Selfie Factory

This NTRO is an inquiry's in automated procedures to visualise data concerning online identities. The digital footprint of individuals is growing, with humans increasingly engaging online, both for commercial and social reasons. What happens with digital data left online and who owns it remains a question. In recent years artists have explored creating digital data-portraits to visualise this digital footprint. However, technological challenges to obtain data due to the constantly changing regulations of platforms and the exponential increase of data remains an obstacle for artists to contextualise online data to the public. My practice-based research addresses how the artist's role in designing digital data-portraits can contribute to the knowledge gap in data visualisation of the human digital footprint. Contribution: This interactive media art installation combines creative artistic practice with computational design to build multiple prototypes that successfully discovered a hybrid form that activated audiences both online and in a public gallery space. Selfie Factory created awareness on the accessibility of personal data shared online and enabled the public to experience their digital footprint in an art context. Significance: The Selfie factory was exhibited in four Galleries across Australia, the Campbeltown Art Centre, Watt Space, Testing Grounds and the National Portrait Gallery. The interactive installation attracted attention from mainstream media and was captured while operating at an ABC production called "everybody's a critic". Selfie Factory received the Digital Portraiture Awards at the National Portrait Gallery. Selfie Factory was covered by public media outlets such as Art Almanac, The Sydney Morning Herald and CityNews.com.au. The research discovery on an automated artistic procedure resulted in a peer-reviewed journal article presented at the 2nd Art Machines Conference titled "The Art of Data Portraiture".