Sihand – LookingOutwards 07 – Selfiecity

Selfiecity by Manovich

The millennial generation (that’s me!) is notorious for our signature narcissism: selfie-taking. While most people couldn’t bear with them, software researcher Dr. Lev Manovich are particularly interested in the styles of selfies across cities around the world. Dr. Manovich utilized what he calls “imageplots”, which are rich media visualization, to present the patterns he found in selfie-taking. In each imageplot, a distribution pattern is shown on the habits of selfie-takers’ poses, expressions, and more.

To better demonstrate the imageplots Dr. Manovich used, here are two examples of selfie patterns in New York City.

There isn’t much information on what algorithm is behind these imageplots. My best guess would be a recognition algorithm that gathers data on quantitative selfie-taking habits such as the head tilt angle and the distance from face.

Learn more about Selfiecity

Learn more about Manovich