Selfie: The Emergence and Manifestation of Individualism in Art

Subjectivism, a pervasive current in Western thought that largely stems from Descartes' philosophical teachings, began a new view of man. In this new approach, man became the orbital of truth and became the subject of originality, and the man was recognized by us as the foundation of all truths, and it was assumed that the human race, by possessing a power called reason, and by the blessing of using the right way of thinking can achieve a definite and objective knowledge of things. The possibility of this definite and general knowledge of the truths lies in the fact that the mechanism of epistemology is the same in the human race, and the creatures arrive at a single understanding of things by adopting the correct method of cognition. Thus, although Descartes begins his analysis with “me” as an individual thinker, he eventually arrives at a general inference about man, and his approach to the human species and the human being becomes more and more obsessed with “us”. This situation is also strongly and weakly maintained in post-Cartesian systems of thought, such as Kant's thought and Hegel's idealism, until in the nineteenth century, with the emergence of individualist existentialist ideas such as Kirkgour, the altruistic view of man was challenged. Thus the human being with all his characteristics is paid attention to. The emergence of existentialist ideas along with Nietzsche's sharp critiques of the foundations of modern thought and the priority he gave to the mind of the creative artist, as well as the foundations of Freudian psychoanalysis, all set the conditions; which gradually turned the public conscience to the element of individuality and became the beginning to shake the foundations of modernity. Artists, who take the basis of creating a work of art from the same public conscience and sometimes even direct it, naturally stay out of the caravan and their taste, which is rightfully the irreplaceable arena of the emergence of individuality, more and more as a means of expressing themselves. They use and define themselves through their artistic creation. Simultaneously with the rapid growth of the industrialization of art in the contemporary period and the formation of a movement called the culture industry and the mechanical reproduction of art (both are interpretations of Adorno), and the recognition of the photographic medium as an art and the subsequent production of communication tools such as cell phones, which were often equipped with cameras, a phenomenon called selfie flourished. A phenomenon that on the one hand is an example of the prevalence of art among the public and on the other hand is a sign of the artist's greater desire to make himself his object. In this article, by examining the philosophical roots of the emerging selfie phenomenon, it is concluded that one of the reasons for the general popularity of this emerging media is the current individualism in the contemporary period resulting from Cartesian subjectivity. The present study is qualitative research that has collected data through the method of studying library documents.