IDEAL
IDEAL
“ Interactive Installation ”
2025
2025
IDEAL is an interactive installation by Sarah Mayer (SA.M.CO) and Sander van Bellegem (AKÆRI) that reflects on digital identity and the unrealistic beauty standards reinforced through online platforms. The work translates the logic of the screen into a physical sculpture: an alluring object that reveals how digital platforms operate as feedback loops of idealization, projection, and self-distortion.
The installation was first presented at Tresor.West in Dortmund as part of the arc gallery exhibition There is no them in here – just an awful lot of us, with a soft opening on 22 August 2025, an official opening on 23 August 2025, and the exhibition running until 6 September 2025. It was later shown at Us By Night in Antwerp from 25 to 27 September 2025.
Through a simple hand swipe, visitors can scroll through a series of faces: digital IDEALs based on reference images drawn from a public beauty vote across more than 120 countries. Even without detailed visual instructions, the generated results repeatedly converge toward the same type of face: smooth, youthful, slim, and hyper-stylized. When no one is present, the faces remain blurred in the background; only when a visitor steps in front of the work do they come into focus. No scans are made and no visitor data is stored, only a confrontation with the virtual ideals that increasingly shape how we see ourselves.
Concept and creation: Sarah Mayer / SA.M.CO and Sander van Bellegem / AKÆRI
Technical support in TouchDesigner: Victor Vanderbeck
Graphic design: Lauren Bouden
The installation was first presented at Tresor.West in Dortmund as part of the arc gallery exhibition There is no them in here – just an awful lot of us, with a soft opening on 22 August 2025, an official opening on 23 August 2025, and the exhibition running until 6 September 2025. It was later shown at Us By Night in Antwerp from 25 to 27 September 2025.
Through a simple hand swipe, visitors can scroll through a series of faces: digital IDEALs based on reference images drawn from a public beauty vote across more than 120 countries. Even without detailed visual instructions, the generated results repeatedly converge toward the same type of face: smooth, youthful, slim, and hyper-stylized. When no one is present, the faces remain blurred in the background; only when a visitor steps in front of the work do they come into focus. No scans are made and no visitor data is stored, only a confrontation with the virtual ideals that increasingly shape how we see ourselves.
Concept and creation: Sarah Mayer / SA.M.CO and Sander van Bellegem / AKÆRI
Technical support in TouchDesigner: Victor Vanderbeck
Graphic design: Lauren Bouden
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