Meta’s artistic turn: AR face filters, platform art, and the actually existing metaverse

This paper approaches the emergence of ‘metaverses’ as inherently tied to the platformisation of identity ushered in by social media. I focus on Meta’s reliance on the performative engagement of users in their digital personas, retained by company investment in socially networked, aesthetically immersive techno-cultural formats like augmented reality (AR) face filters. Drawing from interviews with four artists who have worked with AR face filters and share a reflexive focus on their practice, this paper explores the critical boundaries of designing performative sub-interfaces within Meta’s (multi)platform infrastructure. By studying AR face filters as platform art, the paper makes two contributions across platform studies and cultural critique. Firstly, I argue AR face filters enable Meta to maintain dominance over an actually existing metaverse – a middle ground between curated social media profiles and immersive metaverse platforms. Secondly, I propose Meta’s artistic turn represents a novel aesthetic strategy to bring infrastructural value to the company through platform art and artist communities, and to habituate users to a more performative engagement with its platforms.