My Name Is Robert: How to Become an Instagram Celebrity If You Are an Extraterrestrial
To combat the detrimental influence of social networks, French photographer Brice Krummenacker created Robert the Alien, who posts selfies and shots of galactic meals on his Instagram.
Brice Krummenacker is a self-taught photographer from France. Began as an assistant photographer 10 years ago. Published his works in Kaltblut Magazine, Neon, Yet Magazine, and other outlets.
— Robert Maurice Debois is from far, far away, the planet Gaia, in globular cluster M13. He loves to strike a pose for a selfie, scroll his Facebook feed, or even look for partners on Tinder. After intercepting the Arecibo message about humanity, he decided to go to planet Earth to study it.
I am trying to show the life on Earth through Robert’s eyes, who analyzes an unfamiliar culture and tries to become a part of it.
Robert is my way to study and criticize social media. I was disappointed in the whole selfie, duck face phenomenon, I couldn’t understand why a girl who posts a shitty photo with her Starbucks cup would have thousands of followers and likes. I had the idea of creating a fictional persona who represents the opposite of the current beauty standards on social media. However, my atypical character is playing by the rules that social media requires by posting selfies, postcards or food.
This way, a fictional character becomes rather real. In the modern world, Descartes’ philosophical proposition ‘I think, therefore I am’ is transformed into ‘I post, therefore I am’. I want to understand the way social media work, how people become celebrities just like that. The goal of this project is to discover if a fictitious character can become reality, if he can be loved.
