Analytical Essays &
Digital Insights
Due to academic integrity regulations concerning the self-publication of university coursework, full essay PDFs are not available. Below are summaries of my recent work in the 'Digital Culture' track.
DIGITAL CULTURE
Algorithmic Aesthetics on Pinterest
This essay investigates how Pinterest's algorithmic participatory design shaped the global circulation of fashion aesthetics, focusing on the "Clean Girl Aesthetic". The algorithmic system creates visibility hierarchies that often promote specific, Wester, and affluent ideals of beauty, but users actively resist this homogeneity through paticipatory remixing and localization. The essay argues that digital fashion aesthetics are shaped by a duality between algorithmic standardization and vernacular creativity. This allows Pinterest to be both a platform for cultural contorl and emergent diversity.
AUDIOVISUAL CULTURE
Power & Authenticity in 'The Queen and I'
This essay analyzes the scene from the documentary The Queen and I to explore how authenticity and power are negotiated within the participatory documentary mode. Authenticity is shown to be a relational, co-constructed property emerging from the interaction, rather than the static truth. The filmmaker, Nahid Persson Sarvestani, uses her dual positionality as both a political exile and an emphatic interviewer, along with reflexive audiovisual techniques like close-ups and monologes, to mediate critique and ethical responsibility for the audience.
ACADEMIC SKILLS
Recommendation Systems on X
This essay looks at how algorithmic recommendation systems on X (formerly Twitter) generate filter bubbles and echo chambers during complex global crises, using the 2023 Israel-Hamas conflict as a case study. These technological mechanisms reinforce existing biases and accelerate the spread of misinformation, making thoughtful dialogue difficult. The essay concludes that this algorithmic prioritization of engagement over accuracy drives societal polarization and undermines the public's ability to engage in properly informed discourse about fast-moving events.
