Selfie

The smartphone selfie is now the subject of essays, blogs and even a selfie olympics (trade mark ignored, I am sure).

Technically, a selfie is a relatively low resolution image taken at no more than an arm’s length away (unless it’s a mirror rebound effort) by a low-tech (front-facing) fixed focus lens and sensor (combined, a camera). It is a technical challenge to make this work, and an art form in itself.

One saving grace is that users can actually see the image they are about to take and adjust the positioning and lighting accordingly.

This is done by moving the body and arm simultaneously, relative to the surroundings and light sources. This requires a combination of both artistic/aesthetic and kinaesthetic intelligences; possibly one of the few activities that uses just these two.

Given this, I think the art form that is the selfie is much under-appreciated. Training the use of these two rarely co-joined intelligences might have amazing beneficial side effects. I have no idea what these might be though.

Images below; mirror rebound (controversial whether this is a true selfie), true selfie, selfie plus extra, selfie failure, selfie with unsuspecting bystander.