WeWantMore
WeWantMore

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ACCEPT
WeWantMore creates mind-bending work in
brand, spatial and experiential design.
An (un)filtered view on Instagram

Anonymous Six

  • Client
    Smile Safari
  • Sector
    Arts & Culture
  • Disciplines
    Exhibition design
    Graphic design
    Identity design
    Motion design
    Project management
  • Year
    2019

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Brand Spatial Experiential

Smile Safari was Belgium’s very first pop-up Instagram museum. We were asked to be a part of it and come up with an interactive installation. The only demand? Make it instagrammable!

We were skeptical about the concept and the narcissistic Instagram culture associated with it. The majority of the posts on the app look alike and the dominant design language is limited and monotone, one copying the other. The exposition would only add to this blending in effect.

But as a design studio, we also felt it was our responsibility to raise awareness about this issue. We saw an opportunity to address it in a context that was part of the issue to begin with. And so, Anonymous Six was created as a creative criticism on the very exhibition it was part of.

 

We wanted to defy Instagram’s dominant design language and encourage people to reflect on their own narcissistic behaviour. Duck faces, filters, photoshop… All seems fair in the pursuit of likes and followers these days. And so, Anonymous Six enhances the effects of filters to the point of anonymity and focusses purely on the aesthetic of an image.
The installation consists of six different glass lenses creating different distortions. Fading, blurring, warping or multiplying anyone standing behind the rounded filters. People in the picture are completely anonymous, and yet the photo is still worthy of “the gram”. Making it about the beauty of the image for once, rather than the person in it.
What used to make an image stand out and appreciated was the mastery of the creator, not the facial expression or hairdo of the person in front of the canvas. We wanted to emphasise that aspect to counterbalance the subject focussed culture of Instagram.
The background visuals are a generative design based on the 6 most liked posts on Instagram. World Record Egg being one of them.