From the Mirror to the Selfie. The Proper Face between Alterity and Alteration

In this article, we offer a cognitive-semiotic account of the concept of the proper face and explore its connections with the mirror and the selfie. We will delve into literature, cognitive sciences, and social media studies, using the concepts of alterity and alteration to clarify the semiotic processes involved in mirror face-recognition and in the practice of selfie. Finally, we will compare these two phenomena, showing that the selfie is a semiotic endeavor to manage, through alterations, the constitutive alterity of the face revealed by the mirror image.