Face-to-Face

Every minute YouTube users upload 72 hours of video material. This includes images from their own lives, made possible by cameras in mobile devices that are now within reach for everyone. These images are public and can be accessed by any curious viewer. The first contact with unknown people is therefore increasingly mediated. I investigate what considerations young people from 18–25 take into account when making a self-representa- tion in video images. When can they find themselves in the representation they have created? And what role does the ultimate recipient of the images play in this process of self-representation? To research this, I have designed an experiment in which I ask people to introduce themselves in front of a camera. Afterwards, they look at the results and then record their introduction again, adapting it on the basis of the first recording. I then combine the on-camera introduction and the off-camera response to study the interaction between them.

In its final form, I use the qualities of face-to-face contact. The representation responds to the presence of the viewer and looks him straight in the eye, trying to approach ‘the real thing’.

Year

2012

Crew

 

Research and development Joep Kuijper
Camera and technical services John Treffer
Editing Katarina Türler
Assistants Claire van der Poel, Ruth Koppenol, Igor Kramer

Participants Preston Henshuijs, Ruth Koppenol, Igor Kramer,

Willeke Machiels, Carlo Markaban, Claire van der Poel, R. P. Sitabi,

Patrice Winfield