GMU:Artists Lab IV/Devon Carlson

From Medien Wiki

I am going to design and prototype a “Dating App for Fruit”.

At no point will it be made clear whether the app’s purpose is to help humans find a fruit to eat, or for fruits to find another fruit to date. It will purposely be left ambiguous in order to juxtapose the way in which we select the fruits we choose to buy alongside the way that dating apps let us choose our life partners, exploring themes of vanity, ego, and self-representation.

Users will be guided through a narrative, swiping through various personified-fruits who will exemplify different personality types, viewing their photos, and accompanying biographies of traits. These personality types will range from "traditionally-attractive and narcissistic", to “visually-imperfect but full of substance and character”.

Just like dating apps, after choosing a fruit they are interested in, users will be launched into a scripted chat with their chosen fruit where the fruit’s true character will show. The narrative of the more “perfect” fruits will reveal a more narcissistic personality, contrasted to the bruised more down-to-earth fruits who show themselves to be even better choices than the photogenic fruits. The project is meant to be a metaphor for the way in which dating apps like Tinder have trained us to judge potential partners on appearance before actually getting to know them, as well as to highlight the assumed presumption that bruised fruit is inherently worth less than un-scuffed photogenic fruit.

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