Portraits For My Reel Self
Portraits For My Reel Self is a speculative design project that critiques and engages with advertising methodologies of our world today, to curate visual identities shaped by consumption culture.
We move through social media absorbing influence from polished “personal brands,” sponsorships, and trend cycles. As algorithms track our preferences, we begin curating brand identities for ourselves—online and off—often without realising it. This project maps that shift through experimental, AI-generated portraits and a satirical game show titled Let’s Get Reel.
The game show parodies a corporate focus group, inviting contestants to align with aesthetics and trends while reflecting on how accurately media represents their personalities. Across three stages, participants confront their online behaviours, style choices, and social identities—testing how much of their ‘self’ is influenced by what they consume.
As the host, I analysed contestant responses using AI to generate eerily accurate personality profiles—devoid of names, yet rich with insight. Furthermore, collected visuals were then transformed into moving digital collages: abstract yet intimate portraits of each participant’s “reel” self.
The project merges satire and sincerity, using media’s own tools to critique the core of how identity is constructed, performed, and monetised in today’s consumption-driven world.