Mapping the Invisible: Self Portrait — A Map of Identity and Self-Identity

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Considering the task of this first project was creating a self portrait, I found the easiest place to start was an image of myself. I originally began with a photo of my arm, which would reach towards a landscape. Connections and nodes between my arm, which represented the “self” in the portrait, would be connected around the frame detailing personal meaning behind various aspects of the environment. Even though conceptually I had a pretty good grasp of what I wanted to create, I had a difficult time realizing that concept visually once I began working in photoshop.

So I began sketching again, and came up with a comparison with the idea of identity and self-identity. Identity meaning a public, objective view of myself, and self-identity meaning a more personal hidden view of myself that inherently only I see. To explain further, a photo of my face is bisected, the left side represent identity, and is marked with biological imagery that relates to the color of my hair, skin, and eyes, as well as the image of a frequency that represent the tone of my voice. The right side is more conceptual, and obscured. This represents self-identity, which is something that is harder to decipher, and something that only I truly understand.

I took inspiration from the works of Adolf Wolfi. Throughout creating my self-portrait, I was worried that it would not be able to be consider a map, perhaps i’m not the one to decide that still, but it was pretty comforting to see a very visually artistic based map like Wolfi’s pieces.

Author: Julian Alvarez