Project Description

Inner-Selfies@AGO emerged as a participatory evolution of Brain Terrains, developed during the COVID-19 pandemic with support from the Canada Council’s Digital Strategy Fund.

Originally conceived as large-format data portraits, the project pivoted when physical galleries closed. It became an online creation tool, inviting participants to create “inner selfies”—self-portraits without external markers of identity. Using the visual metaphor of a brain scan, participants became co-authors, contributing poetic, human-made representations of selfhood to a shared digital gallery.

As restrictions lifted, the project expanded into a physical Maker Space and onsite gallery at the AGO, engaging visitors for over 14 months.

The work was also included in a curatorial workshop at Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, exploring online public engagement as a future direction for museums—positioning Inner-Selfies as both an artwork and a research prototype for institutional participation.

The Conceptual Shift

Inner-Selfies marked a shift within Brain Terrains from authored imagery toward participatory meaning-making. Rather than presenting portraits of identity, the project asked what happens when identity is constructed without external markers—when representation gives way to introspection.

Using the visual metaphor of a brain scan, the work reframed the selfie as an inward gesture. Participants were invited to consider selfhood not as an image to be performed, but as a field of sensations, memories, and perceptions. This conceptual move transformed the audience from viewers into co-authors, allowing meaning to emerge through collective contribution rather than fixed authorship.

Why It Mattered

Developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, Inner-Selfies demonstrated how museums could move from passive digital engagement to co-creative participation, even during physical closure. The project sustained public connection over time and adapted seamlessly from an online environment into a physical Maker Space as restrictions lifted.

Its inclusion in a curatorial workshop at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum positioned Inner-Selfies not only as an artwork, but as a research prototype for future museum engagement. More broadly, the work tested how institutions might host reflective, human-scaled interactions with technology—an inquiry that continues to inform Brain Terrains across cultural and institutional contexts.

Project Archives:

The Inner-Selfie Project at the Art Gallery of Ontario ran for 14 months and attracted over 10,000 unique visitors online and many engaged participants to the Makerspace once the gallery re-opened its doors.

View the Inner-Selfie@AGO project archives for additional background and information