Alter provides users with a platform to take control of an alter-ego, whose virtual identity is based on archetypes observed on Instagram.
The primary intention of the project is to explore the possibility that social networks offer to live experiences that are not our own.
Thus, Alter highlights the typical profiles that have been instituted on Instagram over the years. These different archetypes incorporate various ways of showing off, staging oneself or communicating. These archetypes influence, despite ourselves, the way we use certain networks.
The project consists of two distinct parts: on the one hand, the observation and study of these different archetypes, and on the other, their use in a webapp.
Diploma project (2022) by Jorge Reis
BA MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
with Pauline Saglio, Vincent Jacquier
Fantastic Smartphones – a series of interactive installations developed by students in Bachelor Media & Interaction Design at ECAL, investigating in a critical and offbeat way our relationship with smartphones and the way they influence our daily behavior. See the press room
BA MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
with Pauline Saglio, Christophe Guignard, Laura Nieder, Alain Bellet, Gaël Hugo, Lara Défayes
Before the rise of digital technology and social networks, everyday moments were captured on analog media and watched with family in one uninterrupted flow. These long VHS tapes, composed of successive sequences, gradually disappeared, victims of their obsolescence. Magnetic Fragments offers a way to rediscover these forgotten memories through a three-dimensional web interface, where each bubble represents a memory to explore and comment on. Designed for a private circle, the collaborative platform allows free navigation, revisiting each memory fragments in a dynamic way and breaking with the monotonous structure of past viewings. Magnetic Fragments thus becomes a space for intergenerational transmission, where the past is shared in the present.
BA MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
with Alain Bellet, Christophe Guignard, Gaël Hugo, Laura Nieder, Pauline Saglio
Confessionnal is a web app that enables users to anonymously confess their behaviour on social networks. With the advent of social media years ago, the behaviour of users varies. Unmentionable acts are sometimes committed on these platforms. This project is inspired by the Catholic confessional as we know it but is based on the digital era we live in. Users live the anonymous experience with a mask as participants or spectators. They confess orally and personalise their mask based on their age, the platform or the main subject of the confession. On the other hand, they can observe other masks and listen to the confessions of other users.
BA MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
with Pauline Saglio
Folklore Fusion – a CGI character project developed by students in Bachelor Media & Interaction Design at ECAL, exploring the creative collision between Japanese and Swiss folklore through the lens of contemporary visual storytelling.
BA MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
with Alain Bellet, Christophe Guignard, Gaël Hugo, Laura Nieder, Pauline Saglio
Digital DNA is a 3D data visualisation platform that displays an analysis of the content that is shown to me on Instagram. The interface compares the duality of my perception with that of the algorithm. It results in a virtual space representing a digital genome that visitors are invited to explore in order to discover the subtleties of the intersection between human and algorithmic perspectives. While studying these “smart” systems, I became aware that their ability to analyse is somewhat biased. Some of the categories I was assigned were unexpected and did not match the visuals presented. In this way, Digital DNA highlights the gap created by this contrast between the categories and the visuals that are displayed. Try it here