Beauty+ save the world

Installation view at Chinternet Ugly at CFCCA 2019. photo by Michael Pollard

I am the fairest one of all – just check my phone: MY Magic Mirror

“Everyone is an artist” – what was an empty encouragement has become the reality of contemporary experience. Art is boundless, timeless. And how does one define beauty?They code the simplest form.

Meitu XiuXiu or MeituPic, a photo editing software for the phone, makes you beautiful. Your best self, etched in code across a black screen. Meitu has unlocked the algorithm, programming beauty, commoditizing it – defining the aesthetics of our time. It has become the self-optimizing palette – blur, enhance, warp me. The Magic Mirror.

The idea of “self” is a construct – through countless encounters and filters of reality, we learn to understand the “self” in us. The self in the self-timer is transformed into self-satisfaction, instantly, and then almost a feeling of self-awareness – um – I am beautiful. Meitu’s launching punchline: MEET YOUR BETTER SELF. Instantly! Amazingly! We become our better selves.

But is the picture still you? YOU. The person in the image goes through and beyond, to the cloud. You exist in the mobile photo album and in the cloud that is a set of algorithms designed to keep you confined, defined – to keep you BEAUTIFUL.