Selfiecity.net. Analysis and Visualization of Thousands of Selfie Photos. . . .

On February 25, 2014 I received this email from "new media" theorist Lev Manovich via the Humanist Discussion Group, announcing the launch of a cutting edge website analyzing the "Selfie" phenomenon: 

 "Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2014 21:00:30 +0000
        From: Lev Manovich <[email protected]>
        Subject: Inntroducing selfiecity.net  - analysis and visualization of thousands of selfies photos from five global cities

"Welcome to Selfiecity!
http://selfiecity.net/

I'm excited to announce the launch of our new research project selfiecity.net. The website presents analysis and interactive visualizations of 3,200 Instagram selfie photos, taken between December 4 and 12, 2013, in Bangkok, Berlin, Moscow, New York, and São Paulo.

The project explores how people represent themselves using mobile photography in social media by analyzing the subjects’ demographics, poses, and expressions.

Selfiecity (http://softwarestudies.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=67ffe3671ec85d3bb8a9319ca&id=edb72af8ec&e=8a08a35e11) investigates selfies using a mix of theoretic, artistic and quantitative methods:

* Rich media visualizations in the Imageplots section assemble thousands of photos to reveal interesting patterns.
* An interactive component of the website, a custom-made app Selfiexploratory invites visitors to filter and explore the photos themselves.
* Theory and Reflection section of the website contribute to the discussion of the findings of the research. The authors of the essays are art historians Alise Tifentale (The City University of New York, The Graduate Center) and Nadav Hochman (University of Pittsburgh) as well as media theorist Elizabeth Losh (University of California, San Diego).

The project is led by Dr. Lev Manovich, leading expert on digital art and culture; Professor of Computer Science, The Graduate Center, CUNY; Director, Software Studies Initiative."

Considering the phenomenon that selfies had become, I was not surprised when two days later reference was made, also via the Humanist Discussion Group, to  "a very active Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/664091916962292/ 'The Selfies Research Network'." When I looked at this page in February 2014 the group had 298 members, mostly from academia, but also including professionals in fields like social media, from many different countries.