The solo module has finished and it has been one hell of an experience for me personally. After doing my performance about narcissism and selfies, i am definitely considering keeping the concept and title and giving it a slight reboot in the future. What intrigued me the most is how far somebody could be willing to go in an effort to define what is perfect in an image. In the 21st century, our addiction to technology has enabled people to exhibit traits of narcissistic personality disorder. Although its not actually narcissistic to take a picture of yourself, if it becomes a daily habit or if you need to show people something you believe to be perfect then potentially the disorder is there. But the Question remains: Why do people decide to become narcissists? There’s always a reason for something.
What my performance lacked in i think personally was what drove this character the become like he is. Why is he like that? Is it a problem from the past? Has he gone through an extremely traumatic experience? Well recently, i watched some clips from the Dr Phil show and he had two guests who were prime examples of Narcissists. At first, I didn’t really like the way they were talking about themselves and their unsympathetic attitudes towards others. However, when they each described why they are like that my attitude towards them shifted from annoyed to understanding. They don’t do it because their horrible people, its because they’ve had to adjust themselves psychologically because of a traumatic experience. So the first woman aborted seven babies which is traumatic in any case and the second woman has felt like nobody has given her the love or time she has deserved so the only way to feel appreciated and loved is to be a narcissist. These sorts of feelings and emotions could easily be interpreted as signs of a bad personality. But if you was to focus on the aspects behind this disorder then it is clear that there can be a slight misinterpretation of the perceived disorder.
When i start thinking about the newly improved creative process for the extension of my show, i want to intertwine this disorder with how society has become addicted to modern technology and how social media has become the 21st century interpretation of the narcissist. When i took the selfies for the performance, i put myself in the position of somebody who is so immersed with himself that social media has enabled him to gratify his own physical persona for the world to see. I want to explore that even further in the future borrowing ideas from our culture of today.