Social Pleasures
“Teens enjoy Instagram likes as much as sex.”
After reading this clickbait headline on the website of Vice, I started researching the effects of the like in our everyday lives.
The result is an interactive art installation that I created for my bachelor thesis in 2019.
Under the headline 'Social Pleasures' it explores the impact of digital appreciation and its relevance for our personal satisfaction. It allows the user to visit The Balloon Dick's Instagram account and shower him with digital love, which will result in his undeniable happiness.
Balloon Dick consists of a 3D printed sekelton and foundation that are mounted on a wooden wall. The skeleton is encased by a balloon and a silicone skin which has been created by pouring the material over the 3D printed design.
The type "Please, like me.” invites the user to scan a QR code that leads to Balloon Dick’s very own Instagram account.
As soon as there’s a new like, a smart phone on the back of the wall lights up.
This phone is placed inside of a box that also
contains a technical set up made of an arduino uno, two air pumps, one water pump and a servo motor. The light from the smart phone is registered by a sensor on the arduino which triggers the servo motor and air pump, causing Balloon Dick to rise.
With each like he gets more excited and rises even higher until he eventually concludes in a happy ending, thanking the user with a stream of fresh and milky, glittery ejaculate.
2019
Bachelor project in Virtual Design at the University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern with examining professors Betty Schimmelpfennig and Christian Schmachtenberg.
Awards
Balloon Dick was awarded two times bronze at the ADC Talent Award 2022 in the categories "Spacial Design - Exhibiton" and "Experimental and Artistic Design - Experiment"
contact me
Instagram – Twitter – hello@annikameyer.com – +49 171 1233039 – Impressum