DISSERTATION PROPOSAL DEFENSE ANNOUNCEMENT

FOR THE DEGREE OF PHD IN BUSINESS

PhD Student: Yulu Du

Title: Mirrors of Meaning: Reclaiming Our Image in the Age of AI

Remote Connection: https://bentley.zoom.us/j/96465389915

Dissertation Committee Chair: Pierre Berthon, Professor of Information Design and Corporate Communication, Clifford F. Youse Chair of Marketing & Strategy, Bentley University,

Committee Members: Ronika Chakrabarti, Associate Professor of Marketing, Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin; Ian Walsh, Associate Professor of Management, Bentley University.

ABSTRACT

This dissertation investigates how AI-generated imagery is transforming cultural and personal understandings of beauty. With synthetic visuals increasingly shaping online aesthetics, traditional ideals of embodiment and authenticity are destabilized. Through the concept of aesthetic rebellion, the study explores how users resist or negotiate algorithmic perfection through fragmented practices of imperfection, sincerity, and irony.

The study draws theoretical inspiration from Baudrillard's theory of simulacra, which describes how images evolve from reflecting reality to replacing it. While Baudrillard theorized the collapse of meaning in a world of hyperreal images, he did not explore whether or how people might respond to that breakdown by seeking to reclaim meaning or presence. This study enters that unexplored space, asking how individuals actually experience and navigate AI-generated beauty, and whether forms of meaning-making or resistance are emerging that theory has not yet captured.

Methodologically, the research adopts a phenomenological approach, conducting approximately 30 to 50 in-depth interviews in the United States and China with users of visual-first platforms. The cross-cultural design highlights how aesthetic responses differ across cultural contexts, revealing that resistance may be locally coded rather than universal. In Western digital cultures, irony and playful imperfection often signal authenticity, while in East Asian contexts, sincerity, subtle naturalism, and emotional restraint may play similar roles.

The anticipated contribution is threefold: extending theories of simulacra by exploring the possibility of meaning recovery, providing one of the first phenomenological accounts of how users experience AI-generated beauty, and offering comparative insights into cultural strategies of aesthetic response. Ultimately, the study asks how people stay emotionally grounded when beauty no longer reflects human bodies but machine logic, and whether digital culture can sustain more authentic, inclusive, and resonant forms of self-expression.