#share
Snapchat has become headspace of this generation. Snapchat, unlike past social media portals such as Facebook, allows users to share disposable photos and videos that inundate their friends with mundane, personal life moments. The ephemerality of Snapchat is a large draw for users. As a result, the ability to share life moments without having them stored forever has led to a generational need to obsessively #share everything and anything that happens. This mentality has resulted in a nuisance that exists as an overwhelming collection of unimportant micro-stories, wherein this nauseating, continuous stream of shared content can feel like an invasion of privacy that fulfills a voyeuristic pleasure for both user and viewer.
#share is an exploration of this phenomenon, a looped video compilation of Snapchats at a pace that does not allow the viewer to recognize the images, shown on the artist’s personal iPhone device covered with a privacy screen protector. The video itself seeks to imitate the experience that has come of the overload of lackluster images and videos that materialized as a function of the Snapchat age. The viewer is unable to recognize or understand any particular photograph, but instead sees a blur of imagery, and does not gain any useful information or knowledge. However, the video remains to be captivating, and it is difficult to stop mesmerizing at the nauseating stream of images. By showing this video on an iPhone with a privacy screen, I seek to recreate certain pleasures of voyeuristic intentions in using Snapchat. The screen allows one viewers to see the video at any given time, and it becomes a personal act of social, yet personal engagement with the object and its images. Additionally, the privacy screen limits the viewer’s movement, thus the viewer must remain right in front of the device to be able to experience the work, acting without reacting.