Paper short abstract:

The paper will look at the self-representations of Amrita SherGill and Rupi Kaur manifested in the form of self-portraits and selfies/photographs to evaluate how feminist subjectivities and sensitivities are shaped, conditioned in a manner female bodies are portrayed on/off the digital platform

Paper long abstract:

Resting on the notion that female identity is different from the male identity, this paper is suggesting that the representations by these identities in any of the creative forms are also expected to be dissimilar. On one hand of this idea, we have the celebration of differences, as Elaine Showalter (1977) calls it while stressing on the new representation of feminist identity through its "own subject, its own system, its own theory, and its own voice", on the other hand, we have the politics of differences that considers the differences of experiences within the 'female experience' and tries to reach beyond the male-female dichotomy. In the gulf between these two theories, this paper examines the manifestations of self-representations or self-narratives of Amrita Sher-Gill and Rupi Kaur in the form of self-portraits and selfies/photographs and how this repertoire of visual art subverted the cannons of creative expressions irrespective of the exhibition platforms they used. Influenced by the post-impressionist and post-modern deconstructionist theories of art, Amrita Sher-Gill brought precision to paint the comprehensiveness of a female body depicting, through such audacity, an unconventional understanding of the feminine and female, subject and subjectivity. A century after that, Rupi Kaur introduces the same radical and confronting gaze, questioning and judging the viewer of her Instagram post. Far from the conformist expression of art, yet preserving the feminist subjectivity of any other scholarly literary/art expression, she revolutionizes the medium of art reaching out to 3.9 million followers and 923 posts on Instagram.

Paper short abstract:

The traditional life of the Baikuyao is adapting to a 'modern' world. Viewing and making short videos on social media has become the most popular way of documenting the Baikuyao's daily life. I will explore how the Baikuyao use modern products to fight 'modernity' and 'cultural assimilation'.

Paper long abstract:

The Baikuyao (the White Trousers Yao) is one of the sub-tribes of the Yao which is one of the fifty-six ethnic groups in China. There are around forty-thousand Baikuyao in total in the world, and they are all living in the Nandan and Libo counties. The Baikuyao is called 'living fossil' by some UNESCO officials, while many Baikuyao people do not accept this appellation. Because to those who do not like to be called 'living fossil', this phrase means that the life of the Baikuyao is 'poor' and 'backward'.

The Baikuyao is still often introduced as an ethnic minority group which directly transformed from the primitive society to the socialist society.  Following the setting up of the Baikuyao eco-museum, Baikuyao people started to make their own village documentaries in 2010. Ten years later, most Baikuyao people nowadays have their own smartphones, and Kuaishou (快手) has become the most popular social media platform in the Baikuyao community. Kuaishou is for users to upload their own homemade short videos in the public space online. Some Baikuyao Kuaishou activists have more than ten-thousand followers.

In this paper, I will discuss how the Baikuyao use the new digital technology and the popularity of the Kuaishou to maintain their traditional culture and to strengthen their ethnic "identity".  I will also analyse, how, during my one-year PhD fieldwork research, I became the 'subject' of my research subjects who are the Kuaishou video-makers.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores self-portraiture as a methodological tool to be used by researchers on platforms such as Instagram. Drawing on findings from a period of digital fieldwork, this paper suggests that digital users fundamentally alter their habitus, and in the process craft a second digital self

Paper long abstract:

This paper questions how digital culture effects the performance of the self, through an exploration of digital self-portraiture as both ethnographic tool and anthropological method. Using data gathered from an extensive period of digital fieldwork, a reinterpretation of Goffman's iconic (1956) work through the lens of a digitised modernity will be suggested, calling for an assessment of: the presentation of second self in everyday digital life. This notion of second self will naturally draw on the work of Turkle (1984), but also the work of Kondo (1990) to question whether the reality of habitual interactions with the digital world is the creation of a second self or the crafting of multiple digital selves. With this conversation established, this paper will move to a more specific discussion regarding the habitus of both researcher and interlocuter - where both are high frequency users of platforms such as Instagram. Particularly if the primary media of interaction is the (re)production of digital-image based self-portraiture. In a fieldsite such as this is it reasonable to pursue traditional ethnographic methods or must new methodologies be trialled? The findings of this fieldwork suggest that digital selves have the ability to acquire agency in their own right, and exert this power over the initial self that crafted them. If this is the case then the performance of digital selves needs to be reinterpreted, not merely as a photographic publication, but as an agential waymarker which can be viewed through the semi-permeable cartography of the digitised landscape: smartphone screens

