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Via

These photos are from 1972-73. Die Natur erzeugt Ähnlichkeiten!

Putting the consumer in a cereal ad, by Evan Selinger and Shaun Foster

Imagine it’s the near future. You’re walking along a city street crowded with storefronts. As you walk past boutiques, cafes, and the Apple Store, your visage follows you. Thanks to advances in facial recognition and other technologies, behavioral marketers have developed the capacity to take your Facebook profile, transform it into a 3-D image, and insert it into ads. That sweater you’re eyeing? In the display, the mannequin wearing it takes on your face and shape. The screen showing a car commercial depicts you behind the wheel. At a travel agency (let’s pretend they still exist—after all, this is a thought experiment!), you see yourself sunning on a beach, while the real you is bundled up against the cold. The ads might show you with an attractive stranger or a lost love (after all, Facebook knows whom you used to date). Or they could contain scenes of you and your happy family. No longer do you have to picture yourself in the ad—technology has that covered.

How plausible is this scenario? What would it mean if it happened? How would it change the ethical landscape of advertising? Would anybody care? We advise you to read some thoughts on these and related questions by Evan Selinger and Shaun Foster.

Ok, we’re biased, since the list references our collaboration with FICTILIS for the Colors of Commerce exhibit. But author Jude Stewart highlights some other notables in color from 2011:

#1: On This Day calendar

Reusable for every year, this handy wall calendar consists of heat-sensitive cubes, each marking a noteworthy event from that day in history. Scribble your own notes for the year on the cube’s side, then wash-and-reuse next year – or frame and mount a year in your exceedingly colorful life.

 #9: Imprint’s series on synesthesia

#6: Google Image Search by Color. More useful than I would have ever thought!

Happy 2012!