who is miggy torres:
Winners Announced

Prelude—

One-hundred and fifty-nine days ago, a cutting-edge, avant-garde social experiment was launched. It was Millenial High Art: a confluence of technology, popular culture, high fashion, and satire, framed almost Dadaistically by the social media platforms that penetrate our very society.

Indeed, #WhoIsMiggyTorres not only made us ask that very question, but in a world where people define themselves by their Facebook and Instagram pages, it also cast into doubt the very identity of millenial society itself. Through one man’s constant search for his own identity through a kaleidoscopic melange of images, each framed within a medium that is itself built upon veneers and constructed identities, a sharp Sisyphistic irony is intricately laid bare.

Who is Miggy Torres? Yes. But who are we? And why search for these answers by pouring over page after page after page of selfies—

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at the gym

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in the car

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here's a quote I found

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out with bae

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open letter

open letter

open let—

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picture of my latte

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video of something I might be interested in but I’m gonna keep scrolling because I’m too lazy to click it and turn the sound on.

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meme

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out with friends

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19 Ways to know you like this thing you already like

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Broken phone so if you need to contact me—

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…switch to Instagram…

#WhoIsMiggyTorres not only casts into stark relief the absurdity of the perpetual search by Millenials for their own identities upon platforms where identities are artificially manufactured, but it also asks the question: without that search, would these social media even exist? The question then becomes one of Qui abigit auriga: who drives the driver? Do these social media platforms fuel a futile search for selfness or do they emerge as a byproduct of animals scouring in the dark for photographs to call mirrors?

Moreover, through intense interaction with others on social media—i.e. the Snapchat Selfie Competition—the campaign itself acts as a resonator for it’s own futile search for who is miggy torres. And with this extension, blurring the lines between audience and art—between spectator and spectacle—the words of one man shouted from the rooftops are multiplied a thousandfold until a single voice resounds amid the rush of day:

I don’t know who I am.
I don’t know who I am.
I don’t know who I am.

• • •

Winners Announced

The #WhoIsMiggyTorres Social Media Campaign could not have been a success without the intimate participation of the “who is miggy torres” community in the official who is miggy torres Snapchat Selfie Competiton.

I thank every one of you who submitted an entry.

Today, the winners of this competition, handpicked from a total of 134 separate submissions, will be announced.

The criteria were simple:

  1. Take a compelling photo of yourself on Snapchat. Must be a selfie.
  2. Overlay “who is miggy torres” in big letters, lowercase, and centralized.
  3. Send the snap to me @miggtorr!

The judging was based on emotional impact, creativity, photo quality, formatting, and personal beauty.

And now.

The winners.1Surnames have been redacted to protect the privacy of participants.

Joseph ███

Winner: Joseph ███

This intricate piece by Joseph ███ not only scores points for photo quality and formatting, but the intricate emotions at play carried by the creativity of the shot itself exemplify the themes of #WhoIsMiggyTorres. Taking the selfie through the mirror impels the onlooker to ask “What is real? Is identity constructed in the mirror? In the camera? Both? Neither?” Kaz’s subtle interplay between different intellectual ambiguities is outmatched only by his emotional directness. True Millenial High Art.

Allison ███ ███

Winner: Allison ███ ███

This intimate self-portrait by Allison ███ captures the stark realization that #WhoIsMiggyTorres may not even be a question at all. Indeed, her eyes are seen beset deeply with calm yet vulnerable resolve. Perhaps Who is Miggy Torres. Or—reworded—perhaps Miggy Torres is Who. Either way, the lush textures in the work—skin and fabric—mimic a Rembrandtesque interplay between light and dark, objectivity and subjectivity, question and statement, other and self. Millenial High Art at its best.

Justine ███

Winner: Justine ███

Justine ███ captures the essence of #WhoIsMiggyTorres with a simple, yet flawlessly performed technique: the smize. Stephens’s gaze immediately disarms the viewer, transporting them into an almost trance-like state where identity is reconstructed again and again. The organic sensuality of the foreground belies the harsh geometry of the background. Straight lines. Blank walls. And a door, steeped in darkness, yet reflectant like her eyes. Where does it lead? Does one walk through it? Or does one continue in this half-dream, following it through the windows of the subject’s soul? With great emotional impact, subtle creativity, appropriate formatting, and personal beauty off the charts, this selfie can only be described as Millenial High Art.

Honorable Mentions

At the [who is miggy torres project page] you will find a link to an album of submissions that were of incredibly high artistic merit.2In the original publication, the Honorable Mentions subheader linked to an Imgur album containing portraits of these participants. You can now find them in the Audience Submissions section of the who is miggy torres project page. Though they did not receive top spots, they are no less Millenial High Art. Moreover the multivalence of the submissions deepens their value even more: interpret them as you will.

• • •

I’m Miggy Torres.
And this is my story.

Me

Cheers.

Miggy

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Notes

1 Surnames have been redacted to protect the privacy of participants.

2 In the original publication, the Honorable Mentions subheader linked to an Imgur album containing portraits of these participants. You can now find them in the Audience Submissions section of the who is miggy torres project page Originally published Thursday, 18 August 2016.