Self-made: Constructing identity at the threshold between virtual and physical realms

This article examines methods of self-recognition, reflection and presentation across virtual and physical spaces in New York City-based multimedia artist Carla Gannis’s work. Considering the influential role of the mirror over the centuries and drawing on various theories about visual perception, a case is made for the ability to construct new and perform unique facets of individual identity by alternating between virtual (intangible) and material (physical) environments by way of technological mediation. Gannis’s amplified compositions of self-portraiture serve as quintessential embodiments of such identity-bending constructions.