Watched Mark Zuckerberg’s F8 keynote today and he introduced AR Studio, which allows developers to create effects like facemasks, hats, face-paint, hairstyles, etc, to super-impose over pictures and videos you take of yourself or others (a la Snapchat). During the presentation he told developers “because it’s an open platform, you’re going to be able to create your own…” and I was reminded of an article someone posted recently where Coachella attendees were being chastised for Cultural Misappropriation.
Whether it be as overt as Coachella attendees sporting bindis, feathered headpieces, dashikis, and war paint, or seemingly as innocent as the Seattle Color Run 5k’s use of the traditions of the Hindu Holi Festival of Colors, Cultural Misappropriation is a sometimes gray, but often controversial, area of behavior in all societies.
As photo-overlays, stickers, pins, etc become more widespread, it will be easier, and more pervasive, for people to sport all kinds of images. And while I expect that major corporation like Facebook, Apple, Snapchat, etc will attempt to steer clear of cultural specific images, I fully expect third party developers will not limit themselves, and they shouldn’t.
You can make the argument that someone of a specific faith or culture should be able to sport the overlays of their choice that match a festival, holiday, religious or national theme. The challenge will be in how do these companies control who is or isn’t allowed to use these culturally specific effects, or whether it should even be the companies responsibility to do so?
Whatever the outcome, the concept of Cultural Misappropriation will no doubt become an even more widespread topic with the expansion of AR applications.
clarkb... 