The power of cute
A new exhibition shows how cute creatures are everywhere.
Hello Kitty, a Japanese cartoon cat that is recognisable all around the world, turned 50 this year. She was the inspiration behind a new exhibition, Cute, at Somerset House in London, exploring cuteness. The show has an area dedicated to Hello Kitty, with hundreds of stuffed toys sprouting from the walls and a disco where Hello Kitty is the DJ.
Humans are drawn to cute things, scientists say, because looking at adorable things triggers pleasure in the brain – babies are cute and we want to look after them. However, the show’s curator
(the person who puts the show together), Claire Catterall, told
The Week Junior that “cuteness” can be hard to define because sometimes what one person finds cute can seem strange to someone else. The exhibition, which is best for older readers, explores that mix of adorable and peculiar.
In 2014, Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web (the system of internet websites), said he never expected his invention would be used so much to look at kittens. Cats and kittens feature a lot in the show. There are 18 cartoon portraits of fluffy white cats dressed up. These were made using artificial intelligence (AI), a computer program that allows the machine to learn and do things that usually take human intelligence.
Visitors can also explore a trend of cute video games (see below). Games used to be more about fighting and spying but many of them are now cute and relaxing. For example, in Cat Cafe Manager you can run a café where visitors spend time with cats. Cute is at Somerset House until 14 April.