British author Sara Maitland’s latest book How to Be Alone talks about the joys of solitude. She writes, “How have we arrived, in the relatively prosperous developed world, at least, at a cultural moment which values autonomy, personal freedom, fulfillment and human rights, and above all individualism, more highly than they have ever been valued before in human history, but at the same time these autonomous, free, self-fulfilling individuals are terrified of being alone with themselves?”
It is possible that when she was writing the book, Sara wasn’t aware of the existence of the selfie stick. Or quite cleverly, ignored it.
Earlier this week, artists Justin Crowe and Aric Snee created the ‘selfie arm’ — a device designed to look like a human arm so that you’re never in danger of looking alone while clicking selfies. Feeling lonely, however, is a different problem altogether. Photos of the prototype reveal that the person holds a fibreglass mannequin arm wearing a black cut-off sleeve. From an angle, it looks like the arm belongs to Lord Voldemort.
There have been reports of selfie sticks being ‘public enemy number one’ and it’s obvious why. One, there’s absolutely no escaping the trend even if museums and tennis stadiums have banned their presence. Two, selfie stick fanatics have taken it upon themselves to set things right — by creating a museum of their own. For unlimited photo opportunities, visit the Art in Island in Manila, specifically designed for taking selfies with ‘paintings’ you can touch, or even step inside. Because why stare at paintings trying to figure what they mean when you can be in one? Maybe that’s why Mona Lisa’s smile is the way it is. Or why the figure in The Scream looks so agonised. They knew something we didn’t.
