Recently I've become quite fascinated with the concept of a “selfie playground,” basically a place where people go to get cool pictures of themselves and/or their friends. Some examples include the Museum of Selfies in Hollywood, the Color Factory in New York City (formerly in San Francisco), and the Museum of Ice Cream. There was even a small pop-up “selfie playground” here in Fort Worth that ran back in January called Snap151, and they will run in Dallas from early-April to mid-May.
I even created a Pinterest board with some cool ideas for a such a “selfie playground” as well. Mainly of murals that interact with the human form, as well as a variety of curtains that would make for fun backdrops. One of these ideas involves a red stage curtain that can have a custom message (and/or shapes based around a theme) projected onto it; I tried to illustrate this on the Pinterest board.
But what if some of the concepts from such “selfie playgrounds” were more integrated into the urban landscape, and more permanent, rather than being part of a "tourist trap" or the like? I know there have been efforts to get murals placed in different parts of the city, but what about some other interactive elements that these “selfie playgrounds” like to integrate? For most selfie playgrounds, this would include things like props (in the outdoor urban landscape we would need fixed-in-place props and sculptures, otherwise they would be stolen) and a wide variety of murals; ribbon curtains also seem pretty commonplace in these environments as well (one former pop-up in NYC, Dream Machine, even had a 15-foot long “tunnel” of ribbon curtain that was pretty interesting) but may be harder to do outdoors.
Imagine an urban landscape with some cool diversions like a sculpture that is basically a room of mirrors (with some lights) or something. Or what about an interesting geometric object strategically placed in front of a mural? Some kind of public art project, basically, that would turn certain commercial areas of walkable neighborhoods into a sort of “selfie playground” to try and draw people to that area. Existing areas like the Cultural District/West 7th, Downtown, Magnolia, and TCU seem well-positioned for stuff like this, where it does not already exist. To my knowledge, the core of Fort Worth is becoming a “younger” city demographically and seems to be bringing in the type of people that would enjoy this sort of attraction, not to mention the tourists who would also enjoy them! Basically it would be cool to see something like this that is a bit more permanent and integrated with the city than a pop-up selfie shop, but then again the FOMO factor can drive people to temporary selfie-friendly attractions as well.
Though more like a touristy "selfie shop," one cool idea that could work with the existing environment, based on my aforementioned idea of a custom message projected onto a stage curtain, might be for Sundance Square to let patrons use the Sundance Square Plaza stage for taking “Instagram-worthy” pictures in exchange for a reasonable fee (or maybe a purchase above a certain amount from participating Sundance Square retailers? Maybe not the restaurants, but other non-restaurant retailers to try and drive more sales there) whenever they are not using the stage for performances. Occasionally they have a temporary covered truss placed over the stage to hold lighting equipment; this could be made permanent in order to hold a digital projector and lighting to allow guests to project a custom message and/or shapes onto the curtain (and/or the wall behind it) and to make the lighting for this attraction a bit less dependent on the sun angle in the daytime. A more permanent covered truss could also better protect the stage from the elements and encourage booking of more frequent outdoor performance events (and a greater variety) as well. That said, the curtain on that stage is pretty bland looking (though it matches The Westbrook building), so replacing it with a curtain that has a more photogenic color (like red) and appearance (like a shiny velvet or velour with yellow fringe) could make this idea more interesting (and dramatic). Since this would be a well-monitored operation you wouldn’t need fixed props either, so you could have a prop box that features a variety of props guests can borrow for their pictures as well. Overall, this could be an interesting idea for what may be an underutilized space (based on my experience of visiting there).
Please let me know your opinion on these "selfie playgrounds." Some people may just see them as tourist traps, but they are having a profound impact on art (and how we consume art) as well.