When, on November 19, 2013, the word ‘selfie’ was named Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year 2013, few people were surprised. Indeed, it is a phenomenon that has taken the world by storm, and although the likelihood of it winning Word of the Year 2014 is slim, it is still as present, as viral and as omnipresent as it was last year.

The word is truly representative of our times, with its meaning including the fact that it has to be a picture taken by oneself of oneself and even being uploaded to social media platforms. But, in reality, it is only an evolution of the self-portrait. It is the descendant of David Holding The Head of Goliath by Caravaggio or Self-Portrait by Frida Kahlo.

Vince Briffa

It is this idea that one can take one’s own image and alter it to represent something more that has led Dr Vince Briffa, an artist and university lecturer, to work on the Selfie project, stylised as ‘/»S[LFI/’.

Here, he tells us what the exhibition is all about.

“Selfie is a continuation of a branch of my work that presents projects of an interactive nature for the audience to participate in and experience,” says Vince Briffa, Head of Department of Digital Arts at the University of Malta.

Briff is an artist whose works have been exhibited in many prestigious art galleries and museums all around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in Vaduz, Liechtenstein and the Edinburgh Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. “This genre of work normally crosses sculpture with installation and has been a constant concern within the last 15 years of my creative output.”

“In turn, the Selfie project follows the natural process of self-portrait photography and consists of a walkthrough experience with three separate action areas,” he explains. “It is inspired by the self-portrait as an important creative platform throughout the history of art, and is inspired by the numerous self-portraits one encounters in art museums, particularly in the Modern Art period.

“The project also consists of a ‘transformation’ area where visit-ors can transform their image through a variety of materials, creating an individualised look. With this transformation, the visitor can take a picture with a celebrity, where small sets inspired by famous paintings and cutouts of artists’ self-portraits will act as backdrops and props for visitors to take selfies with.

It is inspired by the self-portrait as an important creative platform throughout the history of art

“The last section of the project offers the opportunity for the visit-or to manipulate the selfie through digital means,” Briffa adds. “In this way, the visitor will be able to exit the installation having contributed in a conscious and also experimental manner to the ever-popular art form of the self-portrait. A virtual gallery will be set up to document the project as well as exhibit the self-portraits. An exhibition of etchings from Heritage Malta’s National Collection will also accompany the project, giving it a local and historical context.”

“The point of the exhibition and the walkthrough experience is that, through it, audiences will hopefully become aware that the self-portrait is not only a product of our times but that it has been around for hundreds of years,” he explains.

“The experience will present different realities within the same image, whereby participants will not only be taking the self-portrait but will also undergo the experience of physical transformation in a real and virtual environment, questioning the issue of reality in today’s technological world.”

Of course, further context is given to this exhibition by the fact that it is a part of the annual, international children’s and young people’s festival ŻiguŻajg, which has established itself as the most influential and important festival of the arts in its category.

This has been achieved through its vision, which sees a demographic normally assumed to be disassociated and detached from art taking centre stage in a variety of artistic happenings.

In keeping with ŻiguŻajg’s ethos, Selfie also had many a helping hand from various young adults, who pitched in their talents and expertise to help make this project come to life.

“Students from the Department of Digital Arts at the University of Malta have been involved in the creation and the ‘look and feel’ of the walkthrough,” says Briffa, “while students of ICT have been responsible for the programming of the software that brings about the digital transformation of the images. A group of students will assist in the running of the project during the actual festival.”

The project will remain open after the festival has ended, and it is sure to go down well with adults and children alike. Such a theme, in fact, offers anyone who is part of the modern world both food for thought and a vehicle for self-expression.

Selfie project is a collaboration between the faculty and students of Digital Arts and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Malta, Muża, Heritage Malta and St James Cavalier.

The Selfie project runs between November 17 and 23 at St James Cavalier, Valletta.

www.ziguzajg.org