PLATFORM PEOPLE 2020–2024

〈PLATFORM PEOPLE〉 examines the conditions under which individuals can exercise agency on social media platforms. I focus on social media, where countless individuals construct self-narratives through videos and images. On these platforms, however, such narratives can take shape only through protocols.

By “protocol,” I mean the platform’s operational framework, including metrics and mechanisms such as views, followers, likes, comments, subscriptions, notifications, and recommendations, as well as the algorithms that organize them. Individuals can exercise agency and construct their own narratives on these platforms, but that agency is always conditional. 〈PLATFORM PEOPLE〉 comprises 〈SOCIAL NETWORK PEOPLE〉, 〈YOUTUBE PEOPLE〉, 〈YOUTUBE PEOPLE STORY〉, and 〈COMMUNICATION CHRONICLE〉. The first two are photographic works, while the latter two are artist books.

To reflect the process through which individuals construct their self-narratives, I incorporated the model’s agency into the photographic image. Before each shoot, I conducted a preliminary interview in which the model chose the location, concept, and staging that they felt best represented their activities and appearance. On site, we made test images, and I asked again for the model’s input on finer aspects of the image.

The photographs were made as self-portraits, with the model triggering the shutter at a moment of their choosing. In the darkroom, I also combined color and black-and-white, positive and negative films into a single frame, which I then rephotographed. The image cannot be taken in all at once; the viewer is compelled to look again. Through this repeated act of looking, I hoped to reveal both the surface and what lies behind it, both choice and condition.

I present the original photographic film itself on lightboxes. Film is a material that retains traces, imperfections, and vulnerability. Rather than correcting or erasing them, I leave them visible. The viewer encounters a singular trace left by an individual act of choice.