VIDEO COLLAGE
TIKTOK CORES
TREND RESEARCH
STYLING
HYPER INDIVIDUALISM
TIKTOK CORES
TREND RESEARCH
STYLING
HYPER INDIVIDUALISM
CONCEPT
With the COVID-19 pandemic, social media – more than ever before – turned into a tool and platform for experiments and self-expression. Especially among users that are part of Generation Z, various "aesthetics" started emerging, forming a dynamic network for creative self-expression. At the heart of such an aesthetic lies a certain niche interest that expresses itself in all areas including styling, interior design, music, and even food, developing into what's known as a "core lifestyle".
With the COVID-19 pandemic, social media – more than ever before – turned into a tool and platform for experiments and self-expression. Especially among users that are part of Generation Z, various "aesthetics" started emerging, forming a dynamic network for creative self-expression. At the heart of such an aesthetic lies a certain niche interest that expresses itself in all areas including styling, interior design, music, and even food, developing into what's known as a "core lifestyle".
Unlike previous subcultures or trends, core aesthetics have more fluid codes and characteristics, resulting in blurred boundaries and increased complexity. This invites users to explore related cores, allowing them to experiment with multiple parallel identities.
In our video portrait, my talented colleague Valerie Imhof and I, analyse this digital landscape of hyper-individuality and fluid identities, revealing how it challenges conformity and stereotypes.
PROCESS
During our research, there were a couple of things that stood out to us: The first thing being that gender seems to play a very important role, as trending aesthetics often experiment with either androgyny or hyper feminine / masculine styling. The second observation was that many users wouldn't describe their online identity to be the same as their offline identity, it seems as if many use social media to explore an additional identity they can't or don't want to express offline, which creates space for multiple parallel identities.
We continued by collecting lots of visual material and contacting people with very strong, niche or experimental online identities. Many of these accounts are challenging stereotypes and questioning norms, which is why we asked the users behind the accounts to answer a couple of questions and talk about their online identity in the shape of a selfie video, which we then combined with found footage to create "Cyber Aesthetics".
During our research, there were a couple of things that stood out to us: The first thing being that gender seems to play a very important role, as trending aesthetics often experiment with either androgyny or hyper feminine / masculine styling. The second observation was that many users wouldn't describe their online identity to be the same as their offline identity, it seems as if many use social media to explore an additional identity they can't or don't want to express offline, which creates space for multiple parallel identities.
We continued by collecting lots of visual material and contacting people with very strong, niche or experimental online identities. Many of these accounts are challenging stereotypes and questioning norms, which is why we asked the users behind the accounts to answer a couple of questions and talk about their online identity in the shape of a selfie video, which we then combined with found footage to create "Cyber Aesthetics".
check out my miro board, where collected all of my reserach and documented my process, here:
RESULT
"Cyber Aesthetics" was created using Premiere Pro, where we combined found footage from our netnographic research with the social media content and voices of our interviewees, five Gen Z people who explain how they appropriate the digital space to experiment with their own identity. They talk about their styling, editing process, use of digital platforms and the personal principles that influence them.
While most of them express an appreciation for the creative freedom they can play with online, some also point out that the shallowness and heavy judgement that can be found within the digital space influences their online identity.
"Cyber Aesthetics" was created using Premiere Pro, where we combined found footage from our netnographic research with the social media content and voices of our interviewees, five Gen Z people who explain how they appropriate the digital space to experiment with their own identity. They talk about their styling, editing process, use of digital platforms and the personal principles that influence them.
While most of them express an appreciation for the creative freedom they can play with online, some also point out that the shallowness and heavy judgement that can be found within the digital space influences their online identity.
Originally, our video portrait was designed to explore different core aesthetics but after discovering, that many users are inspired by and identify themselves with a combination of different cores rather than just one specific core, we decided not to name the cores referred to within the video. With this decision, we wanted to highlight the fluidity, with which cores are explored and expressed.
Laura, one of our protagonists, finds a very fitting conclusion: she explains that everything can be turned into a core and that therefore there is a core for every niche meaning that everyone can feel a sense of belonging.