Brief The brief was to create an experiential installation as part of Smile Safari, Belgium’s first pop-up Instagram expo. A social media exhibition aimed at a younger, social media savvy crowd as well as young families. The interactive space or décor had to encourage visitors to engage in it and take shareable photos. Context We were skeptical about the museum concept and the narcissistic Instagram culture associated with it. The majority of the posts on the platform look alike and the dominant design language is limited and monotone, one copying the other. Globalisation and the rise of social media platforms like Pinterest and Instagram might have made people more visually literate, but at the same time it has also caused everything to blend in. Restaurant interiors, fast fashion designs, coffee brands, Instagram feeds ... a lot of them look alike. Smile Safari was a social media exposition that would only add to this blending in effect, hence our skeptical attitude towards it. 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. Creative idea & design Rather than going for the obvious choice - something pink or pizza related - 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, we created Anonymous Six, an installation that enhances the effects of filters to the point of anonymity and focusses purely on the aesthetic of an image. Anonymous Six consists of six different glass lenses each of them creating a different distortion. Subjects in an image created with these filters are anonymous, but the image itself is still visually attractive and Instagram worthy. Making it about the beauty of the image for once, rather than the person in it. No need for duck faces, beautifying apps or photoshop. This way, the experience reflects on how Instagrammers are going to extremes to get that up to standard picture, but it also references to a time prior to the origin of photography when people were captured by the hand of a skilled painter or sculptor. An image stood out because of the mastery of the creator, not the facial expression or hairdo of the person in front of the canvas. We consciously emphasised that aspect to counterbalance the subject focused culture of Instagram. If there’s one thing keeping current Instagram culture alive, it’s the algorithm behind it. For the artwork on the walls, we created two algorithm generated visuals. The six most liked posts on Instagram were reduced to their four most dominating colours and served as input for the generative designs. Among them: posts of World Record Egg, Kylie Jenner’s first daughter and Dwayne Johnson’s wedding. The generative designs look nothing like the original posts, but maintain their visual attraction. Result Anonymous Six was part of Smile Safari, Belgium’s first pop-up Instagram museum in Brussels. The exposition opened its door on 02/10/2019 and closed on 05/01/2020. Anonymous Six offered a savvier, thought provoking alternative for the remaining 24 set-ups in the social media expo. By redirecting the attention to the image as such and not the person it, it encouraged 25 000 visitors to reflect on their own self-obsessed social media behaviour and raised questions about the nature and relevance of it. It’s in this way, this project contributes to the conversation about the overall impact and role of social media in people’s lives. After 2,5 months, it generated numerous of beautiful, yet anonymous Instagram posts. A welcome break in a tsunami of subject focused Smile Safari posts.