From the prehistoric to the posthuman selfie

LeRoy McDermott’s hypothesis proposes a perceptual interpretation of the Venus statues from to the Upper Paleolithic period these being in fact the first examples of human self-representations. The arguments he brings are of an artistic nature par excellence and they refer to the visual distortions arising from the subject’s point of view. The fantasy of being admired by others through the means of the nude selfie has generated a whole trend in today’s pop culture and Kim Kardashian is a prime example in this sense. The “shareware body” has gone through an entire history of significance, from Albrecht Dürer’s mystical meaning of the body, to Érika Ordosgoitti’s activist take on the matter. The widespread presence of the nude selfie raises the issue of virtual identity “pornification” while Katherine N. Hayles’ hypothesis questions the future of a posthuman reality that has already been foreshadowed.