But is it a true reflection of her? Ryan thinks. She agrees and believes that they do define an accurate portrayal of the woman she is, and that she has to approve whatever is written anyway so if there was anything that came up she disagreed with she could dispose of it before it's published. She concludes that in doing this and taking this more modern approach to dating she is presenting a product of herself. She emphasises that she is in full control of the whole process, again reinstating that concept of time.
A ghost writer is the next person to talk to Ryan, revealing the experience from their perspective as they are the most prominent in the online persona, the writer is paid to impersonate their clients. He revealed to Ryan that the people they are matched with don't know they're talking to a ghost writer, he even described the role as feeling natural to him. He also implied that there are principles behind the messages exchanged between the pair, suggesting that the most effective way of elaborating this communication between strangers is to always ask general questions. For example, pineapple on pizza? This approach is more humorous and connects better with people rather than open ended personal questions that require more thought and facts. I would describe the approach to the social exchanges as being quite suggestive, with removing the most intimate details and queries. It's a bizarre reality of writing for a digital self within a modern world that for many is normal for. From this you receive all of the experiences of having a digital and real sense, in a way combining fictional and non fictional identities both online and in real life. It most certainly is a different outline than real life. However, do we all accept that the digital self is fake? That is up to you. Ryan believes that it is a copy of oneself, furthermore it is a copy of a copy. This dense recurrence of reproduction but with the digital objection. Overall it was strongly implied that the ghost writer tries to create an honest portrayal, and revealed the brutal conclusion that people online can be truthful and untruthful about themselves, and that digital technology is now being recognised as a tool of reinvention.
Throughout Ryan’s digital expedition he took selfies with the logos of online platforms, like google, which is now an icon of our time. Also Apple, the creators of the phone that transformed the world. He made the indication that technology is an extension of who we are, as it is so prominent today. He then began looking at enhancements to do with technology, in particular chip implants. He spoke with a man called Zolton Istvan with an implant the size of a grain of rice with the capability to open doors and start cars. Zolton is a journalist whose desire is to become a trans-human, to be human but better. Incorporating technology within the body to self improve and adapt. His goal in time is to embed his flesh with the tech transforming the whole of his natural structure to solely rely on machines and technical parts removing the flesh, leading to his desires of trans-humanism. He is deeply fascinated with the possibilities of enhancing the human body, even redirecting his attention to people of disadvantage, he thinks about the scenarios and inventions that could help people with disabilities and bodily disfigurations, as well as enhancing individuals to their greater capability. Enabling the people with disabilities and disadvantages to become equal to the norm of our bodies and capabilities.
However Ryan, who is in a wheelchair disagrees with Zolton’s ideology taking the opposing view of the concepts. He believes that they are two very different things that are not compatible to work alongside each other, and is most definitely missing the point. There are people who are at a lower position with their bodies requiring medical help or adjustments to themselves, but in many ways are stable and content with their lives, then there are people who are healthy that are only interested in self improvement, who are self absorbed and greedy. There is a bellowing opposition between improvements and functionality, that Zolton isn't acknowledging. It's straying away from ethics, contemplating not being human anymore. Therefore abusing the natural order of our bodies, messing with ourselves and interfering with factors and components we simply do not understand. Ryan states that there is an equality difference. The soul is not really talked about, discussions and actions instead are consistent with ourselves, not our souls. We are forevermore evolving with technology, in this moment. There is a prominent sense of self growth merging with intelligence quite simply greater than the brain, evaluating a new sense of self. Individuality is not essential to Zolton, he instead wants technological parts in his future, but comments that he doesn't require them currently as his limbs are healthy, he also comments that “we’re not a very good species”. Perhaps when his body is deteriorating he will enhance them, trans-humanism is about control, emerging within the body and what the world is doing to us and our bodies. Recurring throughout this journey is the concept of being our idealised versions of ourselves.
