Selfiecity explores how people take and share selfies across different cities around the world. Using over 650,000 Instagram photos collected in one week, the team filtered this down to 3,200 single person selfies to study how posing, facial expressions, and self representation vary across cultures. The project combines data science, cultural analysis, and visual storytelling to turn everyday selfies into insights about identity and society.
I think this project is important because it shows how even ordinary social media activity can reveal larger cultural patterns. By analyzing selfies, Selfiecity makes digital culture measurable and highlights how technology, identity, and society intersect in ways that feel both relevant and surprising.
Project details:
- Creators: Lev Manovich, Moritz Stefaner, Alise Tifentale, Daria Trubnikova, Emanuel Kao, and others.
- Institutions: Cultural Analytics Lab and international collaborators.
- Cities studied: Bangkok, Berlin, Moscow, New York City, São Paulo.
- Timeline: December 4–12, 2013. Project launched in 2014.
- Website: selfiecity.net
Digital humanities:
- Combines quantitative data with qualitative interpretation.
- Creates public, interactive data visualizations.
- Makes digital culture measurable.
- Shows how digital humanities connects technology, society, and human expression.
