Protest: Some Girly Feminist Inspiration

Ive been getting inspiration for my Fake Geek Girl poster by looking at some super fancy artwork. A lot of this is thanks to Tumblr and i follow a few of these girls on Instagram so you should check them out. At first i was thinking that i wanted to steer clear of this ultra feminine style but the more ive thought about it the more i want to make it as girly as possible just as a bit of a fuck you to the men who have that boys club mentality about geekdom.

Im absolutely in love with Angelina or ALBinwonderland and im pretty sure i found most of the other illustrators im looking at from her Tumblr. If you havent already check out her Tumblr, Instagram and Youtube.

Sugarbones is the online artwork of Cheyenne Federiconi, equal parts cute and badass i really like the attitude of her work, check out her Tumblr, Instagram and online store. 

Megan Rose Gedris or Rosalarian is a comic book writer and artists and burlesque dancer. I think her work is so amazing, as someone who isnt much of an illustrator i just think what she does is so cool, im gonna be taking a lot of inspiration from her about drawing womens bodies and being colourful, cute and sexy. Look her up on Tumblr.

Who Are We? Some Fun Research

Ive been on a bit of a classical art kick lately for my research, looking at the similarities of the Kardashian/Jenners on instagram and depictions of the goddess Venus or just the way that classical art was how the ultimate female form was depicted and how Kim Kardashians selfies maybe arent so different. I found this project by Anna Utopia Giordano in which she photoshopped paintings of Venus to meet more modern day beauty standards, you can view all the images here.

Who Are We? Fake Profiles

Like i said before i got really interested by the idea of catfishing. I know its complete trash but the show catfish does make you think about the motivations people have for creating these fake profiles, its not often malicious just people who want to hide behind someone elses selfies to communicate with others. Are these people really fake? Are they more themselves because of the anonymity theyve been granted online and is it more about the way they are treated by the person talking to them judging them on the percieved beauty of a stolen photo rather than how they actually look?

In my project i want to create a series of fake social media profiles built around a central character who is the 'real' person. How is she going to use the internet to create a better version of herself and is this going to ultimately be a positive or negative thing?

Staring off with Instagram, Kim Kardashian is the most followed celebrity Instagrammer and she's even published a book of selfies. After being inspired by that article about her to look at classical art and depictions of the goddess Venus my first fake profile is going to be the Venus. She is the ultimate woman and symbol of femininity. I constantly see people on social media, usually Tumblr being called out for photoshopping womens bodies to make their asses bigger, even Kim K has been caught doing this. Im going to take all these beauty and body trends (Instagram brows anyone?) that have been in part due to Kims influence and warp my body into the Venus. This profile is all about being seen as attractive and sexual which could maybe raise someones self esteem but if the images you put out into the world aren't true depictions of your body or looks or aren't even pictures of you could this self objectification make you feel even worse?

My second character is a negative influence in my real girls life, The Devil. For this I'm looking at Twitter trolling, i found this really good article by Lindy West on the guardian about her talking to a troll who had harassed her on Twitter which you can read here. This character exists as self punishment and torment for my real girl, putting down the other characters.

These are my two main ideas for characters but i have plenty of other social media sites to look at so who knows what will happen.

Who Are We? Internet and Identity

Ive been doing a bit of research about social media and how it might help shape our identity or if we all use social media in some way to create a ficticious identity, always putting your best self forward, carefully choosing which selfies to put online, sharing pictures of holidays and special moments with a side of humble bragging.

Looking at social media i use, i found instagram pretty interesting seeing as its focused more on images than anything else. Looking at the top 10 followed instagram accounts there are 4 members of the Kardashian/Jenner family. A few weeks ago i read an article in a magazine by an art critic comparing Kim Kardashians instagram photos to classical art, it was really interesting but more than anything it made me wonder just how controlled and manufactured her social media is. Like is it really a coincidence that comparisons can be made between her photos and the old masters?

While i was researching this project something else came up on my social media Molly Soda posted on Tumblr about her project selfiexposure created on NewHive, this is all about how she picks and chooses which images of herself to upload onto different websites and when she releases this control how people react to images across different platforms.

Image by Molly Soda

Another thing i have been looking at is the idea of 'catfishing' this is when someone creates a fake profile using images of another person to communicate with someone online. Im pretty sure the term was coined after the film catfish which was then turned into a tv show and I've been watching a few episodes, you know, for research. For this project i want to look at the way one person can create a web of identities across the internet and whether this gives someone a sense of freedom not being judged on looks but personality, being able to tailor how they are perceived by bending the truth as much or as little as they want. Is this a positive influence in someones life? Is living a fantasy on the internet freeing or just leaving you more unhappy and constrained feeling in your own life?