I AM MY PROFILE: DIVA HELMY

I AM MY PROFILE: DIVA HELMY

I am my profile is an exhibition of student art work by Art Media and Technology senior Diva Helmy.

Our digital lives have become the medium of the everyday. I am my profile seeks to reclaim the intimacy, authenticity and humanity of these practices as an artistic medium. Our relationships on social media are being bought and sold. We have become unconscious producers. Our social interactions have been transformed into performative machines producing data as commodity, with users unaware of their own contribution. As Facebook’s ubiquitous system surrounds society like the air we breathe, separation is a challenge. Can we perform our digital identities in ways that break and misuse the rules, in turn contributing to a deeper understanding of intimacy in the internet age?

Join us for the gallery opening Wednesday, December 3rd from 6-8pm. The show will be open noon-6pm Thursday, December 4th and Friday, December 5th.

 

REVIEW by graduate student Kristina Parsons:

“Our digital lives have become the medium of the everyday” – Diva Helmy

I AM MY PROFILE* the one woman show by Diva Helmy at Parsons Paris, explores the digital realm as a way to rediscover a sense of authenticity and humanity in online spaces. Her work addresses the relationship between ourselves and the digitally constructed identity that ultimately interfaces with the world. Ubiquitous systems like Facebook are immaterial, lacking sensory stimulus and physical engagement. In questioning the authenticity of these digital representations, Helmy’s work proposes a more intimate and more human interaction between beings within these realms. Lung, webcam connects two people through a screen to empower the users to blur the perceived separation between their bodies. By synchronizing their breath, the two share a sensory experience more intimate than the distanced coldness of a traditional video chat. Helmy also speaks to the human-centered and multi-sensorial possibilities of video in Vibrator, female friendly, by layering her own reactions to the clip into the viewer’s engagement with the piece. As much of our experience continues to take place in increasingly immaterial platforms, Helmy’s work is a refreshing glimpse into a future in which we still can relate substantially.

 

Throughout November and December the Parsons Paris gallery will be hosting a series of short exhibitions by current Parsons Paris students. The gallery is open Monday-Friday noon-6pm. Learn more about AMT at Parsons Paris.

 

Solo exhibition:

I AM MY PROFILE*

3-5 Décembre

Parsons Paris

45 Rue Saint-Roch 75001

Paris, France

Our digital lives have become the medium of the everyday. I am my profile seeks to reclaim the intimacy, authenticity and humanity of these practices as an artistic medium.

Our relationships on social media are being bought and sold. We have become unconscious producers. Our social interactions have been transformed into performative machines producing data as commodity, with users unaware of their own contribution. As Facebook’s ubiquitous system surrounds society like the air we breathe, separation is a challenge. Can we perform our digital identities in ways that break and misuse the rules, in turn contributing to a deeper understanding of intimacy in the internet age?

Facebook discouraged us from connecting with strangers. As what constitutes online risky behavior is evolving, and new conventions are emerging, can we reimagine new forms of collaboration through social media?

*The title is derived from Unlike Us Reader: Social Media Monopolies and Their Alternatives, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2013.

Þórður Ingi Jónsson, photographer: Kristin Wichstrøm (kristinwichstrom.com)
Live Sleep 2014:
The Internet is Millions of Bedrooms 2014:
VIBRATOR, female friendly 2014:
Open Facebook / Free Tweet 2014:
LUNG, webcam 2014:

Photo documentation: Eugena Ossi

Program design: Margaux Salgado