Researcher ORCID Identifier

0000-0002-4423-5587

Graduation Year

2022

Date of Submission

12-2021

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Intercollegiate Media Studies

Reader 1

Tia Blassingame

Reader 2

Alyson Ogasian

Terms of Use & License Information

Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

© 2021 Sophia E Doane

Abstract

Effaced is an experimental video project exploring the interaction between a social media user’s physical and digital identities. The storyline follows a character speaking with someone online. Throughout the conversation, the character realizes the person is actually a digital version of herself that has been constructed with data via a social media algorithm. The person is a second version of herself, but has forgotten life in the physical world. The digital character (ID2) wants to meet the physical (ID1), and they merge bodies in between the two realms. Thus, her original identity is forever altered. Effaced explores how the physical and digital worlds are becoming interconnected, examining how identity is altered through social media. The intent of the project is to show how social media has infiltrated the human condition, contributing to a cyborg state of humanity.

Effaced examines topics in sci-fi horror films like David Cronenberg’s Videodrome (1983), and the project includes sound clippings from the film. These strategies allow me to inspect the screen as a medium for hauntings and otherworldly communications. The project is displayed within many screens, showing parts of the narrative at the same time. As the screens “speak” with each other, an audio component is heard. Through these strategies, the viewer is forced to split their attention between mediums, touching on the physical feeling of being bombarded with online information and of having a split perspective. When compelled to piece together the narrative, the viewer simulates the reconstruction of reality in the digital age.

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