Notes from the Festival of Pacific Arts La Visualité Digitale Dans La Construction D’Identité Culturelle : Notes Du Festival Des Arts Pacifique

Journal de la Société des Océanistes 142-143 | 2016

Du corps à l’image. La réinvention des performances culturelles en Océanie

Digital Visuality in Cultural Identity Construction: Notes from the Festival of Pacific Arts La visualité digitale dans la construction d’identité culturelle : Notes du Festival des Arts Pacifique

Jari Kupiainen

Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/jso/7605 DOI: 10.4000/jso.7605 ISSN: 1760-7256

Publisher Société des océanistes

Printed version Date of publication: 31 December 2016 Number of pages: 131-142 ISSN: 0300-953x

Electronic reference Jari Kupiainen, « Digital Visuality in Cultural Identity Construction: Notes from the Festival of Paciﬁc Arts », Journal de la Société des Océanistes [Online], 142-143 | 2016, Online since 31 December 2018, connection on 01 May 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/jso/7605 ; DOI : 10.4000/jso.7605

Jari KUPIAINeN*

ABSTRACT RÉSUMÉ In July 2012 in Solomon Islands, 27 diferent Paciic En juillet 2012, aux îles Salomons, 27 nations océa- nations came together for two weeks for the 11th Festival niennes se sont rassemblées durant deux semaines à l’oc- of Paciic Arts to express and articulate their traditions in casion du onzième Festival des Arts du Paciique, pour their present forms for other Paciic Islanders (few non- exprimer et mettre en avant – aux yeux d’autres insulaires Paciic Islanders attended the event). he festival was all du Paciique (peu de non-îliens assistaient à l’événement) – about producing, reproducing and transforming Paciic leurs traditions dans leur forme actuelle. Il s’agissait avant identities, and much of this took an explicitly visual form, tout de (re)produire et transformer les identités du Paci- which the festival context fully supported. Cameras were ique, tout particulièrement à travers des formes visuelles. everywhere and shooting was continuous both in photogra- Les appareils photos étaient omniprésents et la prise phy and video, among the audience, the performers and d’images permanente, par les membres du publique, les the organizers as well. he photos were quickly transfor- performeurs et les organisateurs. Les images étaient rapide- med into YouTube, Facebook and oline video iles, Flickr ment difusées via YouTube, Facebook, des albums photos photo albums and countless other forms and formats shared Flickr ainsi que de très nombreux autres formats, échangés among and between Paciic communities online and oline. à l’intérieur de et entre les diférentes communautés. Cet he paper analyses this visual production in the cultu- article analyse la production visuelle des groupes culturels ral framework of Rennell and Bellona Islanders that the de Rennell et Bellona, avec lesquels l’auteur a travaillé. Les author has been working with. In particular, it highlights questions de la construction des identités culturelles et de issues of cultural identity construction and aspects of cultu- l’agentivité culturelle liée à cette production visuelle seront ral agency related with this visual production in the context particulièrement mises en avant, dans le contexte plus large of the overall modernization of the Solomon Islands society. de la modernisation de la société des îles Salomon. Keywords : Solomon Islands, Festival of Paciic Arts, Mots-clés : îles Salomon, Festival des Arts du Rennell and Bellona, digital visual identity, digital Paciique, Rennell et Bellona, identité visuelle digi- bonding, selie tale, digital bonding, selie

he global reachability of digital communication modernization, traditional societies are forced technologies and the ubiquitous presence of into fundamental changes in all domains of related gadgets and applications even in remote social life, not least in terms of cultural identity places is a widely known fact, yet less is known of and its representation. Digitalisation and digital these processes and outcomes in societies where technologies are presently integral elements in any the shift from technological margins into digital modernization processes, which we may describe environments occurs rapidly and coincides with as digital modernity. the overall modernization of local societies. In According to Miller and Horst (2012: 4),

* Principal Lecturer, Media Studies, Karelia University of Applied Sciences, Joensuu, Finland, [email protected] Journal de la Société des Océanistes, 142-143, année 2016, pp. 131-142 132 JOuRnAL dE LA SOCIÉTÉ dES OCÉAnISTES

