Article:
Quantified Faces. On Surveillance Technologies, Identification and Statistics in Three Contemporary Art Projects

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dc.creatorZacher Sørensen, Mette-Marie
dc.date.accessioned2018-09-25T15:11:53Z
dc.date.available2018-09-25T15:11:53Z
dc.date.issued2016
dc.description.abstractThe article presents three contemporary art projects that, in various ways, thematise questions regarding numerical representation of the human face in relation to the identification of faces, for example through the use of biometric video analysis software, or DNA technology. The Dutch artist Marnix de Nijs’ Physiognomic Scrutinizer is an interactive installation whereby the viewer’s face is scanned and identified with historical figures. The American artist Zach Blas’ project Fag Face Mask consists of three-dimensional portraits that blend biometric facial data from 30 gay men’s faces and critically examine bias in surveillance technologies, as well as scientific investigations, regarding the stereotyping mode of the human gaze. The American artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg creates three-dimensional portraits of persons she has “identified” from their garbage. Her project from 2013 entitled Stranger Visions involves extracting DNA from discarded items she finds in public spaces in New York City, such as cigarette butts and chewing gum. She has the DNA that is extracted from these items analysed for specific genomic sequences associated with physical traits such as hair and eye colour. The three works are analysed with perspectives to historical physiognomy and Francis Galton’s composite portraits from the 1800s. It is argued that, rather than being a statistical compression like the historical composites, contemporary statistical visual portraits (composites) are irreversible and complicated amalgams. The article furthermore examines questions regarding the agency of the technologies used by the artists.en
dc.identifier.doi10.25969/mediarep/922
dc.identifier.urihttp://digicults.org/files/2016/03/Mette-Marie-Zacher-Sørensen_2016_Quantified-Faces.pdf
dc.identifier.urihttps://mediarep.org/handle/doc/3160
dc.languageeng
dc.publishertranscript
dc.publisher.placeBielefeld
dc.relation.isPartOfissn:2364-2114
dc.relation.ispartofseriesDigital Culture & Society
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 Generic
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
dc.subjectPhysiognomiede
dc.subjectMonitoringde
dc.subjectphysiognomyen
dc.subjectmonitoringen
dc.subject.ddcddc:323
dc.titleQuantified Faces. On Surveillance Technologies, Identification and Statistics in Three Contemporary Art Projectsde
dc.typearticle
dc.type.statuspublishedVersion
dcterms.bibliographicCitationZacher Sørensen, Mette-Marie (2016): Quantified Faces. On Surveillance Technologies, Identification and Statistics in Three Contemporary Art Projects. In: Digital Culture & Society 2 (1), S. 169–176. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/922.
dspace.entity.typeArticleen
local.coverpage2021-05-29T02:30:52
local.identifier.firstpublishedhttp://digicults.org/files/2016/03/Mette-Marie-Zacher-Sørensen_2016_Quantified-Faces.pdf
local.source.epage176
local.source.issue1
local.source.spage169
local.source.volume2
local.subject.gndhttps://d-nb.info/gnd/4128352-1
local.subject.gndhttps://d-nb.info/gnd/4209015-5
local.subject.wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q841933
local.subject.wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2143522

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