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Lev Manovich – The Exceptional and Everyday – 144 hours in Kyiv- 2014
Instagram users in the City
The project of 144 hours in Kyiv takes place in Kyiv, Ukraine where they had tracked instagram usage across the area during the revolution on February 17 – 22. Lev had teamed up with Jay Chow, Alise Tifentale, and Mehrdad Yazdani to execute an aesthetic visual that described the power of social media and how it effects everyday life. While in real life the city was abuzz especially in the square, online was different. Pictures of protesters clashing with police was right alongside with cute instagram pictures posted by other people. It made it seem as if the protest was just a part of everyday life and that was what Lev was trying to convey about how social media can turn serious issues into everyday life. I admire Lev for his ability to express this information in an aesthetic way where it almost seems like a virus is spreading around. Instead of having boring statistical numbers, he took an idea of “lights in the city” and transfered it to track instagram users which is both easy to understand and visually appealing.