Filters, a popular tool, have been dominating the current social media applications. Filters can create various digital effects by superimposing creative figures onto human faces via augmented reality. Along with text, emojis, and memes, filter users post their filtered-experiences as status, mood, comments or even micro-creations on social media platforms. Therefore, with its often funny and ephemeral contents, filters bring about strong visual impact, becoming an essential and widely spread social networking tool. Instagram Stories and WeChat Time Capsules enable users to express their “mood of the moment” by keeping a visual dairy. The posts/diaries will no longer be visible to the public after 24 hours. The Ongoing Moment invites users to answer the questions designed by the artist on an online test machine to collect “mood data”, which will then generate a customized “mood of the moment” filter, becoming the “mood mask” for the moment. These “mood of the moment” filters may make users feel both sensible and absurd, and just as all the online test tricks, the only way to get this particular filter is to share your result to one of your social media profiles.
This work is co-commissioned by Chronus Art Center (Shanghai), Art Center Nabi (Seoul) and Rhizome of the New Museum (New York).
Exhibited at: We=Link - Ten Easy Pieces