The Continuum of Cute

A giant inter-species beauty contest, the project investigates both our individual and collective sense of the “cute” at the same time as it indulges the anthropomorphic qualities that are often embedded in our sense of the word. The Continuum of Cute consists of 100 images of animals, all found online, with the provocation to arrange the animals in order from least cute to most cute, left to right. The project initially existed as an interactive work on Rhizome.org, where the pictures could be sequenced and then shared to a library with everyone else’s results visible as well.

For the physical version of the work, the 100 images are mounted to 2” × 2” aluminum squares and placed on a very long aluminum shelf. The order of the images is still malleable. Cute/uncute are highly subjective categories and everyone seems to arrive at their conclusions with visceral conviction.