The outcome of this project is a short Instagram narrative for which I used four narrative elements; actions, happenings, characters and setting (Amâncio 2017). In addition, images, texts, videos, emojis, doodles, instant information and filters were also used as means of enriching the narrative. Instagram created a new narrative language (Seyfi and Soydas 2017) which enables us to understand the actions of others because we all live out narratives in our lives and because we understand our own lives in terms of narratives (Amâncio 2017).
As previously discussed, Bruner (1990) states that narrative should canter upon people and their intentional states and they should focus on how these intentional states led to certain kinds of activities. With my goal and desire in mind, the narrative shows daily activities which in some way contribute to my goal and my vision of self. The narrative as insignificant as it may appear has great importance as it shows dedication and commitment along with good habits and good influences. I used various means of conveying this narrative, the content posted was a mixture of images and videos. I was the author of the story and my friends were the characters. Grace is the main character in this narrative, representing a friend that has a positive impact on me and continuously encourages me to be better.
The filtering process captures the desires and moods of its author (Amâncio 2017). When creating this narrative I used various filters, emojis and GIFs which replaced text and were used to convey my mood or emotion. The filtered image isn’t a reflection of reality but rather “how I wanted to it look” or “how I felt it looked.” (Fallon 2014). Throughout the entire story, I used the ‘Melbourne’ filter which reflected how I felt that day. It was a dull day and it was raining, I lacked the enthusiasm and motivation. This filter reduced the saturation and increased the brightness and contrast, overall it made the image appear sharp but cold. The lamp in the study room is controlled by an app, I used it to set the light to pink as I find it very calming and relaxing, in turn improving my productivity. The image itself, however, didn't reflect "how I felt it looked" and how it made me feel, therefore I included a soundtrack along with the image to convey my emotion. In my narrative, I wanted to convey a message that even on bad days you have to work towards your goals, as only through commitment you will be able to achieve the version of self you aspire to be.
Given that the narrative was created on Instagram it meant that It will be available to view for 24 hours from the posting time. This allowed my followers to watch it and some of the feedback I received through direct messages showed that some of the followers understood my vision of 'self' as they praised how dedicated I am, those were the individuals who already knew me and had a previous interpretation of me hence this is one limitation for this project. The overall outcome is presented in the form of a video, offering a quite passive experience. As Instagram allows the user to skip through stories and exit them at any time the experience on the platform would be different and in fact, more satisfying.
Future work for this project would consist of more autobiographical narratives. As narratives provide a basis for 'understanding characters in our environment' (Amâncio 2017) self-making process embedded in the autobiographical narrative construction would provide the audience with a greater understanding of myself and my desires.
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Bibliography
Bruner, J., 2004. Life as narrative. Social research: An international quarterly, 71(3), pp.691-710.
Bruner, J., 1990. Acts of meaning. Harvard university press, Vol. 3, pp 40-46.
Seyfi, M. and SOYDAŞ, A.U., 2017. Instagram stories from the perspective of narrative transportation theory. Turkish Online Journal Of Design Art And Communication, 7(1), pp.47-60.
Fallon, K., 2014. October. Streams of the self: The Instagram feed as narrative autobiography. In Proceedings of the interactive narratives, new media & social engagement international conference, Vol. 101, pp.54-60.