• by Larissa Faw , December 26, 2017

The Andy Warhol Museum and its agency, Marc USA, are hosting interactive kiosks across Pittsburgh to raise awareness for the museum's first solo exhibition for Iranian artist Farhad Moshiri.

The Fibers of Being kiosk invites pairs of participants to explore their "respective uniqueness" through a list of character traits via a touch screen. While one identifies descriptions of their friend, their partner’s image is captured in silhouette against a green screen. The end result is a large colorful postcard, reminiscent of a Persian rug, customized with words and imagery reflecting how each participant is seen through the eyes of their partner. Participants then visit Warholgowest.com to download their images to share on social media and learn more about the artist and exhibition.

The touring kiosk is visiting several high-profile Pittsburgh locations accompanied by a four-sided mobile billboard. To further encourage visitors to both the museum and kiosk, the campaign is running print ads in Pittsburgh regional publications and digital banner ads are targeting regional viewers on Facebook and Twitter.

This is an unusual project to lure museum visitors and Marc USA says the agency has been pleasantly surprised how seriously people are taking the experience. The team had estimated that participants might spend a minute to a minute and a half on average picking out the words to describe their partner in the experience. Instead, they took at least twice as long — really taking care to select words.

“In a world with so much chaos and negativity, it seems people really wanted to be positive," says Adam Cicco, associate creative director who has been on site for a number of the Fibers of Being stops around Pittsburgh. "And friends were surprised and delighted to see what they had said about each other.”

When it comes to challenges, the Pittsburgh weather at this time of year had to be taken into account in building the kiosk to make sure all the electronics worked outside in the cold. "Thankfully, they do," he says.

“Go West" explores the intersection of eastern and western popular culture and runs through January.