About the book
Culture of the Selfie is an in-depth art-historical overview of self-portraiture, using a set of theories from visual studies, narratology, media studies, psychotherapy, and political principles. Collecting information from various fields, juxtaposing them on the historical time-line of artworks, the book focuses on space in self-portraits, shared between the person self-portraying and the viewer. What is the missing information of the transparent relationship to the self and what kind of world appears behind each selfie? As the ‘world behind one’s back’ is gradually taking larger place in the visual field, the book dwells on a capacity of selfies to master reality, the inter-mediate way and, in a measure, oneself.
Author
Ana Peraica is a curator, art critic, theorist and lecturer in visual culture and media arts. She has curated online projects since 1998. She was the editor of Machine Philosopher (Jan Van Eyck Akademie, 1999), Žena na raskrižju ideologija (HULU, Split, 2007), Victims Symptom (LabforCulture/Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2009), Smuggling Anthologies (MMSU, Rijeka, 2015), produced after curated shows. Her essays, published in magazines as Springerin, Documenta magazine, Pavilion, Art and Education Papers, and readers by Afterimage, Loecker Verlaag, P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E, were compiled in a manuscript Sub/versions (Revolver, 2009; in Croatian due 2018). Peraica is a book reviewer at Leonardo Reviews and she teaches the Media Art Histories program at University of Danube in Austria.
‘Ana Peraica’s Culture of the Selfie: Self-Representation in Contemporary Visual Culture is an outstanding source for art researchers and students, photographers, humanists, and media theorists. It contributes to diverse fields including but far from limited to cultural studies and psychology. It reaches beyond a chronological overview of analyzed phenomena and analyses the contemporary condition through theory and artwork. Technical aspects are depicted in detail and supported by excellent examples. Published in open access, Culture of the Selfie: Self-Representation in Contemporary Visual Culture is an exceptional book about selfies and self-portraits, and it is bound to make a profound impact on future researchers in the field.’
Read the complete review by Penesta Dika in Postdigital Science and Education here: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s42438-018-0002-y.pdf
Colophon
Edited by: Veena Hariharan. Editorial Support by: Leonieke van Dipten. Cover design: Katja van Stiphout. Design: Isabella Calabretta. EPUB development: Isabella Calabretta. Print on Demand. Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2017. ISBN: 978-94-92302-17-5.