“the digital, as all material culture, is more than a intended meanings or purposes of visuals become substrate; it is becoming a constitutive part of what continuously decoded, reconstructed, commented makes us human.” and challenged in the repeated viewing situations, which are open-ended and cannot be controlled. he statement highlights the importance of Yet, the presence of visuals in the digital the digital in contemporary social life including domain localise the persons in them in actual the construction of cultural identities, but it life worlds that expand beyond the digital. also issues the relevance and urgency for studies Digital bonding inlates and strengthens the of digitality in culture and society; or better, existing social networks persons and groups are studies of digitality in a variety of cultures and involved in, often with economic consequences societies, for it is not to be expected that digital such as in business. he increased reachability of processes would follow the same trajectory or persons and information across distances allows produce identical outcomes in diferent cultures for improved agency of persons and groups to and societies. Rather, in order to establish a promote their goals – and to develop their digital better analytical understanding of digitality in bonds with others. For persons, the visuals tend culture and society in the framework of digital to make this digital bonding more involved modernity, we should be especially focusing on and committing, the way bonding should be case studies among diferent cultural groups between people – “like in real life”, except that to examine this diversity of digital strategies the digital domain is already a part of it. and approaches, and also their impact on the Digital bonding transforms and modiies the construction of contemporary cultural identities. existing cultural and social orders through the Digital elements in people’s identities, or digital introduction of new actors, the moderators with identities, become constructed and established in digital skills and new forms of social agency, in the any and all activities producing (numerical) digital social settings people live in. It is evident that such content. hese result from using computers, challenges to any existing orders originate from mobile phones, Internet and social media younger generations that are increasingly urban, services, digital cameras and other digital gadgets educated and skilled in digital technologies. (e.g. game consoles, gps devices). hey all leave hrough digital practices, these younger ones are electronic traces of use that together construct a contesting existing statuses of rank, seniority and person’s digital identity. Such electronic traces gender, when they create alternative spaces for will contain a wide assortment of diferent data, social and cultural action in the digital domain. ranging from the gadget’s technical usage logs to hey also create contemporary visual identities social media content, and more. for the wider group alongside fresh ways and he inlation of social life in the digital domain techniques of their representation. would indicate that fresh forms of social practice A core element in any identity construction is are emerging there. his article addresses the its visual representation (e.g. Gilroy, 1992; Hall issue of digital sociality through an analysis of & du Gay, 1996; Nakamura, 2008). his article digital cultural identities and digital bonding valorises aspects of digital visuality in terms of in an ethnographic case study. Digital bonding related cultural identity processes, which have led is based on traditional values of intra-group to the development of cultural identities in the solidarity and social engagement as practiced in digital domain, or digital cultural identities. My the electronic domain. In digital bonding, the focus will be on digital visual identity construction visual presentation of self appears central (see in a dialogue with existing “pre-digital” cultural also Nakamura, 2008). values and identity representations. he theme Digital bonding is established in the digital will be approached through an ethnographic case domain through activity in digital communications, study from Oceania, which is a study of Bellona such as telephone and video calls, email and and Rennell Islanders from Solomon Islands. social media postings. especially in social media, he basic attempt, here, is to better understand visual representations of oneself are needed. how digitality is shaping and articulating cultural hrough visuals, the communication partners identities among this group and what are the are given faces, gendered bodies, social locations roles of visual representations in this process. and ethnocultural contexts through the semiotic he ethnographic context of this analysis is the codes embedded in these images, which pinpoint eleventh Festival of Paciic Arts (fopa 2012), the persons varyingly into diferent cultural and organized in the Solomon Islands capital Honiara. social orders. Such encoding can be subtle or pronounced, real or ictional, intentional or not, but audiences viewing the photos will interpret and decode any embedded meanings in their own he Ethnographic Setting: FOPA 2012 ways, frequently ignoring any original motivations of these images. hese and any other photographs In July 2012, altogether 27 diferent Paciic will in the net encounter a shared destiny: any nations came together for two weeks in Honiara DIGITAL VISUALITY IN CULTURAL IDeNTITY CONSTRUCTION (fopa 2012) 133

