Picture Perfect
2021, Seattle
Individual project
Individual project
Deliverables
Speculative Design
Interactive Installation
Project Mapping
Filter Design
Storyboard
Research Methods
Interview
Case Study
Speculative Design
Interactive Installation
Project Mapping
Filter Design
Storyboard
Research Methods
Interview
Case Study
An interactive installation for raising awareness of the pressure people put on themselves because of the tendecy to pursue ‘picture perfect’ both online and offline.
Inspiration
Inspired by the idea that people are always want to pursure ‘Picture Perfect’ in real life. Including myself, Itended to show my best skin condition to public all the time.
Desk research
With the ideas of exploring what are the siuations people feel not comfortable about their appearance and how do people deal with it, I divided the research into sections, online platform and real-life news.
Real-life could be cruel and hard to create perfect imagies to show to the public.
How many people satisified with how they look
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Ipsos.com
Ipsos.comWhen people feel unsatisified with how they look
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Ipsos.com
Ipsos.comOnline platform
The massive platforms that people use to create profiles and appearance that represent themselves online.
![Multiple filters with beauty effects. This app also the features of eraser, brush, skin smoothing, facial features resizing.]()
![Filters divided by the use of situation. Color filters mainly, beauty effects available.]()
![More creativity and diversity here. Mainly fun filters, but also a lot of filters have beauty effects.]()
![Video call program. Very basic beauty effects.]()
Why people feel unsatisfied with their appearance and what makes them feel that way?
Case study
- Skin conditions could come with nature or by accidents. Some skin conditions are flat, some are rough and uneven that you can feel the bump.
- People with these skin conditions had been judged by others. However, these skin textures become their biggest icon and sign. They are confident about themselves with the marks.
Development
Ideation
This projection tends to encourage people to embrace their body, accept the all the flaws they feel “not pretty” on the body. Everyone is special, everyone's body should be appreciated and loved.
According to the desk research, people use Online meeting platform during the pandemic, and they have options to use filters or other facial features. So I decide to make the output in two different forms to interact, one is the digital form interaction, and anther is the physical interaction.
Digital interaction
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Participants can interact with filters on laptop and phones to see how they look with the blemish
- They could take pictures with the unique blemish
- The laptop generates one fruit and dots that match with the participant’s skin texture
Physical Interaction
- The projection presents the person with fruit dots, blemish that replace human skin
- Multiple people with multiple fruit dots
- Changes as people change their postures
Design process
According to the research on different skin textures, I found these textures are the most common ones. The similarity between them and different fruit dots inspire me to combine them.
Hardware
Code & Circuit
Arduino reads the serial signal and send to max/msp/jitter for trigging projection by an IR sensor.
UI design
Base on the widespread use of filters and facial beautify features Online, people tend to hide features that they are consider “unattractive” on their faces. I decide to make a UI design as part of the output of this project, which encourages people to think again when they take pictures with filters. What’s the thing that you want to hide?
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Base on the widespread use of filters and facial beautify features Online, people tend to hide features that they are consider “unattractive” on their faces. I decide to make a UI design as part of the output of this project, which encourages people to think again when they take pictures with filters. What’s the thing that you want to hide?
Filter design
For a better interaction on digital devices, and the importance of widely spreads the idea of avoiding aesthetic narrowness. I decide to make a filter that can be used on social media such as Instagram, Facebook, etc.
Logic
Face design
Storyboard
Final & Interaction
Comment & reflection
There are comments in two directions. One is the idea is good, the use of fruit skin is subtle and great metaphor for human beauty. And another direction is some people feel the projection is a bit scary. One person says, the dots projected on body are just look like chickenpox. I’m actually glad that people say different things. Fortunately, people tend to think about the deeper meaning of beauty, how to define beauty.
“ Perfect looking is also a drawback, very far from good looking in general standard could also be a perfect looking.”
“The projection kind of make me feel secure, because I don’t have to worried about if my skin is in good condition. I can dance in the dark!”
One person asked an interesting question ”Will you still like yourself if your skin turn to this way? I’m not sure if i can take it all in if my skin like this. I think I understand that people feel it scary when their skin looks like the way in the projection. But I would like to ask why we feel scary. Because this is not considered beautiful in the standard? And who gets to define the way of beauty? There’s no right answers, but it’s a amazing thing when we start to think about the question.