About the Project
Screenshot from Instagram. Search for #selfie on April 25, 2020.
|
I make these screenprints to investigate the computer vision behind facial recognition (FR), to understand what the computer does to a face. Beginning with Instagram, I download selfies from various profiles. From textbooks, I reinterpret the logical instructions of facial recognition (FR) as artistic prompts for hand-collage. For these collages I print an image warp grid onto transparent film and use it as a guide to cut sections out of digital prints with an x-acto knife. The result distorts the face for the first layer of information.
|
|
Screen-printing holds the detail of the photographs and expands on themes of image filtering. The translucency of the Yupo paper and heavily transbase-modified inks allow the double-sided prints to feel luminescent, like a digital screen, while the flocked surfaces magically trap light and solidify forms.
|
Why I make this artwork:
Until recently, the notion that your selfie would be scraped off the internet by a private company and sold to law enforcement as a profitable mugshot would have seemed like a conspiracy theory (or at least an unlikely, worst case scenario). In early 2020, a technology company called ClearView AI scraped millions of public sites, including Facebook, YouTube, and Venmo, amassing nearly 3 billion photos for facial recognition and sold the datasets to more than 600 law enforcement agencies in the US.
These artworks allow the viewer to see an emotive interpretation of FR, how the computer cuts, warps, and distorts faces. Translating these invisible actions from behind digital screens into physical, printed objects makes the reality of online surveillance feel actual and personal. I don’t believe anyone expects their photos to be used for facial recognition (FR) when they post online, and I think we deserve basic digital rights to protect our data from this undesired use.
These artworks allow the viewer to see an emotive interpretation of FR, how the computer cuts, warps, and distorts faces. Translating these invisible actions from behind digital screens into physical, printed objects makes the reality of online surveillance feel actual and personal. I don’t believe anyone expects their photos to be used for facial recognition (FR) when they post online, and I think we deserve basic digital rights to protect our data from this undesired use.
