Studying abroad in Florence, Italy this semester has made me acutely aware of how my actions, needs, and behaviors change when I live in a new environment. In turn, I’ve become more observant of the ways my peers interact with both the Florentine culture and with eachother. People often cling to any resemblance of home after the disorienting move to foreign city. In this day and age, “home” can also reside in the digital realm, on our social media feeds, where we can keep up with our family, friends, and acquaintances.

 

A few weeks into this semester, I noticed just how many more Instagrams my peers were posting than they did back on campus in the US. I started wondering what peoples’ motives behind the posts were. Were they posting to prove how much fun they were having? Just to make people at home jealous? To keep their friends updated on what they were up to? Because they genuinely like the subject matter? To show their followers how “cultured” they were? I wanted an explanation.

As an occasional Instagram poster, I’d never fully understood the obsession with taking, editing, captioning and posting the perfect photo, and therefore my attitude had become judgmental while scrolling through my classmates’ posts. But while I judged my peers’ Instagrams, I wondered if anyone was judging mine. So I did some research for a three part project called experimeant. What does that word mean?

experimeant= social experiment + what my followers really meant by their likes and comments on Instagram

This project, composed of three tangible deliverables—a survey, a book, and a video—begin a conversation between performance art, app and print design, social media and digital documentation. experimeant was created in the Spring of 2016.

 

This short trailer introduces the project's main questions to viewers and guides them into considering and confronting their own Instagram behaviors both as the user posting and reacting to others' posts. Composed of real content, my peers' Instagrams and my personal abroad videos, the trailer serves as a self-aware commentary on the ways using Instagram has changed HOW and WHY we document and share experiences. Soundtrack: Runaway by City and Colour.

We all have a wealth of photos and videos of our experiences, some just for ourselves, some just to share, some just because. At first I considered just creating this trailer out of other people's Instagrams* flashing quickly with a voiceover explaining the project but in the end, chose to add a video compilation to increase the dramatic, cinematic aspect of the trailer, and draw viewers in with personal, enticing content.

 

I thought about the ways in which I could find out what my followers were truly thinking about when interacting with their own feeds and my posts specifically. So, I created a few scenarios in which they would provide their honest opinions anonymously, without risking their identities or reputations.

Initially, I had the idea to design an app-based performance piece where I would project my Instagram account in a movie theatre filled with my Instagram followers. Using the experimeant app, my followers would write and submit their honest thoughts on each post.  Their responses would be sent to me in a “package” via the app. I would accept or deny the “package” depending on whether or not I wanted to read what my followers really thought of my posts. But this wasn't feasible in my student budget, so I came up with a more reasonable research method, the survey. Below are some of the initial screen design ideas for this app.

 

Inspired by this movie-theatre-performance app idea, I created a real-life digital, 120 question, anonymous survey that would allow me to acquire data within my resource restraints. For this, I put my own Instagram account up for commentary. The survey was created with Typeform, an online service that allows users to make custom, shareable surveys, from writing, organizing, distributing and collecting the questionnaire results. This survey was distributed by sharing the link in various Facebook groups and messaging a selection of my peers. While I reached out to 315 people, I received 26 results (which was somehow simultaneously more and less results than I though I would receive). Below is the opening screen to the Typeform, explaining the general purpose and rules of the questionnaire.

Per Instagram post I asked two questions: if the user would "like" the post" and then, what they thought of the photo. The questions followed this order so I could gain an understanding of the user's gut reaction to liking or disliking the photo without being influenced by a more thoughtful reflection on the photo. The same two questions were asked for each photo on my Instagram account, so, 55 times. As responses came in, Typeform created two visual documentations of the data called the "General Report" and "Results". While General Report provided statistical data, Results showed each question and option with each user's response.

 

Using the collected survey data, I designed a book documenting the experimeant evolution, all the way from performance-piece-app-idea to the Typeform survey results. I designed this piece with the intentions of creating a minimalist layout, that when flipped through, mimics scrolling through an Instagram feed. The 120-page book was vertically accordion bound and modified by a set of large binder rings on a chain.

 

To return to experimeant's origins as a performance piece/app, I chose to bind the book to be worn as a necklace. For this, I modified the accordion binding with rings and chain. This method of displaying the piece forces the reader to interact with me, the subject, while they flip through the book and react/judge/question my Instagrams while, for a brief second, they are "attached" to me. On Instagram, users' "handles" (usernames, for example, @maidamessofthings) are their identifiers, rendering them responsible and distinct with each "like" and comment. The anonymous nature of the Typeform survey removed any traces of identity, with the intention of facilitating true transparency and honest responses on each post. This bindery also comments on the aspect on this concept of digital agency vs anonymity. Readers will become "responsible" for their reactions, due to our proximity as they express their thoughts, both vocally and with facial expressions.

 

The idea of being weighed down by a book of other peoples' opinions of you notes the damaging effects of social media on individuals. Often, people's negative responses to us make a more lasting mark on our minds and egos than positive ones. Instagram facilitates users to give affirmations with "likes" and the new video feature, "views", but leaves the field of "comments" up to the user to say whatever they want.

I wore my book to the Santa Reparata International School of Art (where I conducted this project) final student show and mingled with attendees and peers as though I wasn't wearing the project. Almost everyone asked me about the book, and as I explained the concept of the project, along with its three part division, they leafed through the weighty stack of other peoples' opinions, while they formed their own, commenting and reacting to the photos themselves and the responses of the survey participants. Talk about coming full circle.

Were your feelings hurt? Were your predictions about the outcome of this experiment correct? Did you regret doing this project? These questions, among others, were posed to me by my professors, peers, family and friends. Knowing that the survey results could range from scathing to incredibly kind, I had to mentally prepare myself when I sent out the experimeant questionnaire and waited for the responses to flood my inbox. The responses I got from my peers were pretty similar to what I had predicted. While the responses were very honest, they weren't unnecessarily cruel or personally insulting. I equate them to things I'd expect to hear face-to-face, maybe with a hint more brashness. I have no regrets about conducting this research, as my ego was not damaged, I flushed out a complicated system of ideas and managed to collect some very relevant data. Now that the project is done, how has it affected my usage of Instagram? Well, I now know my own feed, captions and comments like the back of my hand, I've had to scroll through them so many times. I still post on Instagram infrequently but find that I'm slightly less eager to open the app, maybe because I logged too many hours on it for experimeant, or perhaps because subconsciously I know that many of the interactions on this app aren't completely truthful.

Special thanks to everyone who participated in this project, it wouldn't exist without your help.
(To those of you who told me you participated/attempted to: Sachi Nagase, Noah Baker, Brandon Sutton, Scott Myers, Nina Ge, Bailey Bondy, Max Foley and Jade Hubinek I sincerely thank you!!!!!)


* Instagrams courtesy of: @boahnaker, @delaney_wil, @ashleyprofozich, @nicholas_politan, @scottmyers17, @marina.peng, @cyberkittie, @michelle.s.kim, @lauren.blackburn, @emilymaia, @lmcballa, @rjberke,@k.lizzie,
@geigersilver, @licialee13, @lucas_rasmussen13, @jaynestein, @alexa_greene_, @paulygallagher, @raycate13,
@melina_goldman, @m0rgarita, @case__, @emmafichtel, @cassadilla11, @ninage, @susanhaejinlee, @skwrk,
@ciarahackman, @jhoobie, @rachelyoun, @ageegs, @shiverrmetimberz, @chloeaimshigh