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Every day, we leave behind a digital trace — on social media, in online communication, and in the images we create of ourselves. How much do these traces shape our identity? And what do they say about a generation that has never known a world without the internet? These are the questions Nicole Langrová explores. She's a PhD student at the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art at the University of West Bohemia. In her doctoral project, she examines how artists from the so-called "digital native" generation create and reflect on their identities across different media.

Nicole, could you briefly introduce your PhD project? What are you working on?
In my PhD project, I look at the generation I belong to. We grew up — and still live — in a world shaped by information and communication technologies. The internet and social media were part of our teenage years, and they've shaped so many parts of our lives — how we socialize, how we think about visibility, how we deal with information and its uncertain truthfulness. And also how we understand ourselves and our own identity. Identity, and how we communicate it, is really at the core of my research. I'm interested in questions of authenticity — how do we relate to the dozens, even hundreds, of versions of ourselves we've built on different platforms since we were young? I think it's important to look at selfhood in a generation living in what's often called a "post-truth" era, and to see how the breakdown, fragmentation, and uncertainty of information show up in how we see ourselves. Through artistic research — mostly from the perspective of a curator — I examine how artists from the digital-native generation present themselves and the strategies they use. Alongside these artists, we're developing an exhibition in parallel across both digital and physical spaces. It's a very specific relationship — it's not just about technological skill or experience, but about thinking within a given medium and platform.

You work with the term "intermedial self-portrait." What does that mean?
In my research, I understand the self-portrait very broadly — as any form of visual self-expression. So for me, it's not tied to one specific medium. This feels especially true today, when the digital world is so closely connected to the physical one. What matters more to me is looking at how the self-portrait moves and changes across different media.

So what factors, in your view, shape how we present ourselves online?
There are many studies on this question, and the list of factors continues to grow as technology advances and platforms evolve. But in my research, a few things are especially important: visibility, the fact that our digital traces can't really be undone, and the partial anonymity of an audience we can't control.

What strategies do we use to build our self-portrait in the digital space?
That's one of the central questions of my research, so I'll be able to answer it more precisely over time. Right now, I'm focusing on the idea of masking – and on the mask itself.

How is the approach of digital natives to identity and self-presentation different from generations that didn't grow up with digital technology?
Mainly in how we understand identity as something fluid, unclear, and always changing. That can be freeing, because it opens up space for play, performance, and trying out different versions of yourself. It also lets you step outside of fixed categories and labels. But this approach comes with real uncertainty too. Our self-image becomes layered and fragmented, making it harder to know who we really are. Accepting that we don't need to name ourselves clearly, or fit into one category — that we can exist in several versions of ourselves at once, and that authenticity can also live in performance or fiction — isn't easy. Especially since this is the first time in history that we're facing conditions like this on such a large scale.

This interview is part of a series introducing PhD students at the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art, University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, and their research topics. The faculty offers a three-year full-time PhD program called Interdisciplinary Research through Visual Artistic Creation, which connects artistic practice with research. It's designed for those who want to explore questions about today's world through their own creative work, and to look for new ways of understanding it.