April 13, 2015

The Philippines has the world's first selfie museum

By Michael Tanenbaum
PhillyVoice Staff

Art in Island/Facebook

A Philippines museum is all about guests taking selfies in its interactive space.

Major art museums are generally adamant about reminding patrons not to take photographs inside their galleries. Not only is this to keep people coming and protect copyright, but repetitive flash photography can inflict damage on old paintings.

What about those who live according to the belief that if there isn't a picture, it didn't happen?

The founders of one museum in the Philippines decided there ought to be an interactive space where people of the 21st century can do what they seemingly do best: Take selfies.

In the capital city of Manila, Art in Island is a museum where visitors can position themselves to their hearts' content in front of 3-D replicas of historical masterpieces such as "Starry Night" and "Mona Lisa," Hyperallergic reports.

“Whenever you visit an art museum, you are always expected to just look around quietly,” the museum’s founders complain on its Facebook page. “You don’t even have a single proof of you being there. That’s why, for those who think that ‘art museum is not for me,’ we bring you ART IN ISLAND.”

Given the proliferation of selfies worldwide (Manila is regarded as the selfie capital), this sort of venue might not seem so odd after all. But take a good scroll though the photos on the museum's Facebook page and you'll realize that, left to their own devices with artistic backdrops, some people get downright strange with it.

Of course, it's all in good fun.