CandyLand

CandyLand is an ‘imagined environment’, and fake Instagram ‘experience’ built around the weirdness and artificiality of Instagram ‘experience’ museums – these ‘experiences’ are also referred to as selfie museums. CandyLand parodies these artificial spaces and uses humour, contrast, exaggeration, and puns to show it is satirical – emphasising how ‘weird’ these spaces are.

Instagram Museums are ‘experiences’ designed with the sole purpose of going to get the perfect ’selfie’ for your Instagram feed. These ‘experiences’ are brought to life through their staged social media presence. On Instagram, these companies curate a staged artificial reality that attracts customers to their venue. This is done through considering colour, aesthetic choices and the theme of their Instagram feed. CandyLand looks at the awkwardness and artificiality of these selfie museums, which are often designed around the theme of junk food or cheat food that is ‘forbidden’ in everyday life. Examples include The Museum of Ice Cream, Candytopia and the ‘cheat food’ museum in LA.

The interior of these ‘experiences’ consist of bright colourful, candy themed backdrops that look good on camera. These spaces often include a candy themed ball-pit, that one is encouraged to pose in in-front of the camera. The themes of junk-food, candy and the notion of playing in a ball-pit are symbolic of childhood. We are compelled to visit these selfie museums as they are an escape from everyday life. Through advertisement, these museums appear to be a safe space allowing us to indulge in these ‘cheat foods’. This false sense of security influences us to visit these museums, spend a lot of money, revisit our childhood and indulge in whichever junk-food we desire. These museums are targeting consumers with the promise that it is acceptable to eat these ‘cheat’ foods when you visit these spaces.

This ‘imagined environment’ superimposes artificial computer-generated visuals of candy into reality. I experimented with colour, hue, effects, saturation and masks to make this ‘imagined environment’ more believable. I took inspiration from film, and a range of different directors. One director in particular who influenced my work, and inspired my design choices was Wes Anderson. In Wes Anderson’s films, the director has played with colour through hue and saturation to help deliver the mood of the movie. These movies are stunning and have a particular colour palette.

My CandyLand ‘imagined environment’ was documented through a promotional video and realised as a staged reality on its own Instagram profile. The CandyLand Instagram theme takes inspiration from the Museum of ice creams Instagram page. This staged social media presence is curated through consideration of colour, composition and staging. Furthermore, this ‘experience’ references the corny slogans repeated at these Instagram ‘experiences’, and reiterates the importance of smiling, and appearing like you are enjoying yourself in-front of the camera. I am influencing people to visit CandyLand but including humour and exaggeration to emphasise that this ‘experience’ is a parody of these ‘weird’ artificial spaces. Humour is used to show how overpriced these ‘experiences’ are, e.g. “only £25 for 1” is found written on a 3d model of gum-ball machine.

I think that starting up an Instagram profile was the most effective way of articulating this concept and parodying Instagram ‘experiences’.

CandyLand was created using Adobe After Effects and Cinema 4D.

CandyLand’s Instagram profile

CANDYLAND'S INSTAGRAM PROFILE, AS SEEN ON IPAD

@theofficialcandyland INSTAGRAM PROFILE

CINEMA 4D, ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS, 2xA1 PRINTS

CANDYLAND PROMOTIONAL VIDEO

MADE USING ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS & CINEMA 4D

candyland still 1

CANDYLAND STILL 2