Ongoing series of daily drawings based on photographs of media and news events. The drawings are photographed with a smartphone to upload to Instagram. I set up an Instagram account some time ago, but could not come to use it simply to share images I captured with my phone. The concept behind Instagram was certainly compelling for me, but it was not until social media developed a complex relation with news and politics and the rise of fake news that I realized how Instagram could be used as a platform for an art project. The motivation behind this project is to gain critical reflection on the implications of constant online exposure and sharing of personal experiences and interests. A question that recurred in my mind in relation to this was, how can a person engage in the production of information that would be mined that also comments critically on the process itself? Instragram Drawings engages with this issue by functioning as a reflective exercise on the whole process of online sharing. The drawings are specifically made for Instagram. I think of them as "filters" not so different from the ones Instagram offers to edit uploads. The act of drawing is my "human" filter. The drawings are hand copies of photographic images of news and media events that I encounter throughout the day. It is important to note that the drawings are photographed for upload, just like others things in the world are photographed with smartphones. Similarly to other Instagram users, over time, the images show my interests in terms of what I encounter online and what I may even consume. But this takes place based on images that I draw -- a deliberate filter I created as a reflective trope. Ultimately, the drawings are interpretations not of my personal experience, but of news and media events I experience. The drawings, depending on how they are rendered, may at times function as critical commentary, or as reflective appropriations. What I hope they will offer long term is not so much a profile but a self-portrait based on my ongoing engagement with networked culture. Instagram Drawings may also become a record of events, and as time passes the archive may be evaluated differently: more like interpretations of specific periods in our history. Project released during the month of August 2018 Eduardo Navas |
Screenshot: August 2018 |
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