Video Selfie: Using your iPhone or computer with photo booth (or similar Webcam video software), create a one minute video of yourself that constructs your selfie as an “artistic alter ego:” the artist or designer you want/choose/aspire to be! Choose a location that you find best expresses this constructed sense of digital identity: studio, campus, apartment, park, café, garden, etc. Do not write a script or edit your piece, although you can shoot more than one take, picking the best one. Be sure you are in the video, though it doesn’t need to be a traditional headshot. Consider any ambient noise, background movement, etc. to be part of the composition and the setting. Be sure you are close to the camera if you intend to speak, so the sound is clear and audible.
Feel free to apply any effects that enhance the articulation of your video double. You might want to situate yourself, for example, in a saturated space, if you feel your artistic identity is connected to media alteration, the “glitched” image, or some form of comment on the immersive nature of our contemporary media experience.
The goal of the project is to spontaneously and improvisationally create a sense of an imaginary double in video form building on the concept of the selfie and the construction of a digital identity. The project asks the following questions: How can the video selfie be used to alter identity? How might video be used to conceal identity? How do the objects that surround you contribute to your sense of identity? When the video selfie is completed, upload it to your Vimeo or YouTube account (if you don’t have one, sign up) and embed it in a blog post on your OSS site by copying the link, and give the post a title. Include a short text description (two or three sentences) as a “caption” for the video, that concisely or enigmatically or poetically describes who you are (or imagine yourself to be) in your digital identity in video form.
The following are some examples by past students:
Ruzana Rahim
Diana Toh
Instructions:
- Setup a Vimeo account
- Shoot the video from the camera app on your phone or from you laptop Webcam.
- If you shoot the video from your camera app, upload directly to Vimeo by using the upload tool as shown below:
- You can also transfer video to your computer the video to and upload to your Vimeo account via the Website:
- Go to Settings and give your video a name and description while it uploads and converts.
- After converting copy the video URL by clicking on the “Share” button.
- Create a new post in OSS and paste the URL address to the video along with a brief description
- IMPORTANT: Create a new category called “Micro-project” and assign the category to your post.
- Create a screenshot still image from your video and use as your featured image. To do this, enlarge your video full screen, find a frame you like, wait until the control bar disappears and then take a screenshot (Shift-Command-3).
- View and comment on at least one other student Video Selfie project.
- Congratulations! We will discuss our Video Selfies next week in class.