Skip to main content

Aluminium Selfie Wall raises awareness about online data privacy


Selfie – a word which found its way into the dictionary in 2013 was first coined in Australia. In fact, in November 2013, the word "selfie" was announced as being the "word of the year" by the Oxford English Dictionary! It is a personal thing meant for the world to see. Selfie culture has taken over the contemporary world where it is meant to be seen as a form of self-expression. Even our Prime Minister had advocated ‘Selfie with daughter’ in 2015 which saw massive participation from the world over!  

But have you ever heard of an aluminium made ‘Selfie Wall’ which lets you click stunning pictures of yourselves and your friends? AGENCY Architecture, based out of Texas, has created a ‘Selfie Wall’ right on the border between the US and Mexico. It is located in the region of El Paso / Ciudad Juárez, a border community. The Aluminum Selfie Wall has been installed in a public park which draws a large crowd for them to take selfies and post on social media – all for a good cause.


The AGENCY team has erected the wall with the objective to experiment and educate the people about the security aspects of their online data which they share through various platforms on the internet.  This experiment is a part of creating awareness about data and privacy and knowing how much information is being shared by the people which would help them in providing solutions to protect personal information.  Although selfies are innocuous photographs to you, a large set of data-crunchers use it to record your identity, moods at different points in time, your device settings etc. Enormous data sets get analyzed every moment and can thus be misused without one knowing about it.  Therefore, it becomes imperative to raise awareness about data security and online privacy to the masses.


The ‘Selfie Wall’ is built form 162 custom-fabricated units, CNC-milled from a composite aluminium panel, and folded to shape different apertures for bouncing, scattering, and collecting light. The lighting is taken care of by a grid of LED lights which provide dynamic conditions for photography during different times of the day. The shape of the aluminium modules are major factors in providing rigidity to the wall surface and redirect light in a suitable fashion. The lighting configurations have been designed and customized to emulate a number of situations which would otherwise need professional photography paraphernalia to recreate – for example, the lighting conditions formed due to photo umbrellas.


The aluminium ‘Selfie Wall’ project was created to explore the limits of personal data privacy. According to the AGENCY team, “a picture may really be worth a thousand words.”



Comments

Most read articles

Aluminium in guitars – It's all music to our ears

Think of a guitar and the classic wooden version comes to mind. There are hundreds of types and they come in all shapes and sizes. Some passionate players even go for custom made guitars just to suit their movements and taste. The simple guitar is still evolving with newer uses of the instruments in concerts and other forms of music. The use of wood in the body and the neck of a guitar is not going to cease in a long time. However, the use of other selected materials by modern guitar manufacturers has significantly improved the sound quality and handling of the guitars. “Manufacturers were making custom guitars from solid billeted aluminum. I was still in graduate school and couldn’t afford such instruments. So I decided to make a competitively priced guitar. Instead of wood or plastic, I opted to use 0.080-in. aircraft-grade aluminum sheet metal because of its quality and durability,” says the then-future CEO of Normandy Guitars. Aluminium Guitar The use of Alumin

Aluminium extrusions - The ultimate value addition of Aluminium downstream

From simple paper clips to complex pieces used in advanced technology, aluminium extrusions are created in various shapes and sizes for value added end use utilizations. The computer you are using right now contains at least one aluminium profile in the form of a heat sink. This takes advantage of aluminium’s excellent thermal conductivity, unique anodising capability and freedom of design to keep your computer’s processor cool. Different cross sections of extrusions Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile. A special tool called a ‘die’ is used to create these extrusions by cutting or shaping the material with the help of a press. These dies are customized to create the wanted design. The process involves the pressing of a pre-heated solid cylinder of aluminium (billet) which is forced through the die opening. The billets are heated to a temperature range of 350 – 500 degrees Celsius. Aluminium does not glow when heated ye

The choice is clear - Aluminium body for high end smartphones

A lot of phone companies are trying to build slim and sturdy phones for the ever growing market of steroid enhanced hardware capabilities. With phone manufacturers stuffing more RAM and precision cameras in the modern phones, the weight and robustness of the frames becomes all the more important. Today, some manufactures prefer a fiber body to reduce the overall weight in comparison to metal bodies. However, there’s something which still draws a larger advocacy of using aluminium bodies instead of a plastic or fiber. In 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs penned an open letter highlighting changes to the company's environmental policy in hopes of achieving "a greener Apple." In the letter, Jobs specifically noted the Mac maker's adoption of aircraft-grade aluminum in order to improve recycling uptake. Apart from the cost reduction implications, Apple is strongly in favor of aluminium usage in all its products for improving its year on year recycling capabilities with

Humble Aluminium cans or sculpted masterpieces?

Have you ever spared a thought about what happens to the humble aluminium can after its purpose is done? Do we hear you say “they’re recycled and reused!?” Well, of course, you’re correct. But in its afterlife, some aluminium cans get converted into beautiful sculptures and serve a higher purpose. Behold these beautiful Aluminium masterpieces created by the Detroit-born artist Noah Deledda! Courtesy: 1 Fuzz Courtesy: My Modern Met Courtesy: WOSU Courtesy: The Inspiration   The interesting fact about these creative and exquisite pieces of sculptures is – Noah creates them with his bare fingers! "Through sculpture, I try to create something unique out of an ordinary object," says Noah, “My goal, and reason for ever making art is to raise awareness of the importance of the creative process. This drives me to create work that challenges perception and inspires curiosity.” To begin with, he removes the outer paint / commercial sticker

Lamborghini's raging Super SUV URUS - a balance of power and weight

This is unlike any Lamborghini automobile ever! An SUV from the company who produces supercars made from the blood of raging bulls? Of course, they are calling it the world’s first Super Sports Utility Vehicle – a fact we can’t deny given the super specs on the automobile and Lamborghini’s signature design. Will this animal from Lamborghini’s bullpen deliver on the brand’s promise? Let’s find out! From the outside, the vehicle sports the signature of Lamborghini’s extreme design yet finds a way to make it less aggressive for the owners who just want to buy milk on a cold Monday morning from the nearest market. However, on the inside, it’s still a beast. The front hood houses the 4 litre V8 twin-turbo engine with 650 HP and 850 Nm of torque. Acceleration from 0-100 km/h is achieved in just 3.6 seconds and the top speed is a staggering 305 km/h! Braking is no less impressive: the Urus decelerates from 100 km/h to 0 in 33.7 meters. The vehicle is 4-wheel steering with carbon-c