Narcissism Response by Vivian
Magibon
Margret Lilian Adams
She's Magibon, popular from two years ago. Blinking, staring at the camera, and in few clips she speaks simple Japanese word. And of course she looks cute.
People like her- she has qaint eyes and a baby face which is considered kawaii/moe (cute) in Japanese pop culture.
People hate her- nobody gets why she was doing those clips.
And they started guessing, where is she from? ect. This was such a myth.
Later the puzzle solved as Magibon revealed herself in a interview in Japan: She's a 22 year-old average American girl from Pennsylvania who loves Japanese culture. She's not talking because she is shy. (Many guesses there is something to do with her crooked teeth.)
But anyway, see how identity can easily constructed under the lens of camera.
Magibon makes me think of another myth. A lot of people have this question in minds: why do we look better when we are in the mirror. My guess is that you are actually manipulating your image in front of the mirror by :
1)adjusting the angle you see yourself
2)posing
3)correcting your pose according to the immediate feedback
when other's taking picture for you, #1's in control by the other; you can of course pose, but the feedback part's taken away. This is why people start to take pictures/ video themselves as how they see them in the mirror. Oops, not "they" but "we".
We all somehow love ourselves to some extent. Maybe not the appearance as what is in the case we talked about. There is nothing wrong.
Narcissism is sometimes too much to the people other than you. But I think it is better to love yourself than to hate yourself. It is not as painful after all.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
1 comment:
Great work Nick. I love the camera's following nature. Your work kept me thinking "how did he do that?!". You really capture a cold feeling, and rather mechanical, to the piece. Probably experimenting with monitors would of served good as well which, as you know, Nauman used in the Public/ Private space installation. R.T
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This is interesting, I see both videos and I didn't know that it was the same person until you later in the video and reading what you said.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking that she possibly loves japenese culture so much that she may have posted this in order to reach across countries through cyber space broadcast to Japan. But at the same time it is unique and makes you wonder why someone would just video tape themselves on and post on youtube without saying a word. It almost seems like the exact opposite of what Youtube really intented. But on the other hand she is still broadcasting herself. This is a very interesting piece. I enjoyed your selection. -Charles Finklea