Three sisters
A thought experiment,

2024 July

The photographic self as the other, appearing on a symmetrical face.

A person's "face" is a unique symbol with a specific meaning in human society, but we cannot see our own face without a mirror. However, in "selfies" taken with mobile devices, we can easily take pictures of ourselves in peculiar poses. It is based on the premise of transforming oneself into homogenized media content and at the same time satisfying the desire for approval. Representing "the image of oneself that is supposed to be expected" in the virtual society on the Internet is an act of willingly accepting the peer pressure in the social media world, and a hidden intention to cover up the real (true face) ego image may be operating in the background.

Analytical psychology says that a series of photographic processes is one strategy for wrestling with psychologically unmetabolized (symbolized) memories and past traumas that once damaged one's dignity or caused one to feel shame. The face reflected in the mirror is an image of the unconsciously repressed past and the external present, and it continues to be an image that communicates "the death and rebirth of the self" to the self looking in the mirror. Taking and sharing selfies, as Tislon says, is an act of trying to satisfy the desire for a third party's gaze to intervene in the process of self-digestion and metabolism.

The results of the experiment showed that there are aspects of my face that can be perceived as multiple others, and that the use of mirror-image symmetry for one's own face emphasized the geometric symbolism and amplified the mask-like otherness of the face. In addition, when shown to my family members, they were more familiar with the symmetrical right half of his face. In the process of processing my own face into a symmetrical mirror image, my self-consciousness was further distanced from his self-identity, and I acknowledged the abstraction and its increasing tendency as media content. Even though it was an act of production for the purpose of thought experimentation, seeing such separation and divergence of the self in the mapping and making it public was not only a new traumatic experience, but also an opportunity to experience the fluctuation of self-image and identity as a fiction.

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