Photo 1. – Traditional welcoming gifts of pigs, betelnuts, and vegetables waiting for distribution at the fopa Cultural Opening at Ranadi Beach (© Jari Kupiainen, 2012) to express and articulate their traditions in their when the troops of the Regional Assistance present forms for other Paciic Islanders, who Mission to Solomon Islands, the ramsi, led constituted most of the audience. he Festival by the Australian and New Zealand military, of Paciic Arts was originally initiated in 1972 by invaded the country and eventually paciied the South Paciic Commission, and it is presently the situation (Allen et al., 2013; Fraenkel, administered by the Paciic Cultural Council. It is 2006; Moore, 2005). he international military a travelling festival and each time held in a diferent presence in Solomon Islands continued until Paciic location. he festival’s idea is to ight 2013, when the last military units left the against the erosion of traditional culture and its country. Solomon Islands is mainly a Melanesian expressive forms across the Paciic, and the festival country with Polynesian (altogether 4 %) and programs are composites of diverse cultural skills other minorities in a total population of roughly and expressions that only occasionally collide with 500 000 inhabitants located in nine provinces. established western art genres and styles (See also During the fopa 2012, the host country Henry & Foana’ota, 2015). In the Honiara fopa Solomon Islands was still under ramsi festival, these articulations of Paciic traditions occupation and only slowly recovering from the eventuated on and of the festival programme and recent upheavals. herefore the organising of the venues, distributed across Honiara and even the fopa 2012 festival as a major inter-provincial diferent provinces. and inter-ethnic operation was in itself a huge A few background notes about Solomon Islands matter in Solomon Islands. It was a pronounced are in order. his former British colony from act of national and local reconciliation and 1897 to Independence in 1978 is a complex inter-group healing, and the fopa 2012 carried mixture of over 80 diferent indigenous groups a symbolic signiicance for the whole nation. In and languages with complex local histories the festival, even traditional reconciliation rituals of traditional warfare and trade alliances that and ceremonies were organised among groups. resonate even in the present. here is also the Although the festival audience witnessed these collective memory of World War II that once acts that took place publicly, at bottom there were devastated the archipelago and continues to spoil real enmities to be settled, which transformed and poison the environment today, followed by these events beyond mere festival entertainment a challenging process of national independence acts. he fact that these ceremonies were in the from 1978 onwards. his period includes an open and free for photographic documentation armed ethnic conlict and civil war over Honiara tangibly epitomised this collective national and and much of the country from 1999 until 2003, even regional healing process. Such imagery also 134 JOuRnAL dE LA SOCIÉTÉ dES OCÉAnISTES

photo 2.– festival audience following a performance on the pasiika Stage(© Jari Kupiainen, 2012) appeared in local news media with the spotlight on a beach venue in Ranadi, and the ceremonial ceremonies, gift presentations and the dignitaries opening and closing events took place at the of delegations – thus giving the national political Lawson Tama rugby stadium. However, the interests and views much visual foreground under main festival location was the festival Village. the guise of culture festival reporting. he festival Village was a large fenced area he fopa 2012 brought to the capital city in eastern Honiara divided into two sides, the Honiara and to satellite venues across the paciic and the Solomon Islands side. Both had provinces some 3 000 international visitors from main stages, the pasiika Stage and the Lakeside the 27 participating paciic countries, yet the vast Stage, respectively, the latter named after a majority of people in the festival were Solomon large artiicial lake built in the area facing the Islanders. he main venue, festival Village in houses of the nine provinces, where cultural Honiara, saw up to 17 000 daily visitors in the free performances and other activities of local groups events running from 9 am to 9 pm. he average went on throughout each day. In the paciic daily number of visitors in all venues put together side, each representing paciic country had their was 20 000. for Solomon Islands, the festival was own house to demonstrate their cultures and the largest event and saw the greatest inlux of traditions, and the pasiika Stage hosted mostly people since World War II. international performances, especially dance all available locations and resources across and music acts, whereas Solomon Islands groups Honiara and beyond were mobilized for the mainly performed at the Lakeside Stage. festival. a large auditorium was built for the National Museum to act as a main side venue for the fopa, accommodating a ilm festival, discussions, theatre and dance performances, Photography and video at the FOPA 2012 literature readings and exhibitions. photography exhibitions were displayed at the University of he Honiara festival was all about producing, South paciic Honiara Building. he National reproducing and transforming paciic identities art Gallery hosted painting and sculpture (see also Henry & foana’ota 2015). Much of this exhibitions and a cultural village, where Solomon identity work took an explicitly visual form, which Islands craftspeople displayed and sold their the festival context fully supported. Cameras were works. also, provincial side venues had some ubiquitous and shooting was continuous both in international paciic performance groups touring photography and video, yet most of this was done them, the festival’s cultural opening was held on with cheap mobile phone cameras and digital dIGITaL VISUaLITy IN CULTURaL IdeNTITy CoNSTRUCTIoN (fopa 2012) 135

