The possibility of facing a dystopian society depicted in the hit Netflix series, Black Mirror is a disturbing prospect and the recent years saw people becoming more mindful about their online activity and exposure of personal behavior on the internet.
This changed dramatically in 2020 when the global pandemic forced people around the world into a lockdown. Many surveys suggest that people were spending more time on the internet as an escape mechanism to deal with this tedious confinement. Several campaign creators championed this change as they found new ways to increase engagement even during social distancing as people were asked to stay indoors.
One such campaign made the best out of this situation by challenging users on the internet to experiment with their creative niche. To fight the lockdown boredom, The Getty Museum rolled out a challenge for social media users to stay home and recreate different works of art that was popularized as #gettymusuemchallenge.
SOCIAL MEDIA CHALLENGES - THE GOOD & THE BAD
Social media challenges are easily endorsed because they are inherently created and distributed by users across the internet and while some of them are for good causes and promote positive experiences, the others can be branded as ludicrous creations. However, there is also a third category of challenges that have become ridiculously popular among digital natives and must be commended for their ludicrous creativity.
There have been praises for the ASL #IceBucketChallenge that became a social media phenomenon in 2014-2015 and raised over $200 million worldwide and the public favorite #mannequinchallenge that went viral on Instagram and Facebook.
On the downside, the internet also gave birth to other nonsensical challenges such as the cinnamon challenge, coronavirus challenge, fire challenge, etc. that are serious health hazards and have often been rebuked.
REPLICATING FAMOUS ARTWORKS FROM HOME
Getty museum announced this challenge using three social media platforms, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook and prompted people to recreate famous artworks by using three things they had lying around at home. This challenge is very similar and to some extent draws inspiration from the 'Between Art and Quarantine' challenge on Instagram that was created by a Dutch woman in Amsterdam. Getty adapted and reinvented this challenge by allowing people to download digitalized artworks from their online collection.
The response was marvelous as people found numerous ways of replicating the artworks by using whatever they found at home, including pets. One such user recreated the Girl with a Pearl Earring by Luka Maghlakelidze by dressing up their cat and another user replicated the famous Madonna and Child by Master of St. Cecilia by replacing the child with her beloved French bulldog. This campaign served as a refreshing breakaway from the lockdown fatigue for both observers and participants.
A COPY-PASTE CAMPAIGN?
Despite of receiving massive popularity, this idea lacked originality and was essentially copy-pasted from the 'Between Art and Quarantine' challenge. It is arguable that the established popularity of Getty Museum had a considerable contribution to the success of this campaign. The 'Between Art and Quarantine' challenge received a boost in popularity after the Rijksmuseum promoted the post and the creator of the challenge @tussenkunstenquarantaine has over 200,000 followers on Instagram including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Louvre. Getty Museum have also acknowledged the fact that the Getty Museum Challenge drew inspiration from the 'Between Art and Quarantine' challenge.
Getty Museum’s intention of promoting this challenge was to encourage people to #StayAtHome while pursuing creative activities that would keep them distracted from the helpless and unpleasant coronavirus pandemic. This also helped in publicizing artworks and institutions while the galleries were locked away. It was refreshing to see a campaign that did not focus on achieving any numerical target given that human beings have become a shocking subject of COVID-19 statistics with death tolls fluctuating every minute. In simple words, it was a temporary comforting distraction and an appeal to stay indoors while staying hopeful for a better future.
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