Class 2: Faces: From Biometrics to Facial Recognition and Selfies (28 Jan)

What we will do in class

This class was switched to online at the last moment due to sickness.

Discussing the #1daynocam assignment

Let's discuss the #1daynocam photos. I'll post a comment to the discussion about them - please write at least one reply.

Art that explores biometrics and facial recognition

Watch this 7 minute screencast Links to an external site. about some art that explores these topics. When you've watched it, choose a few of the works that are most interesting to you and explore them in greater depth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yoI9VyOHq8 Links to an external site.

• Erica Scourti. 2015. Body Scan. Excerpt: https://vimeo.com/111503640 Look at the CamFind app Links to an external site. that she used as well - go on, install it and try it out!
• Marnix de Nijs. 2010. Physiognomic Scrutinizer (Good description with link to video here)
• Mushon Zer-Aviv and Yonatan Ben-Simhon The Turing Normalizing Machine, 2013. (Description from We Make Money Not Art.)
• Zach Blas. 2013-2015. Face Cages. (his website http://www.zachblas.info/projects/face-cages is not accessible right now so look at this piece from Mashable instead Links to an external site. - and definitely watch the video. 
• Hito Steyerl. How Not to be Seen Links to an external site.. Read this short piece about it from MoMA Links to an external site.. Watch the Monty Python sketch she took the title from Links to an external site. too. 
• Adam Harvey. 2013. CV Dazzle: Camouflage from Face Detection. http://cvdazzle.com
• Noah Kalina. 2006. Everyday. Read about time-lapse selfies and biometric identity here Links to an external site..

Hands on: explore Selfiecity

You remember from Alice Tifentale and Lev Manovich's article about the project that they had some very quantitative findings. People in Brazil smile more, there are more women in Moscow, Asians tilt their heads more, that kind of thing. The project has been criticized for being like physiognomy, where people measured heads and looked at faces and thought they could draw conclusions about peoples' intelligence. So your assignment is to thoroughly explore the selfieexploratory part of the project and discuss in pairs or threes or all together whether you think you could come to other, more qualitative conclusions from data like this. 

Discussion in Google Hangouts

We'll discuss what you've done so far in class, and the papers you read for today. 

More to consider:

Scott Chasserot. 2015. Original Ideal. http://originalideal.com Links to an external site. Links to an external site.

A photographer took portraits of people, manipulated the portraits in various ways, showed them manipulated portraits of themselves and monitored their brain patterns to see which they preferred. (See also a blog post about the project on Jill/txt Links to an external site..)

Dove Real Beauty Sketches. 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk Links to an external site.

Canon Australia. 2015. The Lab: Decoy. A Portrait Session with a Twist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk Links to an external site.