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Vimeo turned popular internet films into an art exhibition

"The Decade" celebrates the best Staff Picks videos from the past 10 years.

It was hard to leave Westworld at SXSW, but it had to be done. Thankfully, the show here in Austin is full of other tech-themed places to check out. One of them is Vimeo's "The Decade," an art exhibition that turns popular internet films into immersive experiences. The company says the space, which is located inside a hostel in downtown ATX, was created to celebrate 10 years of its favorite Staff Picks. There are eight different installations total, with each being inspired by some of Vimeo's best videos from the past decade. The documentary Jim Carrey: I needed Color, for instance, was brought to life with a showcase of Carrey's real artwork and his painting boots -- all while the film was playing in the same room, naturally.

Meanwhile, Press Play to Cry lets you step into a spot where there's a loop of sad videos playing. A red button lets you skip between them and, as you watch, you're surrounded by hundreds of boxes of tissues. Because sad puppies will definitely make you weep. Then there's the Aspirational piece, based on a short film starring Kirsten Dunst, which is intended to portray people's obsession with selfies. As you can see above, the plot is you standing in front of a bunch of smartphones as the front-facing camera is on. My favorite one by far, though, was viral hit, Hi Stranger -- for no other reason than how creepy it was. I stood there as a naked creature stared into my soul and a live caricaturist surprised me with a drawing of my face.

Vimeo says it doesn't have any plans to bring this exhibit anywhere else, so if you're at SXSW, you should probably try to see it before it's gone on March 11th.

Hi Stranger

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