Designing for Tourists (and Their Facebook Pictures)

Posing for the Louvre

After five hours of meandering and half an hour of trying to find an exit out of the Louvre (desperately hungry!), I came out to find a bizarre spectacle: a dozen people in the same distorted, teapot pose with queues behind them.

It wasn’t until I saw their photographer counterparts that I understood I was witnessing the creation of dozens of Facebook profile pictures (all in the same, canned pose — I assume it’s something like a homage to some awesome French film I have yet to see.).

I would imagine, though, that the Louvre is an extremely conservative institution, and as such wouldn’t be immediately responsive to such artless things. I wonder, if the stands weren’t there originally, when were they installed and through what approval process?

Posing for the Louvre