If your Facebook page is the land of a thousand selfies, this is the moment you’ve been waiting for. A Victoria’s Secret model wants to put your mug in a magazine. Sort of.
Starting tomorrow, You Are A Genius will take over a gallery space at 215 Bowery for six days. The photo studio, art lab, and information space is the brainchild of Interrupt magazine, a “participatory” publication that gives a platform to women who are marginalized by mainstream media. It was founded by Cameron Russell, a model who last year gave a widely viewed TED talk about how “winning the genetic lottery” has stacked the deck in her favor. (What is it with Victoria’s Secret models helping out the Lower East Side?)
Interrupt’s mission is to empower people’s self-perception vis-a-vis body issues. Visitors to You Are A Genius are invited to take self-portraits at booths set-up by Smilebooth, a mobile selfie studio; the pictures will show up in futures issues of the magazine. There will also be a computer lab where guests can explore online resources for social services, health and well-being, and creative production, according to Allison Bland, the magazine’s senior producer.
“We want to imbue people with the idea that ‘you’re a genius, you’re an expert,’ when it comes to identity issues,” she said. “We’re giving diverse communities, women especially, access to making and publishing their own media, expanding the range of faces that are seen and published.”
You Are A Genius will be open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day through Sunday, July 29, and is free to attend.