Today at the Zimmerli Museum, I took a selfie with a painting from the Nonconformist Art Gallery. During the time this painting was made, the USSR restricted the freedom of expression, so artists would create subliminal messages in their artwork in ways to express themselves and to defy the communist government. The speech bubble is empty, which makes one question the intent the artist had when including it: was it a way to say the artist felt speechless or was the artist commenting on how he feels restricted from saying anything under the communist regime? Selfies, much like art, provoke thought. A viewer stops, looks, and thinks about the meaning of what is before their eyes. Selfies have revolutionized the digital culture, with apps like Snapchat dedicated to sending and sharing pictures of ourselves and a first person point of view of how we live our lives. They push the boundaries of expression and thought into something that has the capabilities of sparking change in a society.
The Rutgers Selfie Project 