The last place Ryan visited on his journey was the Alcor life extension foundation. Which uses the best technology in our current time to gradually be able to raise the dead, the primary focus of this foundation ranges from optimism, improvement, and opportunity. Which I think again is relating back to that sense of gratification and not being able to let go, that we as a generation have become obsessed with our lives and morality and are open to that unnatural manipulation of the circle of life. The place freezes dead bodies in the hopes that one day they will have the technological resources and knowledge to revive them. When Ryan entered he met with the guide who is most definitely passionate about this operation and even has that sense of familiarity with some of the patients, connecting him to them with that more intimate connection. On a wall there are photographs of the patients (deceased patients) when they were living, this had an impact on Ryan seeing them as it humanised their situation and proposition of not accepting death. It makes the matter more human and gathers a response from Ryan and the man of pure raw emotion, leading to the time there being a more emotional experience for him. The man that works there explained to Ryan the science and facts about what they are doing and hope to do. Indicating that if the structure of the brain is intact for the indefinite future then there is that possibility to repair it to reinforce the impression and reality that the deceased patients aren't really gone. The willing patients who have paid to donate their body for research will hopefully be able to wake up in the future ecstatic with what has been achieved. It was frequently reiterated that the deceased involved chose to do this, and the suggestion was made that some even expect this to happen. The format of the interior of the building is similar to that of a hospital which negatively impacted Ryan who has a fear of the places. I would describe the atmosphere of the place as being very clinical and pristine, almost as if all of the human aspects of the nature of what they are doing has been stripped away and replaced with the dominant ideology and position of technology and science. The surgical tone made Ryan uncomfortable. The guide then went on to describe the process of their work, that they focus on the head and the spinal column, that these parts of the body are of the highest importance to their work. They act as protective mechanisms he suggests, so that is why they are primarily interested in archiving the brain.
This approach to life and death is most definitely out of the norm, for Ryan and I would say many others. As the conventional response to our lives is we are born, we live, then we die, and we just have to accept that and carry on with our own lives. Its a tragic repetitive life cycle but unfortunately that's just what has to happen, it is simply just life. Its out of many people’s knowledge and capacity to respond to death in this way, I would say that there is a strong sense of unfamiliarity here because its basically territory that we as humans are not meant to enter and establish ourselves in. Who decides when it's time to go and who decided to challenge this? Its a part of nature and I wholeheartedly disagree with this whole foundation as its manipulating life and interfering with factors we are not meant to approach. I think it should just be left alone so nature can take its course and define our lives, rather than us forcing our ways in with our supposed knowledge and ideas. Therefore I think its wrong, morally, ethically, just genuinely it's the wrong thing to do. We can't keep preserving our precious lives for our benefit when it's just expected to happen, we're constantly interfering with the natural state of the world. It's an unusual position to be in, the fact that we don't want to let go, is it about science? Or ego? Or that toxic obsession for the need of immortality? It's toying with this fantasy to be kept alive with modern developments of technology. It's apparent that the mindset of many faced with this situation is greed and money, which is unfortunately what has become the norm in our generation.
Closing to the end of this documentary Ryan had experienced the positive outlooks of technology and the positive, and concluded from this digital pilgrimage that our selfies and self portraits will outlive us all, and we can't keep forcing ourselves into this altered reality where we exist forever. It's false and quite simply a fraudulent reality many desire to live in and experience, but in the end it's just wrong and not meant to be. He reiterates that we are losing sight of who we are and that this is quickening in pace with our unhealthy obsession with ourselves and to be acknowledged, I would describe it as being noticed and appreciated rather than just living life, it's more about what you do effecting and including others rather than ourselves, we've almost lost that sense of independence. Primarily relying and depending on reassurance and confirmation form others and technology which I believe to just be absurd. We’re losing ourselves and the sense of ourselves because we are too preoccupied with ourselves. I really thoroughly enjoyed this documentary as for me it was a blunt explanation and summary of our reality. I think this is of highest importance currently and for the years to come.