CREATE AND BRING YOUR OWN SELF-PORTRAIT.

GET READY TO SPEAK ABOUT IT! (2 minutes)

Read the title again: What point of view does this exhibition express?

The exhibition asserts that selfies are a form of art.

What do you need to make a selfie? How long does it take?

You need a home button, camera, front camera, and a click. It only takes five seconds.

How many selfies are taken daily?

It is estimated that one million selfies are taken every day / daily.

What is the title of the exhibition? What does it say about the meaning we give to selfies nowadays?

It’s entitled From Selfie to Self-Expression. It shows how we tend to view selfies as a way to express ourselves.

List the artists whose works you can watch at this exhibition. Anything surprising?

There are established artists such as Tracey Emin, Van Gogh, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Rembrandt or Cindy Sherman but also well-known selfies made by politicians such as the one taken by the Prime Minister of Denmark, the US President and the UK Prime Minister at Nelson Mandela’s funerals.

What has changed throughout the last five centuries? What hasn’t changed?

We have always been creating images of ourselves but now technology and especially smartphones are used by millennials to do so.

“How will future generations choose to present themselves?”, the curator asks. What do you think? (use 100 words to express your opinion)

-       They will represent themselves with new technologies: maybe there will be cameras in our eyes to take pictures. A camera will be implanted in our eyes. We will be cyborg.

-       Maybe the selfie will disappear and another type of art will appear.

-       Drones will be able to take pictures and deliver pictures.  

-       Facial recognition will be everywhere.

Thursday, October 10th 2019

Do selfies constitute art?

YES:

- because selfies appeared / came after self-portraits

- because it's something we create

- photography is an art so selfies are an art too

NO:

- because selfies are dangerous

- because it can become an obsession

- because it's easy to make

- because selfies are not original forms of art

Wednesday, October 9th 2019

Watch the video again: click here

 This document is video about selfies. In fact, it is a report from EuroNews, a European channel in English, which focuses on an exhibition in the Saatchi Gallery in London. The exhibition aims at celebrating selfies. This exhibition presents the first self-portraits (paintings of old masters) and modern selfies. It shows pieces of art over a hundred years, going over a complete generation.
Indeed, selfies are ubiquitous (you find them everywhere), so we can’t ignore them. As a consequence, the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) accepted the word in 2013. In our digital age, it’s easy / simple to turn image into art with mobile phones. Today, taking selfies doesn’t make you a narcissistic person. It is a form of communication and it is socially acceptable.
In conclusion, this phenomenon has a creative potential and it is spreading on a mass level: there are more and more modern self-portraits / selfies.