The time has come for selfies to have a space of their own. AGENCY's temporary installation, titled SELFIE WALL, provides an optimal environment for self-portraiture, while highlighting contemporary concerns with online over-sharing and data privacy. The project is located in the binational metropolitan region of El Paso / Ciudad Juárez, a border community where data security is a daily concern.

SELFIE WALL creates a range of lighting conditions day and night, offering a dynamic and interactive space for self-photography. The wall was built from 162 custom-fabricated units, CNC-milled from composite aluminum panel, and folded to shape different apertures for bouncing, scattering, and collecting light. The shape of the modules transforms from a structural cross-shape to a more open ‘umbrella’, providing consistent structural rigidity throughout the wall surface while creating a range of lighting options. These mass-customized variations evoke, replicate, and evolve lighting solutions across a variety of industries, simultaneously signaling ‘barn doors’ on stage lighting, photo umbrellas used in portrait photography and film, and vanity fixtures.

A grid of LED lights was inset to provide zones of different color temperatures at night. A range of warm color temperatures, flattering to skin tones lines the inner surface of the space, while a range of cool whites provides a more accurate color rendering on the outer surface.

Through an extended online and on-site digital presence, the installation draws attention to the potentials and pitfalls of the vast range of metadata extracted from a still-burgeoning global selfie culture. While seemingly innocent personal records of private moments, selfies are in fact a new resource for third-party datacrunchers.  Facial and pattern recognition software is able to extract identity and mood, while metadata embedded in the photo file, social network post protocols, mobile device settings, and user-generated content suggests each selfie leaves a significant ‘digital footprint’ which jeopardizes individual data privacy. As a follow-up to the installation, metadata from dozens of SELFIE WALL selfies uploaded to Twitter and Instagram with an event-specific hashtag are now being analyzed.

The project was built as part of an annual event, featuring international artists, sponsored by the City of El Paso Museum and Cultural Affairs Department (MCAD).