“Raise your hand if you find it a lot harder to meet new people since the pandemic?” That’s the question Chroma Link Collective asked to start their How Can We Help pitch at our last event. The September Community Meet-Up, a night of Shameless Networking, set the stage for Carmilla Sumantry, Stacie Ant, Saida Saetgar to tell us about the work they’re doing at their studio.
Chroma Link Collective (CLC) is a Vancouver-based and women-led experiential creative studio. The founders’ backgrounds span digital media, motion graphics, UX/UI and industrial design, which they expertly apply to create incredible activations. Their amazing work brings together thousands of people through augmented reality, video installations and interactive exhibitions that connect people with the activations themselves and each other. They gamify experiences, helping people actually meet one another in person.
Carmilla, Stacie and Saida came together about a year and a half ago thanks to their shared interest in digital arts and events. They now state their “mission in CLC is to use technology to bring people together through moments of curiosity, humour and awe.” By using physical spaces, they make strangers less strange to each other, they transform the ordinary into unforgettable moments of magic that spark lasting engagement.
The latest one of these moments was a mockup show for Absolut–who they hope to work with–where guests stepped up to a 6-foot screen to be paired with a custom cocktail recipe.
Having worked for over a decade with global names like Meta, Nike and Starbucks, and in partnership with Adobe, Downtown Van, Emily Carr, Vancouver Film School and Creative Mornings, among others, they’re now turning toward community-building.
It’s a great tool to break the ice, laugh at oneself a bit and make new friends through the shared moment.
Their latest project, Soul Snap, is what brought their Absolut mockup to life. It is also their connection-building secret weapon.
Developed in-house, Soul Snap is an AI-powered portrait game that works as a personality machine inside a photo booth. Step inside and the game analyzes you based on your hairstyle, facial expression, posture, clothes and other metrics. Then, you get a sassy, lighthearted remark and a photo of you.
The result? People who have participated in this new Chroma Link Collective experience feel very seen. Absolut’s guests got to “discover their flavour” as they switched from passive spectators to the stars of the show. The magic comes when, upon receiving their picture, co-workers, acquaintances and strangers begin connecting and comparing results. It’s a great tool to break the ice, laugh at oneself a bit and make new friends through the shared moment.
“They are a bit shocked, but they’re relieved that this is not a vanilla cookie-cutter experience, and they are actually surprised by something.”
However, there is a touch of dissonance that is worth mentioning. As Saida pointed out at the beginning of their HCWH pitch, these digital artists, like many of us, spend hours upon hours in front of screens as part of their work, so how can putting people in front of giant screens be a solution to bring them together?
When talking to Stacie, she recognized that “it’s kind of ironic that we advocate for less screen time while bringing a screen to events, but I do think it’s a different experience. You have to go out somewhere to experience this [and] you don’t have to stare at Soul Snap for hours.” She highlights that “a lot of it is looking around at other people’s reactions. People are laughing, whispering and pointing, calling each other over to come look at this on the screen. It’s more about physically sharing with somebody.”
Which ties into why the Soul Snap activations are so captivating. Upon seeing the Soul Snap screen for a few moments, people are laughing at something they did not expect to see. “They are a bit shocked, but they’re relieved that this is not a vanilla cookie-cutter experience, and they are actually surprised by something.” In a world full of screens that drain our attention, Chroma Link Collective’s work stops people in their tracks and gives them a moment of humanity. Stacie closed our conversation by saying that those surprise moments are her favourite, “we need more of that, in a good way. A good surprise.”
Now, after their How Can We Help Pitch, CLC are looking for partners and event organizers to host Soul Snap and other immersive activations. Their hearts are set on giving people moments of awe where they stop and connect with each other. If, like them, you are looking for opportunities to bring people together, to engage with audiences meaningfully and memorably through creative storytelling, you can contact them here.
Join us at the next Brands for Better event! We’ll be hosting the next meet-up on February 10. Get your tickets today!
