This paper takes Taiwanese artist Li Yi-fan’s work What is Your Favorite Primitive? as a case study to examine how the digital self is shaped through layers of performance, code, and visual mediation. Li’s practice draws on internet and gaming cultures, especially machinima, employing real-time animation and customised tools to work around the constraints of commercial software. Through the avatar’s fragmented monologue, which touches on topics including perspective in 3D modelling and the ecology of digital production environments, this paper argues that the digital self can be understood as a constructed surface shaped by cultural imaginaries and technological infrastructures. Rather than capturing a single moment, Li’s ‘selfie’ unfolds across rehearsed gestures, real-time animation, and post-production processes. The term ‘primitive’ in the title is read as a conceptual link between contemporary 3D modelling conventions and earlier aesthetic traditions, framing digital identity as both technically generated and culturally situated. This paper focuses on Li’s working process and selected narrative scenes as a way to reconsider the selfie in relation to the tensions introduced by photographic technologies in the digital age.

​

​​

​

To link to this article

This work was supported by the National Science and Technology Council [NSTC114-2410-H-152-016]