BLOG POST 2: SI #7

Technical development - soft rendering

1. What is the intention of this work?

To demonstrate the desire to distance and let go of the persona people cultivate on the internet. Maintaining a persona on the internet requires a lot of work and dissonance of the self - making it burdensome to keep it up.

2. How does it fit into your SI?

It fits into my SI because it connects back to my first SI, where people overshare in order to gain validation on the internet. When children are on the internet at an early age, they’re vulnerable to influence. They begin to crave validation and attention leading to crafting a persona that would most effectively gain that. However, a persona requires a huge amount of effort to maintain, and any cracks in that persona can be dire. This SI represents maturing, and learning to not be as open with strangers in order to protect oneself. The person wants the head of their persona on a platter in order to move on and grow.

3. How do your ideation (subject matter & layout/composition) materials/media and technique support your intention?

My subject matter supports my intention because the original piece of appropriation is about Salome wanting the head of John the Baptist on a platter because he opposed her mother’s marriage to the king. To do this is like removing a burden - the burden being opposition to the marriage. This is similar to my SI, because the person also wants to get rid of a burden - their persona. The persona that opposes their path to truly being themselves.

As for materials, I am drawing this digitally on Procreate with a mix of rendering and lasso tool vector art because I am aiming for a contrast. I want to emphasize the contrast of the true, real self and the fake persona. I wanted to draw the persona in a cartoonish, sharp style but with the real self realistically rendered.