Article:
Selfie-screen-sphere: Examining the selfie as a complex, embodying gesture

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dc.creatorBerkland, Darren
dc.date.accessioned2020-01-27T15:52:35Z
dc.date.available2020-01-27T15:52:35Z
dc.date.issued2019
dc.description.abstractThis article posits that the selfie is a screenic gesture which allows individuals to embody themselves within what Vivian Sobchack calls the ‘screen-sphere’: a reformulation of our definition of the screen which accounts for the ubiquity and mobility of contemporary screens that can no longer be regarded as an ‘“array” of discrete artefacts’ but instead regarded ‘as a structural and functional collectivity’. While Sobchack claims that our ‘lived-bodies cannot physically dwell in this new spatiality without special technologies’ such as VR equipment, I believe that the set of complex gestures which result in the selfie allow, in fact, for a type of embodied existence within the screen-sphere. In particular, it is grasping the device and viewing oneself in its ‘digital mirror’ that results in this complex gestural moment. I am following Flusser in my definition of gesture; that is, a production of meaning that is contained in some practised performance: a symbolic movement that at once both expresses and articulates meaning. I will draw upon Bo Burnham’s film EIGHTH GRADE (2017) to provide an example of how this gestural relationship develops within the screen-sphere, in which a young protagonist engages with a variety of ‘screenic’ surfaces. Closely examining the main character’s selfie process, I will, first, reformulate Sobchack’s screen-sphere as a screenic topology that accounts for how screens arrange space; second, I will examine how gestural movements emerge within this topology; and finally, I will examine the role of the digital mirror, and how looking into the device consolidates this gesture.en
dc.identifier.doi10.25969/mediarep/13124
dc.identifier.urihttps://necsus-ejms.org/selfie-screen-sphere-examining-the-selfie-as-a-complex-embodying-gesture/
dc.identifier.urihttps://mediarep.org/handle/doc/14045
dc.languageeng
dc.publisherAmsterdam University Press
dc.publisher.placeAmsterdam
dc.relation.isPartOfissn:2213-0217
dc.relation.ispartofseriesNECSUS. European Journal of Media Studies
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subjectembodimenten
dc.subjectgestureen
dc.subjectmirroren
dc.subjectscreen-sphereen
dc.subjectscreenen
dc.subjectSelfie
dc.subjecttopologyen
dc.subjectVerkörperungde
dc.subjectGestede
dc.subjectSpiegelde
dc.subjectBildschirmde
dc.subjectSelbstportätde
dc.subjectTopologiede
dc.subject.ddcddc:791
dc.subject.personBo Burnham
dc.subject.workEIGHTH GRADE
dc.titleSelfie-screen-sphere: Examining the selfie as a complex, embodying gestureen
dc.typearticle
dc.type.statuspublishedVersion
dcterms.bibliographicCitationDarren Berkland: Selfie-screen-sphere: Examining the selfie as a complex, embodying gesture. In: NECSUS. European Journal of Media Studies, Jg. 8 (2019) Nr. 2, S. 263–283. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/13124.
dspace.entity.typeArticleen
local.coverpage2020-11-22T11:00:38
local.identifier.firstpublishedhttps://necsus-ejms.org/selfie-screen-sphere-examining-the-selfie-as-a-complex-embodying-gesture/
local.source.epage283
local.source.issue2
local.source.issueTitle#Gesture
local.source.spage263
local.source.volume8
local.subject.gndhttps://d-nb.info/gnd/1169692273
local.subject.wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q887347
local.subject.wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q47265121

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