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines migrant senses of self as exhibited through social media. Key questions include: at what point do migrants identify publicly as migrants, in what ways do migrants exhibit their migrant status, and to what extent does geography matter when identifying publicly as a migrant.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the way in which migrants develop and publicly display senses of self as migrants. Key questions include at what point do migrants become 'migrants' as in publicly acknowledged movers, in what ways do migrants identify as or display their status as migrants, and to what extent does geography matter as a determinant of one's migrant status. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 10 recent Irish migrants to London, and an analysis of their social media pages (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter), this paper explores the relationships between the development of migrant senses identity and social media as a channel through which identities are formulated and displayed.

Paper short abstract:

Personal memories are a crucial part of an individual's sense of identity and belonging. This paper explores the ways in which young people use digital media for their memory-making practices and digital media's role in performing their identities.

Paper long abstract:

Personal memories play an important role in the formation and understanding of a person's identity (Kontopodis and Matera 2010). Remembering or forgetting the past are processes, which are always closely interlinked with making sense of the present and envisioning the future (McDonald 2013). Thus, sharing memories with digital media is a powerful way to share ideas of who we were, who (we think) we are and who we want to be, with a potentially large audience. Particularly for young people, the increased access to digital media has made the recording, archiving and instant communication of happenings an integral part of their everyday activities (van Dijk 2007).

While the current focus of research often lies on technology companies and people's usage of specific social media platforms, this paper argues that everyday practices of creating narratives about the self are at least as important to understand the impact of digital media on cultural practices (Pink et.al. 2018). Based on a digital storytelling workshop conducted in an East London school, with students aged between 13 -14 years, this paper emphasises the importance of practices surrounding young people's online performances of memory and identity. It further demonstrates that far from being naïve, young participants carefully select what they share, exercise control over their online performances and are aware that being seen online in 'the wrong way' could have negative consequences for their future selves.

Paper short abstract:

Drawing on the research project "Ethnography and/as hypertext fiction: representing surrogate motherhood" the paper examines the methodological repercussions of digital culture in ethnographic work in terms of fieldwork practices, collaborative possibilities and ethical considerations.

Paper long abstract:

The proposed paper seeks to address three questions as they relate to shifting anthropological practices in the digital era. Firstly, it illuminates the ways in which ethnographic fieldwork practices have been enabled by digital technologies, affording to be more mobile, dialogical and co-authored by researcher(s) and informant(s) alike. Secondly, it discusses the collaborative research possibilities (such as duoethnography) made available by digital tools and applications, which inevitably inform the performance of our research selves and have the potential to greatly enrich and enlarge the scope of ethnographic fieldwork experience, often characterized by loneliness and isolation. Thirdly, the paper touches upon research ethics and the protection of our informants' identities, testimonies and personal data in a historical period when instant 'sharing' practices and digital storage and archiving render research data more vulnerable to circulation and user manipulation.

In order to elaborate on the three aforementioned aspects which have been undergoing major transitions, the paper draws on the research project "Ethnography and/as hypertext fiction: representing surrogate motherhood" (HYFRESMO), currently implemented at the Anthropology Department of Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences (Athens, Greece), and funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation & the General Secretariat for Research and Technology.

The project HYFRESMO focuses on the emerging social practice of surrogate motherhood in order to critically address digital ethnographic textuality. The overarching stake is to fashion fictional ethnographic 'texts' in a holistic digital environment, thus facilitating the non-linear reading of ethnography and its access by non-expert readers.