Lacking a self(ie): Apps of desire in virtual Cairo

This project explores through an unconventional assemblage of methods and theories the role of selfies in the contemporary process of subjectivation. Relying on an ethnographic methodology, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and queer theory, this project explore three virtual spaces where selfies live (Instagram, Tinder, and Grindr) and how selfies circulate through the circuits of desire facilitated by the technological interface. The goal of this project is to remind us that there is no essential self and to question such an assumption in any project. Therefore, this project is not invested in discovering the truth about ourselves, the other, or a specific imagined geopolitical construction. Instead, the goal of such an exploration is to take a seemingly banal object, the selfie, that is laden with political signification to see what it has to say about ourselves, as virtual human, and how “we” understand the world. As a result, through this project I invite the reader to delve into a world of ambiguity and to consider the loss of subjectivity not as a destruction of order but as a way to promote new subjectivities and theories based on the loss created by the cut of language on the subject

Uma Época de Personalização pela IA & Self(ie) Vigiliância

Qualquer discussão sobre as invisibilidades sociais geradas pela Internet requer, necessariamente, mais estudos, sobre a forma como a visibilidade, enquanto norma cultural crescente, produziu novas desigualdades na vida real. Este artigo combina pesquisa auto-etnográfica, análise social dos media e análise de dados com áreas teóricas, tais como a fenomenologia e a psicologia, para investigar globalmente a nossa cultura atual de IA – catfishing, métricas de media social e manipulação de métricas. O meu artigo levanta questões sobre a re-materialização de divisões e desigualdades digitais no “mundo offline” através da referência a técnicas de autovigilância e vieses algorítmicos para mostrar que estamos à mercê desses preconceitos infligidos pela IA, mas também cúmplices na sua reprodução, seja através da coerção governamental, seja através das nossas próprias normas e regras culturais. Descrevo a nossa relação com a tecnologia da música, de forma a delinear uma trajetória de desconexão sensorial e comunidade co-produzida - uma estrutura para entender os fenómenos culturais atuais e a ética dos dados distribuídos, a privacidade e a representação dos nossos corpos como um novo tipo de transação e moeda. A ascensão das notícias falsas é recontextualizada dentro do crescimento generalizado de falsos utilizadores: as várias imitações do eu, especialmente através da IA

Contemporary Portraiture in Australia: 1990s to 2010s

Contemporary portraiture in Australia is undergoing a revolutionary change in response to the growth of new media, digital imaging and the proliferation of selfies in the networked-digital age. While the effects of new technologies on portraiture are undeniable, this thesis argues contemporary portraiture from the 1990s to 2010s is a synthesis of both traditional modes of representation and new art forms that is expanding our understanding of what is a portrait. Some contemporary portraits have vestiges of Western historic portraiture conventions—mimesis, physiognomy and authenticity—while in others the links have become fragile and contestable. This thesis analyses how contemporary portraiture extends beyond established portraiture traditions to create alternate forms of representation in new and unexpected ways. The study shows contemporary portraiture is becoming increasingly ambiguous and fragmented in form, style, and subject matter. Particular attention is paid to how the desire for social connectedness, that is, being linked up to social media and linked in to internet sites, and the need to take selfies on hand-held devices is redefining portraiture. Furthermore, it examines how the contemporary portrait contributes to changing perceptions of Australian society, national and cultural identity, and ideas of selfhood. It also analyses how new media is disrupting conventional ways of curating and presenting portraits in the gallery setting offering unparalleled opportunities for visitor engagement by presenting portraits on and off the walls. An important distinction made in this thesis, is the significance of portraits of country that gives rise to an alternative concept of subjectivity as a visual and spiritual marker of Indigenous cultural identity. When considered in this way, Indigenous portraits of country go beyond the Western concept of individual difference that allows for a more expansive meaning of portraiture. The outcome of this research study is a body of knowledge and scholarly discourse on recent developments in contemporary portraiture and visual culture brought about by a significant gap in knowledge of the subject

Do selfies make women look slimmer? : The effect of viewing angle on aesthetic and weight judgments of women's bodies

Taking and posting selfies is a popular activity, with some individuals taking and sharing multiple selfies each day. The influence of the selfie angle, as opposed to more traditional photo angles such as the allocentric images we see in print media, on our aesthetic judgements of images of bodies has not been explored. This study compared the attractiveness and weight judgements that participants made of images of the same bodies taken from different visual angles over a series of four experiments (total N = 272). We considered how these judgements may relate to disordered eating thoughts and behaviours. Selfies were judged to be slimmer than images from other perspectives, and egocentric images were judged to be the least attractive. The way participants rated bodies seen from different perspectives was related to their own disordered eating thoughts and behaviours. These results contribute to our understanding of how we perceive the images we see on social media and how these might be related to how we feel about our own and other people's bodies

