Project Proposal

Project Proposal: Tinder2.0 (work title) - Benjamin Li

Tinder is a mobile dating-app which launched in 2012. After signing up, uploading your pictures, which are fetched from your Facebook-profile, setting your gender, location and sexual orientation, users swipe through profile pictures. When you see a person you like you either tap a ‘green heart’ or swipe right. If you don’t like the person you see you either tap the ‘red cross’ or swipe left. When two persons both indicate they like each other, the application declares a match and enables them to talk in a private chat.

Since its launch in 2012 Tinder became one of the most popular mobile dating-apps with an estimated 50 million users. The users check Tinder on average 11 times a day with a length of seven minutes each visit. As of April 2015 users swipe through 1.6 billion profiles and make more than 26 million matches per day with a total of 6 billion matches since its launch in 2012.

Out of curiosity I started to use Tinder myself in 2014. I was not very successful in becoming a match with girls who I was interested in by their appearance, but soon I discovered something else. While using Tinder I saw patterns in the profile pictures that were presented to me. I decided to collect the patterns I saw by making screenshots. Now I have approximately 8000 screenshots which are divided in more than 30 categories. Some examples of categories are ‘Girls with Pizzas’, ‘Girls in front of the Eiffeltower’ and ‘Girls with Dolphins’. The amount of screenshots each category has differs and depends on I believe my distance to the girl, the geographic location, the culture and the society I behave in and last the popularity of a certain activity in that culture or society. So for example if you are based in a country which has a long coastline, you probably see more people at the beach surfing or sunbathing than in countries without any coastline. The same counts for activities people are interested in. In a country with mountains I expect to see more people engaging in hiking and climbing compared to a country with no mountains.

For my graduation I would like to find ways of making my collection visible and/or alter them into works on their own. The collection is getting big and more difficult to navigate. Below I describe my project proposals.

Project proposals:

1a) Mobile Application

The mobile application consists of all the images I collected. The app will be a long showreel of 8000 images which you can navigate in by swiping left or right. The showreel works as a loop. The order of the loop is decided by the categories I created. An order could be ‘Girls in front of the Eiffeltower’, ‘Girls with Dolphins and Girls with Pizzas’. To see the whole collection you either have to swipe 8000 times left or right. Swiping through the collection mimics how users use Tinder, yet no other functions will be transferred to my application.

The application will be freely available and will run on different platforms (Android, IOs etc). Updates will be made available when the collection changes.

When exhibited, I want the application to be shown on several Iphones and/or Ipads placed on plinths. The Iphones are attached to a stand which keep the Iphones on a 45° degree angle. Visitors are allowed/encouraged to swipe through the application.

1b) Analog Application

An alternative to the mobile application is a the analog version where I present the 8000 images in printed form, in a grid, sorted according their category on a wall. The size of an image is 5,5 cm x 8,0 cm. In order to show all the 8000 images I need walls which are 17 metres wide with a height of 2,20 metres.

The idea of an analog version of the application is based on a traditional wall. An alternative of a traditional wall could be a lightbox. The images will then be printed as a transparent print. The space between two images will be blacked out. A second alternative for the traditional wall could be an interactive wall, where images appear and disappear. The images can be shown in a GIF-Format slowly changing the image for another image of the category on its place. When I chose for this format I expect I need less surface space. The speed of showing/changing the image can differ for every category giving the installation a…… (?). I have know idea how an interactive wall would look (or what it is), but I think it can be beamed on a surface.

2) Tinder-Slot Machine with red carpet and barstool

Within this work I want to strip down and refurbish a conventional slot machine. Specifically, I want to replace every image (e.g. fruits) with an image I collected from Tinder. For example the every image of a cherry will be replaced by a ‘Girl with a Pizza’, every image of a grape by a ‘Girl with a Dolphin’ etc.

The slot machines I know are from the outside black. I want to replace that for shiny white plastic/wood. The buttons on the machine will be red and green which mimics the color of the buttons on Tinder.

When exhibited the slot machine comes with a barstool and stands on red carpet. Visitors are allowed to play with the slot machine. To do so, visitors spend their money like to works on conventional slot machines

3) TinderScapes

Some categories are suited to stand as an individual works of art. In TinderScapes I search for elements that when connected form a new landscape. The prototype I have a this moment is a TinderScape where the mountains in the background are stitched together. This gives the illusion of a newly formed mountain landscape. Because the edge of the mountains are not in the same position in every image TinderScape fluctuate in height giving it a rough edge.

Each individual image shows a girl that looks towards the mountain in the background. Where are the girls looking at? Is it as the image suggest just a holiday picture where the girl enjoys the view? Or does it have a more poetic meaning?Is the girl wondering over her future? Is the girl dreaming of its prince on a white horse? Other TinderScapes can be with stitched horizons (sea) and skylines of cities.

Ideally I want to show this work with a beamer placed on a plinth that consists of solid compartment (bottom) and a compartment (top) that can turn slowly back and forth from 0º to 45º degrees. TinderScape will then be beamed on a wall which is slightly curved to enhance a horizon-effect.

4) Walking Horse

Walking Horse is a GIF-file that exist of ‘Girls on a Horse’. When reviewing this collection I encountered a lot of horizontal views of girls on a horse. The horse had his feet always in a different position and angle. I altered the images a bit so that every horse is equal in size. The images are then turned in a GIF-file. When played the GIF shows a walking horse. As a bonus, the other icons captured in the image (e.g. battery status, network status, WIFI-availability) function as ‘car-interface’.

Walking Horse needs to be beamed in a significant size on a wall.

Research:

• Representation of ‘I’ online
• How technology changes our behaviour in light of interaction, dating etc
• Social behavior on social media

• Discussion: What about the representation of men?

5)All the works above, but then with male content:

So far I focused only on female representations on Tinder. For the coming months I would like to focus on how men present themselves on Tinder. I expect to detect similar categories, but also categories that are typical male or masculine. To speed up the process I want to have a Tinder Plus account which enables me to get unlimited likes (Tinder introduced a maximum of likes which means I can’t see profiles unlimited).