Bozzi, Nicola ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1506-8078 (2024) Meta’s artistic turn: AR face filters, platform art, and the actually existing metaverse. Information, Communication and Society (ICS). pp. 1-20. ISSN 1369-118X (Print), 1468-4462 (Online) (doi:10.1080/1369118X.2024.2427116)

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Abstract

This paper approaches the emergence of ‘metaverses’ as inherently tied to the platformisation of identity ushered in by social media. I focus on Meta’s reliance on the performative engagement of users in their digital personas, retained by company investment in socially networked, aesthetically immersive techno-cultural formats like augmented reality (AR) face filters. Drawing from interviews with four artists who have worked with AR face filters and share a reflexive focus on their practice, this paper explores the critical boundaries of designing performative sub-interfaces within Meta’s (multi)platform infrastructure. By studying AR face filters as platform art, the paper makes two contributions across platform studies and cultural critique. Firstly, I argue AR face filters enable Meta to maintain dominance over an actually existing metaverse – a middle ground between curated social media profiles and immersive metaverse platforms. Secondly, I propose Meta’s artistic turn represents a novel aesthetic strategy to bring infrastructural value to the company through platform art and artist communities, and to habituate users to a more performative engagement with its platforms.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	metaverse, augmented reality, face filters, social media, digital identity, media art
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science T Technology > T Technology (General)
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences > School of Design (DES)
Last Modified:	13 Feb 2025 11:05
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/49673

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