01/ TWO COMPETING AESTHETIC
METHOD AND ANALYSIS
RESEARCH QUESTION
The main purpose of the search was to map the main instagram faces present among the filters. Are AR filters categorizable into recurring types of modification?
DATA COLLECTION
The images analyzed were taken from instagram profiles whose main purpose is to promote and show the most popular AR instagram filters. The data were the instagram posts of 4 main profiles: @Instmask @face.effect @beuty.filters @aestheticfilters. The criterion of choice of profiles is closely related to the number of followers: all of them have more than 120,000 followers.
Posts were collected using the Google extension “Downloader for Instagram” and were downloaded in the same time frame: September 2020.The final number of downloaded posts was : 1,240
CATEGORIZATION
After collecting all the images the categorization was done manually identifying 6 main categories Freckles application / stickers application / general natural effect / glossy effect / cyborg mood / others. Each post was classified into one of these categories
FINDINGS
The categorization of the posts led to different results between the four profiles.The most popular categories of @beauty.filters and @aestheticfilters were the application of freckels and stickers, while @instmask and @face.effect had a majority of posts featuring glossy effect and cyborg mood.
Moreover, the pursuit of the natural effect concerned much more only the first two profiles, and was almost absent in @instmask and @face.effec
COMPARISON
The comparison of the number of posts for each category showed the presence of two main trends. The categories natural and freckles were replacing glossy and cyborg and the opposite. From this findings the identification of 2 main aesthetics occurred: one as exclusion of the other.
