#smilesfilm – New iPhone Photography App By Yoko Ono
In 1967 Yoko Ono said ‘”My ultimate goal in film-making is to make a film which includes a smiling face snap of every single human being in the world”. Well, with the combination of the latest technology and her new app this moves her one step closer to achieving this goal. #smilesfilm is a worldwide online participatory artwork by Yoko Ono that reflects her pioneering vision of the power of mass participation.
You can read more about this app below. It’s free to download and you can pick up here.
Originally conceived in 1967 as a way of connecting people across the world, this 21st century project invites people to upload geotagged images of their smiles to Instagram & Twitter, accompanied by the hashtag #smilesfilm.
Using the hashtag, all the smiles are collated by the #smilesfilm App, and are then viewable globally and locally on a world map and together as a film.
#smilesfilm taps into the transformative potential of the smile.
Our smiles change moods and opinions as they radiate positive energy out into the world, creating joy, healing and peace, changing the Universe for the better.
“People from cities and countries around the world can freely upload their smiles by mobile phone and computer to the world and its people. Each time we add our smiles to #smilesfilm, we are creating our future, together. Give us your smile! I love you!” Yoko Ono, 2012
The #smilesfilm iPhone App encourages you to interact in 3 ways:
1. dream – look at recent upload activity on a zoomable world map. Tap and hold on the map to view smiles from that geographical area.
2. watch – view the lastest uploaded smiles
3. smile – to join in with #smilesfilm, take or upload photos to Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #smilesfilm and geotagged location data.
If All Else Fails
If you’re still not smiling at the end of that, then you can read some inspirational quotes and sounds from Yoko Ono and that might just do the trick.
Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter is a British photographer, photography journalist, editor and curator and the founder and editorial director of TheAppWhisperer.com, an independent international photography publication established in 2009.Her journalism, criticism and commentary have appeared in The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Financial Times, BBC, Vogue Italia, LensCulture, Popular Photography, Android Magazine, NikonPro, DPReview, Which Digital Camera and Which Camera. She has lectured internationally on photography and mobile art, served as a juror for international photography awards, and exhibited her own photographic work across the UK, Europe, South Korea and the United States.Alongside her editorial work, Joanne's photographic and postgraduate research explores death, grief, memory, representation and social inequality through contemporary photography, participatory practice and visual research methods, with the longer-term aim of developing this work through doctoral research.Through TheAppWhisperer, she continues to publish independent photography journalism spanning contemporary photographic practice, mobile imaging, photographic apps, computational photography and emerging imaging technologies.Joanne is available for editorial commissions, photography projects, judging, curatorial work, speaking engagements, consultancy and selected collaborations.