The Effects of Active Social Media Engagement on Eating Disorder Risk Factors in Young Women

This study examined how engaging with female peers on social media affects young womens body image and self-esteem. Participants were 90 female undergraduate students. Fifty participants left comments on photos of one of their own subjectively more attractive acquaintances and interacted with her social media profiles for 10 minutes. The other 40 participants completed the same procedure with a family member they did not consider more attractive than themselves. Women who had engaged with attractive acquaintances had lower state self-esteem and body image than those who had engaged with family members on social media. Self-evaluative salience of appearance investment, drive for thinness, and downward (but not upward) physical appearance tendencies moderated various relationships between condition and self-esteem and body image. The findings reveal active social media engagement is causally related to eating disorder risk factors in young women, and young women with certain traits are more susceptible to such effects

Web trauma and haunting images : experimentations on materiality, installation, and operation of screens

This thesis seeks to compose dynamics among the screens, images, and space for viewers to confront what we easily ignore: the haunting ghosts of mistreated humanity in this age of web-trauma

Self-Presentation by Young Ballet and Contemporary Dancers on Image-Based Social Media

The impact of social media use on young peoples’ body image is gaining increased attention both in academia and in the media. Far less consideration has been given to whether young people emulate body image ideals in their online visual self-presentation. This study examined the online self-presentation of a group who may be vulnerable to body image difficulties, young dancers. Forty-seven contemporary dancers and twenty-four ballet dancers took part in the study. Participants’ most recent five images on Instagram were screen-captured and content analysed. In addition, participants completed a brief survey comprising measures of Instagram use, self-objectification, body surveillance, eating disorder psychopathology and depression. There were no differences between dance genres in their conformity to idealised body image in their self-presentation. However, the dance groups differed in objectifying behaviour, as contemporary dancers demonstrated more sexually objectified images and ballet dancers posted more images that focussed on a body part instead of their face. In terms of audience reaction to idealised/non-idealised content, there were no differences in positive feedback between image-type and dance genre. However, regression analyses highlighted positive relationships between number of ‘likes’ and proportion of idealised and objectifying images posted. Finally, no significant relationships were established between features of self-presentation/Instagram use and assessments of self-objectification, body surveillance, eating disorder psychopathology and depression. All dancers also showed low levels of psychopathology across all measures. This study can offer young dancers and dance schools an insight into the visual self-presentation practices of young dancers. Instagram provides them with a constructive venue for identity expression. However, some of this aligns with idealised body shape or objectifying appearance, which should be considered. Results also invite more optimism and fewer negative preconceptions regarding body image in young dancers

Multi-Factor Authentication: A Survey

Today, digitalization decisively penetrates all the sides of the modern society. One of the key enablers to maintain this process secure is authentication. It covers many different areas of a hyper-connected world, including online payments, communications, access right management, etc. This work sheds light on the evolution of authentication systems towards Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) starting from Single-Factor Authentication (SFA) and through Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). Particularly, MFA is expected to be utilized for human-to-everything interactions by enabling fast, user-friendly, and reliable authentication when accessing a service. This paper surveys the already available and emerging sensors (factor providers) that allow for authenticating a user with the system directly or by involving the cloud. The corresponding challenges from the user as well as the service provider perspective are also reviewed. The MFA system based on reversed Lagrange polynomial within Shamir’s Secret Sharing (SSS) scheme is further proposed to enable more flexible authentication. This solution covers the cases of authenticating the user even if some of the factors are mismatched or absent. Our framework allows for qualifying the missing factors by authenticating the user without disclosing sensitive biometric data to the verification entity. Finally, a vision of the future trends in MFA is discussed.Peer reviewe

An exploration of some contemporary risk factors for the development of disordered eating.

Eating disorders are amongst the most deadly and difficult to treat mental health conditions (Beat, 2015), thought to be influenced by many complex factors, including in part social pressures of body appearance. However, current understanding of eating disorders is based heavily on a very specific population; cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied, white women (Burke et al., 2020; Fabello, 2020). Furthermore, modern advances in communication mean that the social context in which eating disorders develop is rapidly changing. This thesis examined whether a frequently used measure of disordered eating, the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) is fit for purpose in minoritized communities that deviate from the traditional eating disorder patient, as well as the role of social media (specifically ‘fitspiration’ images) as a contemporary eating disorder risk factor. The results identify a new structure for the EDE-Q that is relevant across genders and sexualities (bisexual, homosexual, and heterosexual). Data obtained suggest that both gender and sexuality had a small but significant influence on eating disorder symptomatology. We also find that although disordered eating thoughts and behaviours may influence our judgments of social media images of other people’s bodies, viewing such images has no immediate effect on the judgments we make about our own bodies