Abstentionism, refugees, menstruations, current events: a team of researchers, sometimes in association with students, initiated a certain number of specific experiments in order to identify the motivations that need to be activated to create virality. The methodology of work is thus founded upon experiments in real time, with the possibility of launching a test, correcting it, stopping it or renewing it within a short time span.
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The fact that virality can be quantitatively measured is an advantage for the project since immediate results can enable one to refine research strategies. The rapid temporality of this operational method is adapted to the reactivity of the public. The research covers the dynamics of the networks that bypass the institutional models of communication. Nevertheless, research is not limited to quantitative results that sometimes uncover rather deceptive parameters. For example, it is often the idea that is expressed in the most exaggerated manner that does the best job of circulating on social networks, therefore one must take a relative view of the “success” of the experiment. These experiments, according to a trial and error methodology, enable one to invent a language that is articulate visually, textually, and on a performance level according to the viral qualities of social networks. The issue here is, in the long run, to revamp the mechanics of buzz as a means of social expression.
CASE STUDIES ↦
▴ The Rrom Transnational Bank, Circulating Images
Virtual Currency, 2012
Rrom currency was invented to enable Rrom communities to circulate their social and cultural values through the mediation of six virtual bank bills.
▴ Buzz for the Sake of Buzz
Series of experiments, 2017-2018
This series of experiments enabled the researchers to understand the workings of virality and the circulation of messages.
▴ Self-Heroization, a Discussion of Abstentionism
The designer at the heart of the message, 2017
Inciting a debate about abstentionism on social networks implies doing it citizen to citizen, accepting the need to personally incarnate the message.
▴ Kim Kardashi-Un: the Creation of a Meme
Reacting to current events with an image, 2017
An image becomes a meme on social networks when each and every person can appropriate it for themselves
▴ Café Cunni: Fake News in the Service of a Taboo
Launching a campaign for a Geneva café dedicated to women’s pleasure, 2018
As a reaction to the opening of the Café Pipe (“Blow Job Café”) in the midst of the apex of the #MeToo movement, researchers launched fake news in Switzerland.
▴ Prison: Denouncing Detention Conditions Throughout the World
A series of experiments, 2018
Prison is a complex and difficult subject to defend, particularly on social networks.
▴ Head Me: Reviving Current Event Topics
Creating Communications Tools, 2018-2019
In order to pick up and revive current event topics, such as the Gilets Jaunes for example, designers propose tools rather than finalized messages
Research Project
Haute Ecole d'Art et de Design, Geneva
Financing: RCDAV HES-SO 2017-2021