photo 3. – Rapa Nui dancers performing at the Solomon Islands National Museum yard during the fopa (© Jari Kupiainen, 2012 compact cameras handled by almost everyone of my anthropological research project, which was among the audience – and among the performers a non-commercial production. his granted us an and the organizers as well. Some registered ilm open access everywhere in the festival including crews, mine included, were documenting festival on and of-stage, dressing and accommodation events for various professional purposes, but the areas, and even the festival oices. although we main visual body of documentation of the festival did not push this accreditation to its limits, access resulted from these non-professional private visual everywhere made our work more luent. his documentation activities among the audience. “backstage” focus also allowed me opportunities hey were quickly transformed into youTube, to observe festival photography methodically, and facebook and oline video iles, flickr photo some of this material has since been included in my albums and countless other forms and formats research ilms (Kupiainen 2013a; 2013b; 2014a). shared among and between paciic communities In terms of my original documentation plans, online and oline. hese visuals relate directly to the “festival backstage” theme immediately visual representation of cultural identity, and the appeared too broad because there were numerous festival provided a rich ield for observing how “backstages” happening in diferent places the diferent digital gadgets suitable for visual simultaneously. herefore I speedily narrowed documentation have become contemporary tools down my focus only on the artists of Bellona for cultural self-deinition, agency, empowerment and Rennell Islanders in the festival. even that and social bonding. was a challenging topic to cover, because there he festival organization required the were a number of Rennell and Bellona artists accreditation of all professional media and audio- and performing groups attending the event. yet, visual documentation crews including researchers. it was more manageable for our small crew, and here were two categories with corresponding it also corresponded with my long-term research accreditation fees, for commercial and non- interest on Bellona and Rennell arts (e.g. commercial productions. My crew of three with Kupiainen 2000; 2014b). I was also staying with Barry pugeva and david Makaua from Bellona my Bellonese friends in a Rile Range household belonged to the latter category, and I also had the in western Honiara, spending my time in research permit from the Ministry of education Honiara mainly among those involved with and Human Resources development, which the festival as artists or organizers. Rile Range explicitly stated that we were shooting a research and the adjacent White River areas are largely documentary about the festival’s backstage as part occupied by polynesian groups, especially those 136 JOuRnAL dE LA SOCIÉTÉ dES OCÉAnISTES from Bellona and Rennell. My accommodation the lux of digital communication technology arrangement provided me opportunities to has covered even the most remote islands in the observe the various social uses of photos and paciic and digital gadgets such as camera phones videos taken in and out of the festival that the and digital compact cameras have become Rennell and Bellona Islanders were sharing ubiquitous. By now, almost everyone has a among themselves and with other paciic camera of sorts especially in urban and semi- Islanders attending the event. he visuals were urban paciic contexts. he presence of cameras also posted in various social media platforms, and shooting for diverse purposes and ends was especially the facebook. In this text, these social thus ever-present also in and out of the fopa uses are analysed in terms of digital bonding. 2012. In the festival Village, there were only In comparison with the irst Melanesian arts few strictly controlled photography spots. hese and Cultural festival held in Honiara in 1998, spots were on top of the pasiika Stage, where which is the second largest cultural event in the mostly international artists performed, and also Solomon Islands national history and which I the huge photography tower built opposite the have analysed previously (e.g. Kupiainen 2007; pasiika Stage but about 200 meters away. he 2011), the fopa 2012 was not only strikingly tower was located quite far for documentation of similar in many ways, but also diferent. he fopa stage events, so only few accredited media people was much grander in scale than the Melanesian used it. Instead, the tower served as a vip resting festival and it brought a paciic-wide audience spot. Most events, performances, stage-sides, and representation, whereas the 1998 festival had backstage areas and such were within everyone’s only papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, fiji and New camera reach. Caledonia (Kanaky) represented in addition he earlier fopa 1992 and Melanesian festival in to the hosting Solomon Islands audiences. yet, 1998 had a media accreditation, and practically the fopa festival logistics, timetables, provincial all professional photography and ilming was group accommodation, ethnic biasing in conined to a small group of various international organization, inancial management and other professionals (e.g. journalists, documentary such issues frequently seemed to replicate events ilmmakers, anthropologists). apart from during the Melanesian festival in 1998. these professionals, hardly any locals held any only particular Solomon Islands ethnocultural photographic equipment in either festival, and only groups were represented in the fopa organizing a few snapshots were taken among the audience. It committee, and some of this biasing was relected was still the pre-digital era of emulsion ilm, which even in the fopa program. Rennell and Bellona was expensive to process and print especially in compose roughly one per cent of the Solomon the paciic Islands context, and therefore shots Islands population, but they had an important were only sparsely taken, if at all. To exemplify role in the diferent organizing and planning this, the about 40 persons representing Bellona activities, and in terms of their population size, and Rennell at the fopa 1992 in Rarotonga did their artists were “over represented” in the event. end up with some snapshots from the event, However, a few Rennell and Bellona individuals but not many: they took altogether maybe some had long-term experience of the diferent fopa 60 photos. By now, over 20 years later, most of events and cultural festival organization, so those 60 prints and negatives have decomposed their expertise was employed in the fopa 2012. in the tropical conditions of Solomon Islands and Groups excluded from the festival organization disappeared (see also Wright, 2013). However, tended to participate less in the festival: they had the deteriorated photographs have been gradually fewer artists and activities in the fopa and less transformed and incorporated into local stories motivation to attend the festival as audience. and narrated memoirs, and the visual mementos he Solomon Islands Western province of Rarotonga events are becoming remembered representation in the festival was dominated by and imagined as oral history narratives – with the groups from the Roviana Lagoon with the result deteriorated photos as memory aids. that only a few of their neighbours from the In comparison with the 1998 Melanesian Marovo Lagoon appeared in the festival Village festival, the fopa 2012 framework for either as artists or audience. Instead, many of photography and video was altogether diferent. them spent their festival fortnight away from In addition to accredited professionals, next to the Village selling their crafts and artworks in everyone in the audience and among organizers downtown Honiara at the art Gallery yard. was busily documenting the festival events and In the context of other paciic cultural festivals people with whatever devices they had: phone I have attended and studied, speciically the cameras, digi-compacts, handicams, tablet fopa 1992 in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, and the cameras, dslr and professional video cameras. Melanesian arts and Cultural festival of 1998 although media accreditation secured access to in Honiara, deinitely diferent in the fopa 2012 all assigned shooting locations such as stages, was the fact that video and photography had one would ind there not only professional crews become everyone’s activity. In the last few years, but also anyone from the festival organization dIGITaL VISUaLITy IN CULTURaL IdeNTITy CoNSTRUCTIoN (fopa 2012) 137

