Meta turns its gaze to gender disparity with perspective altering mixed reality art
Facebook-owner Meta has teamed up with immersive studio Make Me Pulse to redress the historic injustice of male dominion over monuments, statues and memorials in Denmark.
Of 2,500 such sites in the Nordic nation, just 28 represent women, of which a further 21 represent fictional figures like the Little Mermaid, leaving just seven cultural dedications to real women anywhere in the country – a phenomenon in which women are beholden to the priorities of men.
The disparity, dubbed ’The Male Gaze’, has become the focus for Meta as it reverses this injustice with ’The Female Gaze’, in which a famous painting by Danish artist Peter Ilsted can be fine-tuned to illustrate how appearances shift our sense of perspective.
Participants are invited to create their adaptation of Young Girl Preparing Chanterelles by adjusting lighting, angle, backdrop, body language and facial expressions to create radically different compositions from the same underlying 1892 canvas.
Pia Tandrup, country director for Meta Denmark, said: “Throughout history, women have been significantly underrepresented. As we build for the metaverse, we have the opportunity to change that by using emerging technologies to achieve things not possible now and here in the physical world and create immersive learning experiences that can help us broaden our perspectives.“
An exhibition showcasing the work of three Danish photographers at the Kunstal Charlottenborg Museum will open the eyes of visitors to this lack of representation by creating alternative versions of the painting for public view. This will include a VR installation where people can get hands-on with their changes.
The immersive experience is also available via desktop and mobile.