Follower

Follow or be followed. Online, it’s a signal of interest and respect. So how would it feel to be a real follower – or to have a real follower – for just one day? The choice is yours. Artist Lauren McCarthy has set up a service providing you with your very own, real-life follower for a few hours. At DocLab, Follower will give you an invisible companion to watch over you attentively. In all her work, McCarthy explores how technology raises the possibility of new forms of real-life social interaction. The user gets the opportunity to experiment with how technology might help us to become more social, or more at ease with one another. You can use the Follower app to become part of this performance, which explores the two alternatives: why do you want to follow or be followed? The answers lie in the experience. When the experiment is over you receive a single keepsake: a photograph of your personal follower.

This project is currently not live. For documentation and more information on the project, check out the links.