photo 4. – festival audience partying in the festival Closing (©hoto Barry pugeva,2012) including their relatives – each holding cameras. were done privately and semi-privately as well. In other words, in most shooting occasions the In my Rile Range household I was able to media accreditation brought us little advantage observe a particular usage of these visuals in a because we would have been able to access these format that seemed popular in wider Honiara as locations even without any accreditation, just like well, and some examples have since appeared in most other people did. In fact, the camera gear (and disappeared from) youTube. Namely, the was the access card itself: when people including young men in the household were interested in security saw you taking photos or shooting video, photography and they had a couple of digital they would make way (or start posing) as opposed compact cameras, about 5 Mpix size. hey kept to stopping or restricting your shooting. on shooting topics of their interests throughout he accredited media had to comply with the festival, and at the house they used freeware either non-commercial or commercial category slideshow software to compose “ilms” or “music restrictions. Both accreditations had to follow videos” out of the slideshows of photos. To these explicit restrictions in terms of copyrights and photo slideshows were then added texts and the publication of materials in diferent media graphics of their choice, with a hot pop track channels and formats. We can expect that the of paciic music to turn the slideshows into accredited media has been complying with and “music videos”. although crudely made and following these accreditation terms during and inished, and lacking any narrative plots, these after the event. However, none of this applied to videos were watched over and over again with the general public attending the festival events varying audiences in Rile Range and elsewhere. and performances. hey did what they wanted for an anthropologist, these videos opened for with the images they took and paid no attention analysis some culturally speciic ways of seeing to issues such as shooting rights, copyrights, and visuality in rough everyday-like formats, intellectual and cultural property rights. he which were essentially peer-to-peer intragroup irst facebook and youTube postings took place communication rather than targeted for any as soon as the festival started, and people kept on cultural outsiders. posting on the Internet throughout the festival he themes and titles of the slideshow videos and afterwards, when edited videos from the were mundane and often bordered on the banal. festival started to pop up in the net. for example, during the irst festival days, one photos and videos were not only posted in the of my friends made a hugely popular video in net, but many creatively crafted local applications the neighbourhood titled “he polynesian Girl”. 138 JOuRnAL dE LA SOCIÉTÉ dES OCÉAnISTES

