Looking Outwards 1: Samsung 837 Gallery

While I was trying to find options for (momentarily) escaping intense New York City heat this summer, I managed to fumble my way into Samsung’s flagship store. Surrounded by a mix of posh stores and the High Line, Samsung 837 is a spectacle that stands out on its own. It isn’t even technically a real store – it’s a digital playground that features a huge screen that spans three stories high, a living room designed to showcase domestic innovations, a cafe, a virtual reality tunnel, a studio, and a gallery.

The current exhibit at the Gallery is called Social Galaxy, an interactive art installation where guests enter their Instagram accounts into a keypad and enter a tunnel surrounded by imagery on Samsung tablets from their accounts. Every screen features a different hashtag, read aloud by voices, and as the user continues moving throughout the tunnel, the screens feature other content such as images and collages. As guests near the end of the tunnel, their Instagram feeds and photo booth snaps are displayed on a huge three-story screen collectively with the photos of past visitors. This exhibit allows visitors to actively reflect and interact with their past, present, and online presence.