[2] In addition to the magazine, DIS consists of the platforms DISimages – a project producing new stock imagery – and DISown – a now-closed concept store featuring work by over 30 artists as a laboratory to test the current status of the art object, as well as notions of taste and consumerism.
[5] Early content was focused on identifying emerging trends and forecasting potential new ones, from accessorizing with nipple clamps through Z-CoiL shoes and Under Armour sports clothing.
DISimages has been described as ‘Shutterstock on ketamine.’ DIS themselves explained that “... stock photographs just perpetuate the same stereotypes over and over again, so we wanted to intercept that and add a few more tags to those weird pictures, to give some more options.”[7] Artists who contributed to DISimages include Anne de Vries, Ian Cheng, Dora Budor, Maja Cule, Harry Griffin, and Fatima Al-Qadiri.
Shawn Maximo's DISimages project "Confusion is the New Luxury" fused natural landscapes with computer generated images to surreal effect, and Ian Cheng's "3D Models" had virtual human heads reciting commercial programming.
For sale were items such as a mobile trash can and office planter by artist Lizzie Fitch, a salad bowl by Hood By Air and a Maje Cule-designed mirrored folding chair intended to "maximize intern productivity.
[12] Video projects have been made in collaboration with several partners, including artists Ilana Harris-Babou and Casey Jane Ellison,[13] theorist McKenzie Wark,[14] and filmmakers Jacob Hurwitz-Goodman and Daniel Keller.
In 2012 DIS received a commission from Frieze Art Fair to present a project at their yearly Regent's Park event.
The curator, Sarah McCrory, said of their work: "They subvert the very language of fashion, art and advertising, right down to making ugly a compliment.”[20] For the 2015 New Museum Triennial, Surround Audience, curated by Lauren Cornell and Ryan Trecartin, DIS produced The Island (KEN), a hybrid kitchen and bath, in collaboration with Dornbracht and co-designed by high end German design studio Meire and Meire.
In 2015, MoMA commissioned DIS to create new work for their 30th bi-annual New Photography exhibition, this time titled Ocean of Images and promising to probing the effects of an image-based post-Internet reality.
[22] They were also invited to produce the advertising campaign for the show, which starred Conchita Wurst, the Austrian singer and drag queen who became famous overnight after winning Eurovision 2014.