It consisted of a photo slideshow of attractive Underneath the casual commentaries there looking young women of various polynesian happened diferent mating plays among the origins posing for the camera during the fopa attending men and women, and the video festival. he soundtrack was a current pop title provided a useful framework to spy on potential by the Bellonese singer Jah Boy: “polynesian partner responses at speciic moments in the Girl”, and text add-ons included expressions slideshow video. of love and admiration of beauty towards My friend accomplished the “polynesian polynesian girls from the diferent paciic Islands. Girl” video with a clear idea of showing it not Supericially observed, the piece appeared as a only to other (young) men of his own cultural male sexual fantasy video only. yet, during the group but also to women as well. He had tens of times I participated in the viewings that a deinite personal strategy and motivation frequently took place outside my room in the here, which involved digital visual tools and household, and thus not to be avoided, I was able means that were purposefully activated for his to observe more. Indeed, there was the sexual objectives. he video demonstrated to others his gaze involved, but it gradually transformed into visual skills and ideas concerning the gendered more complex issues of Bellona–Rennell cultural representation of “culturally approved” others, ideals in coupling underneath the seemingly which here translated as young women from straightforward sexual innuendo. other polynesian groups and relected my friend’s among Bellona and Rennell Islanders, like personal but culturally motivated beauty ideals. among other Solomon Islanders, modernity and he audience approval of my friend’s visual especially urbanization in Honiara have brought strategy was evident during the viewings and about fundamental changes in the group’s social subtly enforced the ideal of endogamy among structure and situation. one such aspect is the them. he audience responses also prescribed issue of endogamy versus exogamy; should one’s a speciic polynesian identity articulated and spouse originate from own or other cultural deined in contrast to, e.g., Melanesian and group. Bellona and Rennell Islanders were other non-polynesian identities. It will be mainly endogamous until World War II and worth pointing out that the “polynesian Girl” the advent of Christianity on their islands. after was completed already during the irst festival war, wage-labour and migration to plantations week, and my friend and his mates spent the and Honiara (in a Christianity framework) have latter festival week – with obvious motivations transformed them increasingly exogamous, – scouting for those polynesian girls who and inter-group marriages have emerged ever appeared in the video. he “polynesian Girl” since the war. (Monberg 1966; 1991.) By video demonstrated a particular digital visual now, exogamy is common, yet at the bottom technology enabled strategy. It was culturally underlies the ideal of endogamy, the notion to motivated, organized and employed for intra- look for a spouse within one’s own group – if group bonding, a particular oline technique of not from Bellona and Rennell, then at least from digital bonding, that is. other polynesian groups. It is culturally more for a visual anthropologist, the “polynesian acceptable to look for a polynesian spouse than Girl” watching settings provided much a Melanesian one, although Bellona and Rennell information of the gendered approaches of Islanders generally approve of any inter-group particular persons in actual situations, where marriages today. visual representations of cultural identity were in from the perspective of endogamy, the question. he local and Western beauty norms, “polynesian Girl” video resonated between the sexual preferences, the various impediments the traditional cultural values and the present for a successful pairing and also the potential sociocultural situation this youth is facing, and opportunities for success, were all outlined, the video articulated one culturally approved laughed at, relected upon, explicitly analysed point of view for other Bellona-Rennell, both and also criticized in these numerous relections men and women, to consider. also women during the diferent viewings of the “polynesian watching the “polynesian Girl” seemed to enjoy Girl”. It was evident that these Bellona-Rennell it, as evidenced in their repeated viewings. he youth were representing and expressing value women’s comments while watching responded systems that contained elements from cultural mostly – and frequently with sarcasm – to traditions and Christianity, as well as elements the male biased beauty ideals that the video of wider popular and media culture. Here, they relected, and also on the attending young men’s were applying digital technology to express attitudes and responses to the images in the their current values, identities and mating video. Women were indeed sharp in observing strategies, and the visuals were employed in these responses, which provided much discursive providing currently applicable interpretations and emancipatory ground for teasing the men of the traditional cultural ideal of endogamy. for their attitudes. hese viewings were also In this, they were using narrative and expressive testing grounds for potential future partnerships. content motivated by their own cultural values, dIGITaL VISUaLITy IN CULTURaL IdeNTITy CoNSTRUCTIoN (fopa 2012) 139 which were both traditional and contemporary – “jiving to the world beat while making their own music,” as Marshall Sahlins (1993: 19) would say.

