Discussion Identity Caught in the Net of Visual Pleasure
14.06.2024. 18.00-19.00The idea that the fiercest competition in today's economy is the competition for consumers' attention has long become a truism. Social media is a space where not only international corporations but also private individuals are engaged in such competition, and for most of us, audience attention does not translate to direct monetary gain.
At least since the 1990s, when the explosion of digital technologies launched a visual turn in global culture, the visual image has remained the most powerful medium for communication and attracting attention. Over the last fifteen years, the circulation of visual images has been dramatically intensified and democratised by the rise of social networks. The monopoly of cultural professionals is over: anyone with a smartphone can create public content.
While there are no limits to the variety of content on social media, every single post is also an act of self-presentation that seeks to create a positive emotional connection with the audience. In other words, it is impossible to imagine a piece of content that does not simultaneously contribute to constructing its author's identity.
The discussion Identity Caught in the Net of Visual Pleasure aims to open an interdisciplinary space to analyse the pleasure we derive in the visual construction of identity on social media. Although often overlooked in studies dealing with social media as platforms for information exchange, the pleasure perspective allows for a comprehensive exploration of the psychological, aesthetic and economic dimensions of visual identity formations.
By bringing together perspectives from psychoanalysis, visual semiotics, critical theory, social media marketing and creative practice, the discussion will unravel the link between identity and visual pleasure, whose impact on social media users often reaches addictive proportions, locking us in a dopamine loop.
How has the role of visual images in identity construction practices been transformed by social media? Is the pleasure provided by social media beneficial to our psychic well-being? What creative perspectives in photography are opened up by the dizzying circulation of visual identities on social media? What challenges does the expansion of generative artificial intelligence pose to the dominance of non-generated photography and video?
By addressing these questions in dialogue with the Biennale's exhibition programme, the discussion will seek to stimulate interdisciplinary critical reflection on the current state of the photographic medium.
Participantsi: Jānis Gailis (FR), Ivars Ījabs (LV), Daina Teters (LV), Anna Dzērve (LV), Deniss A. Ševeļovs (LV)
Curator and moderator: Igors Gubenko (LV)
Entrance fee 4 euros.
Image: Anna Dzērve, ‘Selfportrait’, 2021
