Nothing but Consumption

• What is the subject of your image?

The subject of my image was to demonstrate how we as a society shifted our culture to become the consumer culture, in which I also display what exactly fuels our obsession to being this culture.

• What is the content of your image?

The content of my image is a picture of myself in which I’ve manipulated to look somewhat like the character Medusa. Although, rather than having snakes on my head like Medusa, I manipulated mine and put several different arms reaching up, as my hair, to give my photo a more creepy looking appearance that is similar to Wangechi Mutu’s work. I’ve also set up the arms to display them reaching for several significant items in which our society teaches us to desire and want.

• Why did you make the choices that led to the composition?

After watching Wangechi Mutu’s and Santigold’s video, The End of Eating Everything, I then had the idea to create something similar while also incorporating an interpretation of what I had from one of Guy Debord’s quotes. With both of these two things in mind, I then came up with the idea of creating a photo of me looking like Medusa, but instead of having snakes as my hair I replace the snakes with arms reaching out to items of which the spectacle brainwashes us to want and desire. Because I wanted to show exactly fuels our obsession to these items, I then came up with the idea of putting the spectacle inside the IV bag to display how these specific needs are developed and fueled.

• Explain the process and steps you went through and why you made those decisions.

First off, after watching the Santigold video, I decided to look for ideas that would spark something in my head. And so because the Santigold video reminded me of Medusa I developed the idea to create my own version of her. I looked through photos of Medusa to give me ideas of how I would manipulate my photos to look like her, therefore in my photo I decided to collage different arms together as my hair and I also added different snake textures to my forehead and my eyes to give myself a creepy snake appearance. After adding the textures to my face I then decided to manipulate the colors of my eyes so it added more effect to my appearance. Once I was done manipulating my photo I then had to decide what specific items my arms would be trying to reach for. I made the decision to put different items up above me because I wanted to depict how the mass media has come to brainwash us to desire these certain items just to be accepted and wanted in our society today.

• How you would categorize your work (ex. collage, graphic print, mixed media, etc).

I would categorize my work as a mixture of collage and photo manipulation. In my work, I used collage to combine many different arms together to give it the appearance that it was my hair, and I used photo manipulation to manipulate myself to look like a snake.

• What artists or works are appropriate to compare your work to?

It is appropriate to compare my work to Wangechi Mutu because I have stylized and designed my work look similar to hers.

• What quote from Society of the Spectacle best illustrates the themes in your self portrait? Please explain this.

To me the best quote that illustrates the themes in my self portrait would be quote #17 “The first stage of the economy’s domination of social life brought about an evident degradation of being into having — human fulfillment was no longer equated with what one was, but with what one possessed. The present stage, in which social life has become completely occupied by the accumulated productions of the economy….” I think what the quote is trying to say is that our economy has come to put such large emphasis on the appearances of having things, than actually having it. For which our economy is slowly hardwiring humans to constantly want items now (instant gratification) in order to be accepted as part of society.

• What do you think this image conveys to the audience?

I think this image conveys to the audience how the spectacles, like television and social media, has taught us to constantly desire and want certain things to get the approval of others and to feel accepted and part of our society.

• What are the differences between the midterm self-portrait and your final self-portrait?

There are a lot of differences between the midterm self-portrait and my final self-portrait. One difference between my midterm self-portrait and my final is that my midterm self-portrait was solely more focused on me as an individual and my growth and transformation throughout the years. Whereas my final self-portrait is more focused on displaying what society and the spectacle has transformed us human beings to constantly want certain things in order to be accepted in our society today. Overall, I wanted to display the power of the spectacle and how much significance it has over our lives.

• What influenced these changes (events, readings, information, artists)?

For the final project I was inspired by Wangechi Mutu and the Santigold video, The End of Eating Everything. I found the video to be very interesting and creepy therefore I was inspired to create something weird and creepy myself that was similar to the vi