Selies and Digital Bonding

Basically, camera consciousness can or cannot be seen from the images. In practical photography and video, this translates into the question of posing or acting for the camera. apart from studio photography, a predominant convention is that professionally oriented visual documentarists try to avoid posing (observational mode), whereas people shooting for their private albums and memory collections speciically want to pose for their own cameras, to have their portraits taken at a speciic spot, scenery, or company (also, e.g., Chalfen 1987; Sarvas & frohlich 2011). he primary purpose of the portrait shot is to serve as evidence for the person’s later narrative relating to the event of photography (spot, scenery, company), and the photo is also a memory aid. presently, this posing motivation has reached gigantic proportions in the worldwide phenomenon of selie photography, boosted by the global photo 5. – puia Tapuika from Bellona photographed distribution of mobile phone and other digital during the fopa. He is wearing the traditional tat- cameras in parallel with social media services toos and dress together with the ceremonial tao ha- as digital publication platforms. In the fopa kasanisani spear used in traditional rituals (© Barry 2012, selies and other posed photography and pugeva, 2012) video shots were thus happening all around the place. he festival Village held even an oicial photography spot with festival logos and a erving Gofman’s he Presentation of Self in graphic background, which was a popular posing Everyday Life (1956) added with Judith Butler’s site for festival visitors. (1990) ideas of the performativity of gender: posing and selies were explicitly social In posing, there are roles, there is performance, activities that during the festival were mobilised there are ideas of inluencing others through in building connections and networks with one’s presence and one’s visual appearance, others, and in solidifying existing relationships. there are context-bound interpretative rules Solomon Islanders generally thought of the fopa actively at play, and there is drama. all of this 2012 as a once in a lifetime event, so locals tried is gendered. for example, when young Bellona- to make their most of it by bonding actively Rennell women pose backstage together with sweaty traditional Maori male dancers from with other paciic Islanders. Cultural exchanges New Zealand who had just inished their stage in these encounters typically included also the performance, the young women demonstrate sharing of visuals between parties. hese photos not only their cultural ideals in performance and video clips were usually taken with all and play. he women also expose their bodies, the diferent cameras present and later shared personalities and background cultures to an in social media and emails, and as ile copies external gaze, which is ixed and made permanent on USB memory sticks. he photos usually in the act of photography. hese expositions can depicted not only faces of persons but especially be utilised for diferent purposes. for example, their cultural particularities, such as tattoos, these women can later show their Maori poses jewellery, traditional garments and other objects and selies to their friends and enforce ideal that revealed the cultural associations and identities of themselves through these photos backgrounds of the people represented in them. not only at home through camera and laptop posing for a photo reveals something of the screens, but especially on facebook, where such person’s values and ways of thinking, especially photos are frequently posted – as presentations in terms of her external and visual appearance. of digital self in everyday life, so to speak. posing It is probably worth thinking for a while with 140 JOuRnAL dE LA SOCIÉTÉ dES OCÉAnISTES

