A Digital Installation That Turns Selfies Into Gravel
- Name
- PanGenerator
- Project
- Hash2Ash - Everything Saved Will Be Lost
- Images
- PanGenerator
- Words
- Alice Harrison
Conceptualized by Warsaw-based art and design collective panGenerator, the interactive installation ‘hash2ash – everything saved will be lost’ transforms the selfies of its audience into mounds of gravel.
The digital installation was created for the National Museum of Ethnography in Warsaw as an element of their TEEN AGE exhibition, which, through interactive installations, visually comments on selfie culture. Visitors are invited to send a selfie to the installation’s webpage, so that it will then appear on the monitor. Almost instantly, each pixel of the selfie is seemingly translated into gravel, which dramatically falls into an unrecognizable mass. The sudden absence of identity references the ephemeral nature of technology and as such, the insignificance of a selfie. With ‘hash2ash’, panGenerator is questioning self-preservation in the digital era, sharing their belief, as referenced in the second part of the installation’s title, that in the future, ‘everything saved will be lost’.
All images & video © panGenerator