Making a first good impression is a must. From friendship to love – not to mention professional relationships – that first projection of the self can be critical. These make or break moments can of course be engineered, thank goodness. From the age old use of fashion and beauty to the plethora of social media platforms and apps that make us look our best today, the options are becoming endless, both physically and digitally.
With the advent of virtual reality, it’s become so much easier to project something that may not really be there, whether it's a killer whale splashing through a gymnasium, a holographic human rights march, or even exploring your new IKEA kitchen from a child’s perspective. Technology isn’t just enabling virtual realities; in some cases it's making us question it entirely.
Senior Strategist Dominique Bonnafoux presented Trompe l'Oeil and The Art of The Lasting Impression at Eurobest 2016 in Rome.
7 seconds rule
Because 7 (some say 3!) seconds is all it takes for us to evaluate someone when we meet for the first time. We form an opinion based on appearance, body language, demeanor, mannerisms, clothing. [You’ve done that with me in the last 5mn!]
And once it’s done it’s done – that first impression is nearly impossible to reverse or undo.
Which is great for some (say white males for example)…President Harding was elected because he looked the part: Square jawed and tall, he was the perfect image of a strong and decisive leader. And we know how that turned out. [but unfortunately as we all know we are not all born equal)
Intellectual beings
Luckily we have been dotted with this amazing thing called the brain…
And we have used that brain to collectively become expert at STAGING.
Humble beginnings
We had humble beginnings…where we very much focused on playing with physicality to fool the senses (fragrances to smell better, playing with make-up, fashion…)
Now don’t get me wrong.
Representing ourselves in our best angle is normal human behavior.
And if we go back to our cavemen selves, it was key to survival.
The need to be appreciated is a cornerstone of psychological wellbeing and living in civilization!
Evolving to sophisticated tools beyond the physical
But if we jump ahead to today, well you only need to look around to see that we have become a lot more sophisticated with our self-enhancement tools. [And no, I am not referring to the plethora of YouTube videos teaching you how to dress / apply make up in 1000s different ways]
It’s no longer about making a good impression at a given moment or for a specific occasion…but about designing a good persona / impression in the virtual as much as the physical.
Self-disclosure has been at the core of every mega successful sites / apps.
We have become consumable products.
So are we really disclosing more, or have we simply mastered the art of marketing ourselves?
And as good marketers, do we have a tendency to emphasize the good at the expense of the truth?
If so far we have used tech to emphasize the good at the expense of the truth, can we reverse this attitude?
And if tech dev has sparked / given weight to this attitude, can it also reverse engineer it?
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn3918-smart-software-linked-to-cctv-can-spot-dubious-behaviour/
From a Society POV it opens new opportunities for increased security
Smart software enhanced CCTV – focus on physical behaviours to open new opportunities for increased security (much harder to fake behaviour)
Spot the difference
The software compares the images from each CCTV camera with pictures of the empty station, analysing each pixel to pick out those that differ between the two images. Clusters of pixels which could be objects or people are tracked in real time.
For example, a blob that remains on the platform even after several trains have passed could be a loiterer, or someone who is lost. It doesn’t matter that the system cannot distinguish between the possibilities, as long as someone is alerted who can investigate. Its job is not to make evaluations but merely to draw attention to behavioural oddities.
IR Latvian ind mag
Augmented reality political campaign Overly App: opens opportunity for full picture (rather than selected picture) decision making
Let’s you hack every political poster out there legally and very literally. Called it the whole picture
One week before the election 3rd most downloaded app after Facebook and Instagram
AIR – FITCH tool for Sentiment Analysis. Coupling physical symptoms like heart rates and facial expressions with behavioral symptoms to provide a lasting impression of the experience.
So if this is where we are today, what could future scenarios look like?
Hyper reality: where you know all there is to know about the world around you
Or Diminished reality where you focus on the essential?
No longer judge on appearances instead of hearts, who we are matters much more than how we look.