Mashing Up the Fashion Image - Instagram Art, Fashion, and Technoculture in Douglas Abraham’s Artistic Practice

Abstract

The paper discusses the work of Instagram artist Douglas Abraham as a techno-cultural construct, and how the intersections between fashion and art photography in his work reveal some of the conditions for image practices embedded in Instagram. His profile name on Instagram is bessnyc4, having been expelled from the platform four times. A close study of Abraham’s work informs our understanding of how cultural practices relating to fashion photography, brand management and censorship are performed on the platform. Close attention is given to artistic approaches to the mediation of fashion, as this is central to Abrahams» artistic practice. The article analyzes a selection of Abraham’s works published on Instagram. The analysis is rooted in a media aesthetics approach to mediation. In such a perspective, attention is given to mediation as processes involving the perception and sense-making activities of a situated subject, and encounters between the spectator, the work and its cultural and meditational references. The very materiality of the media involved – in this case, Instagram – is central to the analysis. The article also draws on design theorist Anne Balsamo’s notion of techno-culture, as she predominantly conceives communication technology as cultural artefacts. Instagram as such a cultural artefact is thus central in providing the conditions within which fashion photography is negotiated. Keywords Fashion mediation media aesthetics Instagram artistic practice

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