NowYouSeeMeActingNormal is a combinational project that intertwines my research into facial recognition systems and the ongoing 2020 coronavirus pandemic. The products that have formulated from these projects are a variety of masks that combine to protect its user from COVID-19 as well as masking the user from AI-generated algorithms. Facial recognition systems work by mapping the features of an individual’s face and then running it through its own set database. They are considered a particularly controversial ‘new’ area of technology due to concerns about privacy and how quickly it is expanding. ‘NowYouSeeMe’ (inspired by the works of Adam Harvey, Jip van Leeuwenstein and writings by Christopher Milligan), is my research into the desire to protect one’s privacy in the looming popularity of facial recognition systems. Masking from this controversial ‘new’ technology has been a very sizable heading for existing artists thus the way this has been performed previously is expansive. Thus, to add my self into the mix, I have combined this area of practice with ‘ActingNormal’, my response to the coronavirus pandemic. Our lives have been drastically altered within 2020 and thus many artists have responded to the new normal we are attempting to adjust too. The works of Elaine Whittaker, Elinor Carucci, and Anita Glesta stimulated my interest in creating coronavirus response paintings. These paintings have been depicted in my own unique methodology that works in a biological artistic approach. As a result of the combinational projects, I have produced a series of illustrative masks that combine both fields to protect the user from COVID-19 as well as masking from the potential dangers of facial recognition systems.
You can follow each step taken within the project on my blog here.
Or switch to the gallery section and follow the link to test out the photographs against Megvii’s Face++, a free facial recognition system.