photo 6. – young women from ontong Java (Solomon Islands) dressed in traditional costumes and posing for the camera during the fopa Closing (© Barry pugeva, 2012) is empowering. introduce more international values, practices yet, posing is also hazardous in the digital and technologies to the wider group (Kupiainen environment of the net, because the resulting 2004). although someone might interpret such photos and videos will endure in the digital developments as cultural and social erosion domain, reaching viewers, audiences, uses and caused by advancing global technologies, I meanings that cannot be truly anticipated at the would rather emphasize the local motivations moment of their original release. Visuals in the involved in the activities. at the centre, here, is digital domain are also prone to exploitation by the motivation of digital bonding. commercial and other actors, who may at any he fopa 2012 festival demonstrated the later point of time gain access to the materials. practically universal presence of digital personal visuals in the net seem to resemble photographic technology and how individual tattooing designs in skins in the sense that any and cultural uses of images have not only meanings their owners assign them may change entered into but also diversiied the pragmatic over time, yet they cannot be conveniently and semiotic domains of image production removed from sight afterwards. Whatever and consumption in Solomon Islands and the appears in the net tends to remain there. wider paciic. If this translates in the global digital industry as fresh customer groups bring in fresh ideas for using products, which can Discussion be turned into revenue, then be it. yet, for Rennell-Bellona and other Solomon Islanders, at least, the photo gadgets open genuinely new he digital visual presentation of self in the ways and modes of self-expression, cultural net provides Bellona and Rennell Islanders with empowerment and agency. digital images are opportunities to introduce fresh social dynamics suited for and compatible with existing online in the relevant community, which is becoming communication technologies, which allow for increasingly mobile and distributed in diferent an instant global distribution of these images. geographic locations not only in Solomon paciic communities use these images primarily Islands but internationally. hose active in the for viewing and distributing them within their digital domain will soon assume communal roles own diaspora groups and only secondarily to as cultural and social mediators, who in their represent themselves as a group to the wider everyday communication activities gradually world. herefore these images function primarily dIGITaL VISUaLITy IN CULTURaL IdeNTITy CoNSTRUCTIoN (fopa 2012) 141 to maintain one’s family and group relations Henry Rosita & Lawrence Foana’ota, 2015. through digital bonding. 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As Miller & Horst (2012: 4) point Höjbjerg, he Finnish Anthropological Soci- out, digitality “is becoming a constitutive part of ety & Intervention Press. what makes us human.” his would also indicate —, 2004. Internet, Translocalisation and Cul- that the digital identity of a person, including tural Brokerage in the Paciic, in J. Kupiain- the visual representations, is constitutive to en, e. Sevänen & J. A. Stotesbury (eds), contemporary humans. However, in this process, Cul- a person’s individuality as a social agent and tural Identities in Transition. Manifestations being becomes emphasised and foregrounded of Change in Local and Global Culture, New over the traditional cultural setting, where Delhi, Atlantic Publishers, pp. 344-362. identities are socially shared and represented as —, 2007. Kastom sur scène n’est pas coutume group rather than as individual identities. he mise en scène. 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