Brianne Logan

I can’t lie to you all about this, nor can I really explain my reasons. Whenever the field gets into one of those spectacular debates about the place of selfies, or photography, or technology in artistic spaces I find myself gleefully watching it all unfold on twitter, reading the resounding “no way” opinions penned by, often British (to my delight), art historians, or the “experimentation is healthy for forward motion” responses written by the more digitally native arts marketers among us.

I find the fear of the archetypal selfie-snapping hordes of visitors—of course, besmirching the integrity of fine arts experiences with dumb poses--to be such a fascinating thing. The issue has raised real questions for the field on what it means to be present in an artistic space.

Photo Credit: Flickr User Andrew Fysh

Full disclosure: I am a millennial, so perhaps my observations are tainted by growing up immersed in technology and social media, but if I’m being really honest, I’m basically the worst at selfie culture. My mom often implores me to send her snapchats from working in New York or my apartment in Brooklyn to give her a sense of what my life is like here. She wants me to capture moments so she can feel closer to my everyday experience. The problem is, I can’t imagine what I would send her. Me on my lunch break? Me writing this blog post? Weird commuting experiences? Maybe I could send my weekend or after-work life, but even then it just feels boastful. She, of course, sends me snaps of our golden retrievers playing fetch, or selfies in the car and I don’t ever find these boastful in the slightest.

That’s part of the reason I find the dialogue that surrounds this debate over technology boundaries in our spaces to be so fascinating—it seems to me that there is a part of the conversation missing that, if we really understand it, could have a real impact on the way we engage people in general when they experience our art.

Ask a nearby teenager (or really a person of any age nowadays), why do you take selfies? Really? What’s in it for you?

While I hardly need to explain the important role social media has in our interactions with each other to arts marketers, the 2014 statistics on how much time people are spending scrolling through news feeds is worth a fresh look. A significant chunk of our outward-facing interactions with each other in the digital space—as much as 3.8 hours a day for 18-34 year olds and 3 hours a day for 35-49 year olds—is spent on social networking platforms.

It stands to reason that if Americans are spending as much as ¼ of their not-asleep hours on social networks, the way that we present ourselves in that space is, in fact, a part of our personality, not just a reflection of who we are in the physical world. The act of capturing and sharing images, statuses, tweets, etc. about you is one process of identity formation. I would argue that as much time as we spend digitally representing ourselves, that identity is not just a reflection of our real-world selves, it’s another facet of our personalities.

Digital technology also presents an opportunity for manipulation ex post facto. Snap a photo of something you’re up to and not so sure about how your face is looking? Give it a little instagram polish or retouch with an app and any imperfections you once would’ve shared disappear into the moody veneer of an X-Pro II filter.

There are plenty of moments in real life, or #IRL as my millennial compatriots refer to it, that we wish we could retouch or just…ahem…delete entirely, social media gives us an opportunity to cultivate our perfect selves.

It’s no wonder that selfies become a way of proving something to others. In a piece on a recent study on selfie-taking from Cambridge University Psychologists, the author had this to say:

“If I ask myself why I occasionally take selfies, I’d say it’s because it’s a fun way to capture a moment with a friends, or to show my friends what I’m doing. But that’s not really true. If I ask myself really honestly, I’d say it’s part of showing everyone [my brand]. This is what I look like (after a bit of Instagramming) and this is how I spend my time (obviously I’ll have chosen the coolest thing I’ve done all week).”

It seems like a deeper truth worth exploring. If someone is trying to snap a selfie, or any photo for that matter, of their arts experience and they’re planning on adding it to their social media story—the carefully cultivated personality made up of the best parts of themselves and their experience--that seems like an opportunity.

Maybe it’s an opportunity to let them share that experience with a photo to impress their friends. Maybe it’s an opportunity to allow an artistic experience to help shape the digital side of identity. Being knowledgeable about why we selfie will help us make informed decisions about photography policies in our spaces. That underlying question of who we are and what parts of our personalities live online seems fundamental to answer when it comes to the future of audience engagement.

The Arts Marketing Blog Salon is generously sponsored by Patron Technology.