A self-portrait by Canadian artist AA Bronson from his Mirror Sequences (1969-70) series. (via mit.edu)
CHICAGO — The selfie is a mirror, an illusion of a mirror, an egotistical moment wrapped in time, and an embarrassing moment post-shave. But there is something curious about seeing your doppelgänger reflected back at you rather than running into him or her on the street.
Just the other day I was sitting at a local cafe and one of the baristas ran up to me, excitedly telling me that she knew someone who looked just like me. Pleased to hear that I had a doppelgänger somewhere in this vast city, I asked her if she knew the person’s name, who she was, or where I could find her. The barista couldn’t remember but promised me that, when she did know, she would report back. “I love having twins everywhere,” I told her. But was the person she spotted actually a doppelgänger, or was this a false memory? And what if, when I meet this person who supposedly looks like me, she doesn’t actually look like me to me, but my barista friend sees the two of us as lookalikes?
Sometimes these doppelgänger moments are best kept between oneself and one’s mirror-induced image. That’s why this week’s selection of selfies ponders the more existential aspects of the phenomenon, asking whether the mirror is your friend, foe, or false memory, and if it produces within you the notion of a doppelgänger or the possibility that such a person is in fact out there — you just haven’t met them yet.
Read the full post on Hyperallergic: http://hyperallergic.com/74877/mirrors-multiply-the-selfie-the-doppelganger-dilemma/
