Identity crisis

24 : 02 : 2017 DELETE : Generation I : The Sharded Self

Montreal – DELETE is an interactive exhibition designed to teach 8–12-year-olds about the vulnerability of their personal data.

  • The experience forces children to consider the fate of information submitted online
  • After encountering four rooms, the audience has the option to delete the digital record of their experience
SELECT installation at DELETE by Iregular, Montreal. Photography by Giacomo Ferron SELECT installation at DELETE by Iregular, Montreal. Photography by Giacomo Ferron
EMERGE installation at DELETE by Iregular, Montreal. Photography by Giacomo Ferron EMERGE installation at DELETE by Iregular, Montreal. Photography by Giacomo Ferron
COLLECT installation at DELETE by Iregular, Montreal. Photography by Giacomo Ferron COLLECT installation at DELETE by Iregular, Montreal. Photography by Giacomo Ferron

Blending digital and physical experiences, the show, created by Daniel Iregui and Michel Lefebvre in collaboration with Youtheatre, begins and ends on the d.elete.co website. Children are first asked for a nickname and personal data. They are then presented with four rooms, each using light and sound to blur the lines between the real and the virtual.

The first room, COLLECT, immerses the audience in a waterfall of data, questioning the overwhelming amount of information processed every day. Acknowledging Generation I’s numerous social media profiles and inclination towards The Sharded Self, the next room, IDENTIFY, uses mirrors to multiply the audience's reflections, which are then manipulated to move independently. At the end of the installation the children can choose to delete the digital record of the experience from the microsite.

Iregui, founder and creative director of Iregular, told The Creators Project that the inspiration arose from our everyday relationships with smartphones. ‘We were talking to kids that were born with this technology, so for them that is how life works – you are in so many places at the same time and almost never present in the current moment.’

The Big Picture

By confronting children to examine the various realities they live in and traces of data they leave behind, brands can awaken a generation coming of age in the midst of The Sharded Self. For more insight on Generation I, read our macrotrend.

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