Chapter 1

A dear thank you to all my close friends and family who have helped me, those who had to listen to me during long discussions, and everyone who has supported me along this process.

This dissertation aims to get a fresh understanding of what image culture means nowadays and its impact on western society.

Living in a post-modern world, mass media culture has been a major contributor to the overstimulation of the individual and his or her mind, forcing detachment from engaging with reality. Therefore, creating an under-stimulation and cooperation of the body. Exploring the contrast between being both a spectator/consumer and also a creator of images, I aim to challenge my artistic practice in the context of this overload of visual content. Therefore, I have been asking myself, if so many pictures exist already, is it necessary to create even more? Seeing how capitalism and improved technology have impacted our ways of communication, we will consequently explore our relation to images and their impact on us. With social media highly based on photography such as Instagram, we have shifted into a world controlled by creating representations of our lives— and ourselves by extension.