Leaving alone the fact that many of these body challenges in social media are only machine learning exercises that are meant to understand the postural and gestural changes in the human body, one also needs to look at these acts from the human interest in their body images and it's deeper psychological needs.
Initially when these games started in social media where one can turn oneself into famous people, man to a woman, women into a man, changing hairstyles, growing old, growing a beard or so on and so forth, I looked at them only from a machine language perspective or with a sociological perspective. But as the days went by it started giving me many newer perspectives on the human psychological need to identify oneself with achievements to fulfil their inner desire. In normal circumstances, It can be considered as a simple act of an innocent mind but when one start dissecting the dark belly of the social construct of success in human life, these acts will tell us another story. These acts then start becoming the tragic notions of self-doubt, discovery and the surrender of a hapless individual among social reality where one start giving up and mocks at oneself to have a hearty laugh (of contempt) by the world. (An image of a desperate soul desperately shouting comes to our mind.
Those who feel anything otherwise, kindly recall the pain that everyone takes to get their perfect selfie where they are assumed to be looking great or at least the best against those funny images these social network games demands. Also, remember the period of time in social network sites when the people started using their childhood photos as their social network "DP"s( that they believe they looked "cute" or "charming"). These acts of grownups seeking the societal approval or acceptance of their "loveable" or "charming" existence, an inner desire many of them carried in their life or are desperate for complete the entire story.
But still, there were many who although carried their inner desire for a societal approval for their interesting existence but were embarrassed to associate with those childhood images or other comical images as their social presence. In their idea of growing, these are the people who believed in "gracefully greying" as dignified (?) social identity, a definition only they can explain and understand.
When I spoke to many of these people among my friends, I found out that they always have a fond memory about their childhood images that they also cherish talking about it. But associating their present existence to those childhood "cuteness" somehow interestingly makes them embarrassed!. The success of 10 years challenge in the social network is the outcome of these embarrassed lots. They were able to present their charming youth or childhood images with their present-day images. They shouted to the world, "see I am also charming"!. They reassured themselves that they are not like those who share their charming or cute childhood photos or comical photos to seek public attention. Interestingly they forget that this sense of achievement in their ego of "I am not like others" is not any way different from the sense of achievement others derive in their cute and charming images!. They also shout "look I am different and charming"!
In my enquiry as an artist led me to select a few best body images in the art world over centuries to understand this 10 years challenge. As the deep learning parameters in machine language method teach us, to remove 10 years from those iconic beauties all that I had to do was - broadening the eyes a little with a little twist, lower the forehead, shorten the nose, thin the upper lip, bulge a little lower lip, lift the mouth edges, lift the chin and shrink the cheeks from sides and they became young!. In other words, with some plastic surgeries to these artworks, they became their past self.
Suddenly few millimetres here and there on those iconic representations of human desire or body became very big in front of me. They became the idea of achievement, identity, sense of purpose, ego, celebration and embarrassment for an entire human society in front of me. In other words, the world became the extension of those millimetres that defined the idea of ageing and our inner desire for its denial (?).
Or is it so?
Where does then the idea of societal approval exist in this body game of millimetres of lift or sagging in its image?
(Here I also leave the ontological enquiries about the question of meaning associations with the past self and future self differently with the present)
The answer perhaps lies in the famous painting popularly known as "Scream" by Munch. The painting depicts a shouting soul in its skeletal remains and the figure is without any facial features than a shouting expression. The hapless person has almost crossed the river on a bridge and is standing at its edge near the banks. One can see the faint images of two people who are yet to cross the river and walking (?) a little behind the shouting soul. One is not sure whether those people are crossing the river, accompanying the person, competing with the person or are actually shadowing the person. They can be some rich men in grey suits or covet intelligence officials or some strangers on a walk as well. The river beneath and the sky above are violently chaotic. We are not sure of anything in this image than about the person with a featureless face. He/she is shouting with his/her ears closed with both hands in pain and agony for sure. Most importantly the person is not shouting at the chaotic nature behind, the people behind or the situation behind. He or she is shouting at us- the world, where the world itself becomes the backdrop.
Like I said in the beginning, for me these games of bodily negotiations on social networks does not become part of any machine language studies, they become the manifestations of deep human anguish and insecurities associated with human existence. Social networks and its studies are only a few market responses to it.
To me, the entire saga of social network suddenly became the most complex abstract expressionist painting of Munch- the scream, where the world behind us becomes the world we shout at and our body is only an expression of our deep agony where the aesthetics of body defining features are immaterial.
Girl with a pearl earring 10 years challenge 1655- 1665 (Vermeer)
The girl at Folies-Bergère Bar 10 years challenge-1872 & 1882, (Manet)
Monalisa 10 year challenge year 1507 & year 1517
the girl under moonlight, 10 years challenge 1890& 1900 (Raja ravi varma)
American Gothic 10 years challenge - 1920 & 1930
Rembrandt 10 years challenge (1649 &1659)
final 10 years challenge: scream 10 years challenge 1883-1893
