MY CREATION STORY
It all started with an exploration of self:
- self as noun & self as verb,
- the masks we wear, and
- the question of who or what “I am” in online spaces.
This raised questions of authenticity, performance, and exhibition—how these incarnations live, die, and are reborn through algorithmic life cycles.
For a deeper dive into these cycles and my process check out my previous AI Generated Selfie and advanced exploration of digital self representation in new media projects.
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In creating AI-generated selfies, I came to understand that
“the world, then, is not merely a stage but also a participatory Exhibit” (Hogan, 2011)
The creation of a digital self-image is not just documentation; it is an existential act that blurs the boundaries between subject and object, creator and creation. Considering this requires a deep dive into identity, representation, and the narratives that shape how I see myself and how I wish to be seen by others in this constantly evolving process of exhibition.
Drawing on my own archives and aesthetic preferences, I used Midjourney to generate images that attempted to distill my evolving identity, blending personal references with broader cultural and technological themes.
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These questions challenge the notion of self as noun and reposition it as a verb/process/e-prime understanding. In this sense, “I am” questions inevitably connect to Buddhist philosophy—particularly the idea of anatta (no-self)—which, like Hogan’s “participatory Exhibit,” suggests that our digital self-images are not fixed identities but fluid, performative constructions that blur the boundaries between subject and object. Interestingly, this “I am” concept has been recontextualized in everything from spiritual teachings to Molson Canadian commercials. It will be interesting to see if this campaign is resurrected in response to the recent rise in nationalistic fervor. It’s fascinating how such ideas are continually reinterpreted and find new life across different media.
Am I in the feed, or is the feed in me?
This interplay between self and digital environment continues to shape my understanding of identity in the age of AI.
LORECORE & MAIN CHARACTER SYNDROME
Recent forays into the depths of Instagram had me stumble across internet folklorist and editor, Günseli Yalcinkaya, who likens online identity to Live Action Role Playing (LARPing).
She notes that,
By now, it’s clear that we are the makers of our own mythologies. In our hypermediated digital landscape, we are main characters, side characters, NPCs navigating our way through the infinite scroll.” (Yalcinkaya, 2023)
These ideas makes way for Lorecore - a name given by Shumon Basar to this prevalent stage of reality in which we’re all characters. Characters who are also audiences; “An era, belonging to digital capitalism, characterized by people’s existential need to storify themselves at the very moment global narratives collapse in an unprecedented manner.” (Basar, 2022). In this idea we see how our digital representation need not align with our physical-world identity. To build off the idea of LARPing we can see how:
These days, presenting a virtual ego on social media is almost a given. We LARP our own realities like avatars in a video game, expertly crafting our personal lore, while our IRL selves lag awkwardly behind us. (Yalcinkaya, 2023)
Alan Dundes, a pioneering folklorist of the 1970s, was among the first to recognize the influence of computers on folklore: “technology isn’t stamping out folklore; rather it is becoming a vital factor in the transmission of folklore and it is providing an exciting source of inspiration for the generation of new folklore.” (Dundes, 1980, as cited in The Geek Anthropologist, 2014).
My digital self-image both aligns with and diverges from my physical-world identity. While I drew on personal history, the AI-generated images allowed me to experiment with new facets of selfhood—sometimes amplifying, sometimes obscuring aspects of my offline persona. The knowledge that these images would be seen by an online audience shaped my choices, prompting me to consider not just how I see myself, but how I wish to be seen.
