I composed a rough chapter breakdown to present to Kelly and get feedback on the structure.
Chapter 1: The first chapter traces my own ethnographic observations and definitions, where the project originated and what informs the research. I draw on my own experience of existing in a digitized culture where projections of self exist in virtual realms. Additionally, I introduce media in relation to self through the notion of technological extension of the self.
Chapter 2: This chapter notes observations from my ethnographic research, a distinction between two aspects of digital projection of self. Fantasy vs reality, what is real in these realms and what isn’t? These conflicting ideologies of legitimacy and relevancy probe me to ask why? I further explore our perception of space and how our understanding of reality runs in cycles.
Chapter 3: The question of relevancy is considered further in chapter three. I extent my personal analysis, drawing conclusions from phenomenological research through interviews I conducted with Gen Z users of digital media. Analysing the contemporary viewpoint of this demographic allows me to understand the evolving experiential aspect of a mediatized culture. It is imperative here, that as a researcher, I recognise the agency that the users of these virtual realms have, whilst recognising elements of performance.
Chapter 4: In chapter four, the concept of performativity is explored, drawing from traditional theorists and comparing these to contemporary media, particularly selfies and social media platforms. This touches on both the ‘Glass Bedroom Theory’ (Pearson, 2009) and notions of public and private digital space as well as the notions of audience and Gaze, with the age-old question of ‘who is it for?’ and a specific examination of Erving Goffman’s Performed Self in Everyday life. •My practice-based research mentioned earlier is of relevancy here, as ‘the relationship between studying performance and doing performance is integral’(Schechner, 2013) A methodological approach in itself is to approach these specific instances as performances to be analysed. I take into consideration the constant presence of these spaces, as the performed self is facilitated by the accessibility and atemporality of these virtual profiles. Accepting that the digital self is constructed and brought into being in two steps (created and then published).
Chapter 5: This chapter is predominantly a Literature review, dissecting the theme of Materiality (further examined in the next chapter) and Simmel’s theory of Fashion and Dress, which combines “the tendency towards social equalisation with the desire for individual differentiation and change”.
Chapter 6: This chapter seeks to address the little writing concerned with construction of self with regards to a different type of dress and materiality. As previously mentioned, I aim to reframe projection of self as a type of dress. In order to fully understand these phygital actions and experiences as a global phenomenon, studies on this phenomenon are needed to interrogate the cultural relations of these types of instances. •Subsequently, I draw reference from the text ‘Definitions and Classifications of Dress’, which argued that we ‘recognise that the dressed person is a gestalt that includes body, all direct modifications of the body itself, and all three-dimensional supplements added to it…because they are equally effective means of human communication’. Linking physical construction of self to virtual construction of self.
Conclusion: The concluding chapter of this study situates social media platforms (visual media where representations of the self are projected) within the field of fashion media. Arguing that, whilst it is human nature to conform (see the Simmel and Rocamora quotes earlier), Our human existence goes so far beyond the physical and is permeated by a sense of performance, with a notion of audience / viewer in mind. Online projections of self and virtual performativity allows us to reject dualism and explore a fluid self, which is unfixed yet equally as relevant as our physical self. •With reference to The Material Turn, these virtual projections can be re-framed as “dress”, utilising a different materiality. •If the smartphone is an extension of the self, then so are its capabilities. Projecting various elements of oneself into virtual realms using this device is, in essence, using it to dress one’s ever-evolving self.