Seminar: Between Images (2020)
Be Influenced!
Max Keller
How can Deep Learning influence social media marketing?
How can a critical environment be created to question today’s commercial strategies and social media relationships?
Through a fictional app where people can share their life with their custom digital influencer, a space for controversy is opened up. After asking a number of personal questions, the app creates a digital influencer for each user. Additional data is collected through interactions, while users are eventually building up a relationship. Companies can utilize this data to promote their products with extreme precision. Exaggerated elements like these create a space for critical thinking.
The project consists of sixteen images which are presented in an editorial. The images portray three digital influencers – Marli, Pol and Sila – in their «daily lives» and therefore plant them in the «real» world. Their faces were generated using Deep Learning and have been face-swapped onto real photographies. In addition, each character carries a backstory regarding their interests and a description of their respective user. A discrepancy arises, which addresses aspects like reality, as well as questions about gender and relationships in the digital world.
