Omar Kholeif on the blurring of fact and fiction in the age of YouTube
While the idea of a constructed self was played out by artists amid the identity politics of the 1980s, the rise of social networks and online video has allowed a new generation to torque cultural stereotypes. Does the interpersonal nature of video-sharing websites make them the perfect platform to examine the manufacture of identity?

‘The process of using the “self” to espouse critical commentary about identity issues is hardly a new phenomenon. Still, new media have made the performance and documentation of the “self” a nearly ubitquitous mode of artistic practice.’

Available in Art Monthly Issue 343.

Catfish

You can cross-examine this picture until you’re blue in the face, but you’ll be missing the point. Reality or hoax—watching the perpetual grin on Yaniv Schulman’s face as his way cool brother gets up close and personal, documenting him as he falls in love with a fictionalised Facebook character, makes Catfish one of the most surreal viewing experiences of 2010. This was the real Facebook movie. Unlike, it’s thrilling glossy counterpart, this narrative, which oscillates between fiction and reality is made with the same DIY aesthetic of the original social networking platform, which gave life to it. Taking the viewer through all of the affecting motions that one encounters when experiencing a mediated virtual relationship—it exposes a reality about identity contortion that has never been seen before on film. Catfish is a story about processes of selection, aspiration, self-loathing, and how the web can be used as a tool for self-induced fantasy, mania and escapism. After the credits roll, you may feel a pang—a little sickly, guilty, disgusted, or quietly frustrated. Whatever the case, you will know that the Schulman brothers have got to you. A college thesis about the film (and its slick foil, The Social Network) can’t be too far off. Omar Kholeif

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