When I Try to Be Real
Jiayue Song
@auer_07
On social media, the tag of “a sense of being alive” reflects people’s longing for authenticity, yet this pursuit has turned into a new aesthetic trend shaped and controlled by algorithms. This work explores the contradiction between genuine emotion and performed authenticity, when people “act real,” can we still sense our true selves? Has authenticity become another kind of pressure? Through multimedia textile works combining emotion, skin texture, and materials, the project visualizes packaged authenticity and algorithm control, inviting reflection on how we accept and understand our “real” selves between the digital and physical worlds.