Machine Perception

The images in this series of prints are derived from online documentation of machine perception experiments. The documentation typically consists of a grid, or a set of points or lines, super-imposed over a human face to enable computers to recognise facial expressions. In the process of making these works, this digital map is extracted and used to create a photogram directly from the light of the computer screen.

Together these images comprise a survey. This kind of facial recognition technology is still in the developmental stages and each research group has its own approach to mapping the face, with varying levels of sophistication.

Whilst various competing approaches currently co-exist, it is inevitable that a dominant form will emerge and standardise the field. Captured on antique photographic paper, this transient moment is made tangible and permanent. Photography is turned in on itself, as one technology is used to observe the other. More generally, the survey records an evolution in mapping; from traditional geometric triangulation (used to map our environments for millennia) to high resolution, one to one scanning.

The project reflects the narrowing gap between synthetic and real, the map and the territory, a situation that has profound implications for how we experience our environments.