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Zoom Portrait/IRL

2020

Digital video

2:34 loop

Zoom Portrait/IRL, 2020, digital video, 2.34 loop.

This work began as a personal exploration of body dysmorphia and dissociation as exacerbated by the presence of video technology during Auckland's Level 4 Covid-19 lockdown, and utilises self-portraiture to explore the construction of perception and identity in relation to the camera.

 

With tertiary study conducted via distance during this time, the experience of being an actor in front of the webcam lens was increasingly felt, as was a sense of curation of self and environment as a result. Each Zoom 'participant' was created for an implied yet non-existent audience, filmed over the course of two days and often within a few minutes of each other using a combination of smartphone, webcam, and screen recording. These tools were intentionally chosen to reflect the accessibility, portability, and aesthetic of the video call — a daily means of communication during the lockdown —, as well as the increased panopticonic presence of digital technology within daily life. Changes in clothing, environment, visible objects, light and expression were used to generate spatial and temporal distance between each figure, as well as evoke the sense of interaction with a non-visible screen or host. 

 

With a loss of distinction between one's most personal indoor spaces and wider public life often felt during this period in time, moments within the home that would otherwise have felt unfiltered became increasingly performative. At times, I found these video selves recognisable, and at others not. As the membrane between private and public space and self became lost, the boundary between 'real' and performance increasingly collapsed, and the sense of simultaneously being both myself and an actor in each frame increased. In repurposing the spaces and media within which this took place during lockdown, the work aims to humorously explore the unnerving experience of self over-perception and identity construction as experienced during this time.

© 2023 Anna Bensky

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