Student projects
Sofia Amarantidou, Antonis Bakopoulos, Anna-Katerina Bati, Yiannis Gaitanas, Maria Demertzi
To Be Thy Own Self or Not To Be? Constructing identities on You Tube. A case study of Mikeius
The presentation of the self in everyday life according to Erving Goffman is a key element in human interactions. People always feel the need to experiment with different aspects of their personality to perform the self, depending on the social circumstances. What opportunities arise through this concept in the digital world? As an augmented reality, the digital world offers new dimensions to self-exploration and self-performing. At the same time, people experience an unprecedented form of control and surveillance. While it initially seemed that the internet freed us from the need to construct an authentic version of ourselves, eventually users were called on to obey and conform to normative models of behavior. Based on the case study of Mikeius, a well-known Greek YouTuber persona, with multiple and often contradicting productions on his YouTube channel, we highlight the multiple identities a person can adopt in this environment as well as the multiple perspectives from which these identities can be interpreted. To demonstrate this, we decided to create a narrative based on a database logic. Using the Klynt program, an innovative tool in dynamic multimedia storytelling, we aimed to produce a unique experience for the user. A narrative like this does not follow the rules of linear discourse, rather every visitor of the documentary has the opportunity to create her/his own story, based on her/his interests. Different perceptions of what a persona is, or what she/he ought to be, are presented in order to create an open dialogue in which the user is free to navigate.
To Be Thy Own Self or Not To Be? Constructing identities on You Tube. A case study of Mikeius
The presentation of the self in everyday life according to Erving Goffman is a key element in human interactions. People always feel the need to experiment with different aspects of their personality to perform the self, depending on the social circumstances. What opportunities arise through this concept in the digital world? As an augmented reality, the digital world offers new dimensions to self-exploration and self-performing. At the same time, people experience an unprecedented form of control and surveillance. While it initially seemed that the internet freed us from the need to construct an authentic version of ourselves, eventually users were called on to obey and conform to normative models of behavior. Based on the case study of Mikeius, a well-known Greek YouTuber persona, with multiple and often contradicting productions on his YouTube channel, we highlight the multiple identities a person can adopt in this environment as well as the multiple perspectives from which these identities can be interpreted. To demonstrate this, we decided to create a narrative based on a database logic. Using the Klynt program, an innovative tool in dynamic multimedia storytelling, we aimed to produce a unique experience for the user. A narrative like this does not follow the rules of linear discourse, rather every visitor of the documentary has the opportunity to create her/his own story, based on her/his interests. Different perceptions of what a persona is, or what she/he ought to be, are presented in order to create an open dialogue in which the user is free to navigate.