Critical reflection
Performing oneself in the technological interface
The project “Performative Interface” on this website stems from a core question: How is our identity continuously shaped and performed in the interaction with various technological platforms in the digital age? By integrating photography, podcasts, and video essays, I aim to explore that selfies, vocal performances, and reaction videos are not merely acts of self-expression but rather “performative” behaviors that involve profound aesthetic choices, technological constraints, and emotional labor. This reflection seeks to place my creative practice within the framework of digital media theory, examine the core role of technological “affordances”, and speculate on the potential life of this project in the broader network space.
My photography project, “Me, and Me”, directly explores the “aesthetics and affordances of selfies”. Theoretically, I was inspired by Winner and Gibson’s theories on the politics of technology and “affordances” – tools not only serve purposes but also shape the behaviors and cognition of their users. In practice, I deliberately placed the same original portrait through various digital processing procedures, applying filters ranging from retro and black-and-white to distorted and collaged. This was not to deceive but to visually demonstrate how these “affordances” provided by photo editing software both constrain my expression (confining me within its preset aesthetic paradigms) and empower my creation (allowing me to explore different identity states such as melancholy, ecstasy, or fragmentation). The final work is not a true “me”, but a series of interfaces of “possible mes”, clearly showing how technology acts as an active participant in the construction of our self-concept.
This exploration of performative aspects extends from the visual to the auditory. In the podcast “Voice Masks”, I examined “vocal performance”. Using the recording function of mobile phones and the editing capabilities of TikTok, I compared the sounds in different scenarios of daily life – the excitement in games and the tenderness in social interactions. The production process highlighted the duality of technology: the convenience of smartphones enabled the normalization of such sound recording, while the simple waveform interface of free software like TikTok limited the complexity of my editing, pushing me to focus on content rather than special effects, and instead contributing to the personal and intimate nature of the podcast. This process allowed me to deeply understand Goffman’s “dramaturgical theory”, where our voices become an impression meticulously managed in the front stage area, a form of “emotional labor” in social interactions.
The video essay “The Performance of Surprise” shifts its focus to dynamic images, analyzing the “emotional labor” and gender performance in “reaction videos”. When editing with KineMaster, its built-in rhythm templates and transition effects guided my division of video segments, while the platform’s preference for short videos unconsciously shaped the final two-minute duration and fast pace. By combining clips from YouTube with my off-screen commentary, I argued that those exaggerated expressions of surprise and joy are not purely spontaneous, but rather a highly gendered performative work to meet the expectations of the audience and the logic of the platform’s algorithm. This echoes Hochschild’s theory and extends the concept of emotional labor to the field of digital content creation, revealing the political economy behind it.
To sum up, this project is a profound experience of putting digital media theory into practice. If it were to be disseminated beyond the academic framework and into a broader online network, this website might spark discussions on “authenticity” and “performance” in communities such as Reddit’s “Digital Anthropology” or forums for YouTube creators. It could cease to be a static project and instead become a starting point inviting others to share their own experiences with “digital masks”.
Ultimately, I came to realize that “truth” might be an overly simplistic concept in the digital realm. Our online identities are always the result of ongoing negotiations among our original intentions, social norms, and the “affordances” of the technological medium. This website itself is an ongoing testament to this continuous process of construction.
Hejun Wang24020546 