{"id":128783,"date":"2019-03-13T21:01:32","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T21:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=128783"},"modified":"2025-07-01T22:13:57","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T05:13:57","slug":"instagram-vs-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/instagram-vs-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Instagram destroying the art world or making it better?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"selfie\"<\/p>\n

From coffee to cocktails to culture, the Instagram-friendly business is everywhere.<\/p>\n

Marked by cool accent walls, big bold quotes, and pops of color, these functional pop-ups have transformed the dining scene<\/a>, museum culture<\/a>, and really, how we interact with the world.<\/p>\n

Is that a good thing? Is everything we value now tied up into the quality of photograph we end up with?<\/p>\n

What happens to comfort food that looks messy on the ‘gram?\u00a0 Or meaningful art that requires IRL observation?<\/p>\n

Experiencing\u2026what?<\/h2>\n

This past year or so, we\u2019ve started to see more examples of pop-ups<\/span><\/a> created for the sheer purpose of being captured on camera\u2014Refinery 29\u2019s 29 Rooms<\/a>, the Color Factory<\/a>, the Museum of Ice Cream<\/a>, the Museum of Selfies<\/a>, and Candytopia<\/a> are the more popular examples.<\/p>\n

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View this post on Instagram<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A post shared by \u041a\u0410\u0422\u042f \u0412\u0410\u0420\u041d\u0410\u0412\u0410 (@kativarnava)<\/a> on Jan 18, 2019 at 11:03pm PST<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A few years back, regular museums became social media stars \u2014 but we\u2019ve removed the pretext of \u201cculture\u201d and started approaching the museum in, we suppose, a more honest way.<\/p>\n

Museums featuring, oh anything by Yayoi Kusama<\/a>\u00a0still attract big crowds. But the concept has been distilled down to the essence \u2014 these pop-up experiences that remove the didactics and docents from the equation. It’s all about the ‘gram, baby.<\/p>\n

Art on the wall has been replaced by the interactive ball pit, human-sized egg cartons, and branded #content decked out in bright colors.<\/p>\n

In any case, it’s becoming easy to create an installation with some whimsical elements, and watch people pay to wait in line and promote that experience on social media.<\/p>\n

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Bachelor Monday\u2019s got me like ?<\/a><\/p>\n

A post shared by Lauren Tom<\/a> (@laurentom26) on Jan 28, 2019 at 4:00pm PST<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Business is defined by performance<\/h2>\n

In this pay-to-pose world, exhibits need to photograph well or people just won\u2019t come. Because the experience is second to the photos captured during<\/em> the experience.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"selfies<\/p>\n

That\u2019s fair when it comes to say, tracking online stores or even offline businesses like restaurants and coffee shops, which have always relied on ambiance or charm to keep customers coming back.<\/p>\n

With food, we do have a natural tendency to \u201corder with our eyes\u201d so there\u2019s no doubt that food needs to appear appetizing.<\/p>\n

Where it gets a little murky is when you start to think about art, in the traditional sense. Some art doesn\u2019t photograph well, but is something to behold, in person.<\/strong> With food, you\u2019re seeing chefs who create food that looks good on Instagram, sometimes at the expense of taste.<\/p>\n

Eggslut\u2019s Alvin Cailan told Eater he was done playing into the Instagram culture<\/span><\/a> \u2014 but it\u2019s worth pointing out that the runny egg-focused restaurant already had a cult following in Los Angeles. Those just getting started have to play the game, at least if they want to be commercially successful.<\/p>\n

Additionally, when you put the experience first, how do things like meaning and making a statement come into play?<\/p>\n

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Top 5 apps that\u2019ll make you an Instagram model<\/p>\r\n Read Now \u25ba<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n

What does the art world think of the so-called \u201cInstagram Trap?\u201d<\/h2>\n

Artnet featured a piece by critic Ben Davis<\/span><\/a>\u00a0who wrote about the Instagram playground Dream Machine for the magazine. He mentions that some elements seemed \u201cdumpy\u201d in real life, but photographed quite well \u2014 Davis describes the experience as being something that looks like art, but at the same time, defeats the normal approach to art.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"dream<\/p>\n

He further explains this by saying, the experience is secondary to the photos collected (a higher brow Pokemon Go?), participation trumps observation (a hallmark of the art criticism process), and individual experience matters less than the social experience.<\/p>\n

AdWeek offered an interesting take on how brands have moved from considering the role of social media at events and establishments to building everything around social media.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t so much a criticism of social optimization, but they point to the need for brands to create meaningful experiences \u2014 i.e. more than an opportunity to stand in line to take a photo.<\/p>\n

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From coffee to cocktails to culture, the Instagram-friendly business is everywhere. Marked by cool accent walls, big bold quotes, and pops of color, these functional pop-ups have transformed the dining scene, museum culture, and really, how we interact with the world. Is that a good thing? Is everything we value now tied up into the … Continue reading “Is Instagram destroying the art world or making it better?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9161,"featured_media":128872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[2354,1859,1051],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-128783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-app-subdomain-redirectioninstagram","tag-culture","tag-instagram"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128783"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326424,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128783\/revisions\/326424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128783"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=128783"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=128783"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=128783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}