<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>This article analyses videos of men talking about and documenting their lack and growth of hair via Finasteride and Minoxidil. We explore these male self-representational videos on YouTube as a specific form of self-tracking enabled by the camera within a specific platformed environment. We argue that the camera is not solely a tool, but rather an aesthetic practice with performative effects. In other words, self-tracking must be understood as always already entangled in and inseparable from mediating and aesthetic processes. The article then outlines the main characteristics of self-tracking videos as a self-representational audio-visual genre, defining them as momental videos and longitudinal videos. It is our claim that these defining characteristics constitute the central aesthetic principles of Finasteride and Minoxidil self-tracking videos, but that they are also applicable to other forms of videos preoccupied with representing and tracking transformation.</p>
</abstract>

This article analyses videos of men talking about and documenting their lack and growth of hair via Finasteride and Minoxidil. We explore these male self-representational videos on YouTube as a specific form of self-tracking enabled by the camera within a specific platformed environment. We argue that the camera is not solely a tool, but rather an aesthetic practice with performative effects. In other words, self-tracking must be understood as always already entangled in and inseparable from mediating and aesthetic processes. The article then outlines the main characteristics of self-tracking videos as a self-representational audio-visual genre, defining them as momental videos and longitudinal videos. It is our claim that these defining characteristics constitute the central aesthetic principles of Finasteride and Minoxidil self-tracking videos, but that they are also applicable to other forms of videos preoccupied with representing and tracking transformation.

Showing progress. Defining self-tracking as an aesthetic audio-visual genre

Center for Gender, Sexuality and Difference, Department for Scandinavian Studies and Linguistics

Conjunctions

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Showing progress. Defining self-tracking as an aesthetic audio-visual genre"}

This article analyses videos of men talking about and documenting their lack and growth of hair via Finasteride and Minoxidil. We explore these male...

Showing progress. Defining self-tracking as an aesthetic audio-visual genre

Published Online: Jul 04, 2022

Page range: 1 - 16

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/tjcp-2022-0004

Keywords
YouTube, self-tracking, biomedicalization, self-representation, audio-visual genre

© 2022 Tobias Raun et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Showing progress. Defining self-tracking as an aesthetic audio-visual genre

Published Online: Jul 04, 2022

Page range: 1 - 16

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/tjcp-2022-0004

KeywordsYouTube, self-tracking, biomedicalization, self-representation, audio-visual genre

© 2022 Tobias Raun et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
YouTube, self-tracking, biomedicalization, self-representation, audio-visual genre