An (un)filtered view on Instagram
Anonymous Six
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Client
Smile Safari -
Sector
Arts & Culture
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Disciplines
Exhibition design
Graphic design
Identity design
Motion design
Project management
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Year
2019
Brand Spatial Experiential
If you’re not a full time Instagram husband, anonymity on Instagram is a rare thing. Better yet, it’s the complete opposite of what the app is all about these days. Duck faces. Filters. Plain old photoshop… All is fair in the pursuit of likes and followers. And yet, anonymity is what Anonymous Six is all about. Slightly unusual, since it’s part of the Smile Safari exhibition, Belgium’s first pop-up Instagram museum. Meaning: it’s not pink, sparkly or in any way related to a rainbow, unicorn or pizza.
The Anonymous Six installation focusses purely on the aesthetic of an image, rather than the subject in it. It balances out the subject focussed culture of Instagram, but it also reflects on how Instagrammers are going to extremes to get that perfect, up to standard picture using filters, stickers and beautifying apps.
Visit Anonymous Six at Smile Safari from 02/10/2019 until 30/11/2019 or view an impression of the installation on www.anonymoussix.com
Anonymous Six consists of six different glass lenses each them creating a different distortion. Fading, blurring, warping or multiplying anyone standing behind the rounded filters. So, lose the duck face. No need for makeup. The installation enhances the effects of filters to the point of anonymity, but highlights the aesthetic of the image by being visually attractive. Anything ‘for the gram’, right?
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.