DIMENSIONS of ETHICS & CULTURE
Exploring the ethical and cultural development around this brings us back to the birth of photography where shortly following the first selfie, Hippolyte Bayard created a political statement through the disinformation of the first hoax photograph; “Self Portrait as a Drowned Man”. The conflicting title of a self portrait by a dead man brings us back to Basar's (2022) question of “Where do I end and where does my lore begin?”. This existential and ethical question recalls Susan Sontag’s idea that:
“In teaching us a new visual code, photographs alter and enlarge our notions of what is worth looking at and what we have a right to observe. They are grammar and, even more importantly, an ethics of seeing. (Sontag, 1977, p.3)
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| "Self Portrait as a Drowned Man" |
The lore of Selfies and photographs, like AI, provide maps for journeys that traverse the person we were, are, and are moving towards. In this we are reminded that the map is not the territory: “Maps, at their best, offer us a compendium of open pathways—shared ways of knowing—that can be mixed and combined to make new interconnections. (Crawford, 2021).
Much like maps, digital self representations allow new interconnections - we are both the camera and the image that technology creates.
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| Minolta camera ad from 1977 |
REFLECTIONS of TRANSLITERACY
We are the designers of our online lives - and we are also the audience. As designers in this space we must realize "we are part of the message" (Brunisma, 2001). Just as McLuhan argued that the medium shapes how messages are perceived, our participation within digital platforms means we help define the message itself.
In transliteracy we are not only authors but also visual communicators - authors of images writing in a visual language. In our multimodal, audio/visual online worlds, culture is a continuous re-write in progress where the boundaries between ‘original’ and ‘copy’ are blurred and shifting - verbs in action, condensing information into cultural content.
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| image by: Catelijne van Middelkoop |
REFERENCES
Alexander, R. (2013, April 24). Toward understanding E-Prime. REBT Info. Retrieved April 15, 2025, from https://rebtinfo.com/toward-understanding-e-prime/
AllPoetry. (n.d.). The things we dare not tell. Retrieved April 15, 2025, from https://allpoetry.com/The-Things-We-Dare-Not-Tell
Basar, S. (2022, December 16). The laws of Lorecore. ZORA ZINE. Retrieved April 15, 2025, from https://zine.zora.co/the-laws-of-lorecore-shumon-basar
Basar, S. (n.d.). About. Your Head is the Whole World. Retrieved April 15, 2025, from https://yourheadisthewholeworld.wordpress.com/about/
Bruinsma, M. (2001). Authors. Max Bruinsma. Retrieved April 15, 2025, from https://maxbruinsma.nl/index1.html?authors.html
Canada Web Developer. (2000, March). I AM CANADIAN -- Best Commercial Ever! [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pASE_TgeVg8
Crawford, K. (2021). Atlas of AI: Power, politics, and the planetary costs of artificial intelligence. Yale University Press.
Dazed Digital. (n.d.). Günseli Yalcinkaya contributor profile. Retrieved April 15, 2025, from https://www.dazeddigital.com/user/GunseliYalcinkaya
Electronic Beats. (n.d.). Altered egos. Retrieved April 15, 2025, from https://www.electronicbeats.net/altered-egos/
Hogan, B. (2010). The presentation of self in the age of social media: Distinguishing performances and exhibitions online. Symbolic Interaction, 33(3), 377-396.
McLuhan, M. (1964). The medium is the message [PDF]. In Understanding media: The extensions of man (pp. 7–21). https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/mcluhan.mediummessage.pdf
PetaPixel. (2012, November 15). The first hoax photograph ever shot. Retrieved April 15, 2025, from https://petapixel.com/2012/11/15/the-first-hoax-photograph-ever-shot/
Sontag, S. (1977). On photography. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
The Geek Anthropologist. (2014, October 3). Contemporary folklore in the digital age. https://thegeekanthropologist.com/2014/10/03/contemporary-folklore-in-the-digital-age/
Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Anattā. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 15, 2025, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatt%C4%81
Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Hippolyte Bayard. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 15, 2025, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippolyte_Bayard
Yalcinkaya, G. (n.d.). Günseli Yalcinkaya [LinkedIn profile]. LinkedIn. Retrieved April 15, 2025, from https://www.linkedin.com/in/g%C3%BCnseli-yalcinkaya-612750a1/?originalSubdomain=uk
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