Salvador Dalí often played with double imagery and sensational optical and intellectual illusions in his artwork. As a tribute to his vision, the interactive installation “Gala Contemplating You” gave visitors the chance to be inside one of Dalí’s most famous paintings.

The installation was inspired by Dalí’s 1976 painting Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea Which at Twenty Meters Becomes the Portrait of Abraham Lincoln (Homage to Rothko), which famously proved that 121 pixels was the minimum pixilation at which the brain is able to identify a particular human face.

A photo kiosk at the museum turned visitors’ self-portraits into pixilated replications of the original artwork and projected these new images alongside the original monumental canvas. A corresponding mobile website (galacontemplatingyou.com) allowed virtual visitors to submit their photos and become part of the artwork as well.

Credits:

• Agency: GS&P

• Chairman: Jeff Goodby

• ACD Art/Design: Shane Fleming

• ACD Copy: Anders Gustafsson

• Copywriter: Nancy Strange

• Creative Technologists: Pablo Rochat, Chris Allick

Press: The New York Times