The Visual Representation of Self in the Social Media Era

This thesis questions whether the internet and social media in particular are changing the artistic practice of self-portraiture both artistic and ‘folk’. I look first at the history of self-portraiture, particularly fine art self-portraiture. I move on to examine how people portray themselves online today and how this would be different from their behaviour and self representation in the physical world. I seek commonalities in these areas. My research includes making art works in which I attempt to bring together the online and physical worlds. A series of experiments resulted in a series of performances by social media users shown as a triptych on mobile devices. I conclude that the desire to share information about our lives has always existed and that technology now enables us to do this effortlessly and often without consideration. What is relatively new however is the blurring of lines between popular practices and Contemporary fine art.