The Pointillize Yourself and #NeoImpressed apps, implemented at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Phillips Collection, respectively, allow viewers to take selfies of themselves and apply filters that transform the images into pointillist paintings, within the context of Neo-Impressionism exhibitions. The article focused mainly on comparing the museums’ approaches in implementing these technologies (top-down in the case of the Indianapolis Museum of Art and bottom-up in the case of the Phillips Collection), but I found the results of the evaluations of the technology in both cases to be far more telling. Both museums received immense positive feedback from users of the apps, to the extent that the article considered the app “the most successful participatory tool [The Indianapolis Museum of Art] has ever developed for an exhibition.”
But what made the app so popular? The article credits the popularity of the app at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, in particular, with the fact that the museum learned from its previous interactive components. However, given the younger demographics of people using the app, the option to post to social media after you create the pointillist image, and the simple fact that the images are self portraits, I credit the popularity of the app in the case of both museums to my generation’s narcissism and obsession with “selfies.”
In the first act of the This American Life episode, “Status Update,” Ira Glass interviews a group of teenage girls, who discuss the importance of posting selfies to platforms like Instagram, as well as the implications and politics associated with that practice. These girls– and many of my peers– construct their senses of self based on their Instagram identities and the reactions they get to what they post. Selfie culture has permeated teenage realities. It would be interesting to see if the app would be as popular without the social media aspect, or even the self portrait aspect, but I think it wouldn’t be. Patrons’ fascination with this technology stems from the fact that they themselves become a piece of artwork, put in the online gallery space of Instagram, to be admired, in turn, by the patrons there.
As a member of this generation, I find this rather embarrassing. Once upon a time, self portraits were a matter of talent and having a picture of yourself was a sign of wealth. Nowadays self pictures are an aspect of self worth. Selfies attempt to demonstrate our love of ourselves turning us into objects. Perhaps we are objectifying ourselves?