Metadata, (2020).

Metadata (2020), explores how image and text can be used as a tool to appropriate our contemporary online reality. Specifically, the way we construct and portray our self-identity on social media. 

Semiotic cues, allude to the idea of a staged representation of self within a wider world, only to be masked by the endless social media scroll. Our self-image/unique identity is subliminally constructed by metadata, cookies and targeted advertising. Our social media accounts watch us, influence what we like and shape who we become by what they categorically feed us through the screen. As a result, this contributes to a cycle of ubiquitous imagery and unavoidable mimicry that shapes our digital landscape.  

Ironically, “You may not impersonate someone you aren’t” is the first rule against Instagram's terms and conditions. If we’re not impersonating each other, social constructs, or even heightened versions of ourselves; then who are we? 

I think the text informs the photograph as a guide; both photos together emphasise the concept further. Separately, each work alone comes across as quite vague but after some investigating and through the semiotic clues I still think it could still be interpreted in relation to the concept. This is where I feel like my work fails the task.