white edition and black edition
(nylon, SLS, wood, 2019)
Inspired by physiological Biometrics – body measurements and calculations used to label and describe individuals based on the shape of their body, I created a set of physical 3d facial recognition masks – biometrical masks, by using algorithmic lines, points and bars.
The set of ‘face cages’ or ‘face patterns’ looked at stereotypical values facial recognition system attaches to the wearer, incorporating everyone in a single one-size-fits-all. This premise that human bodies can be simply compacted into a single and uniform code was criticized by feminist scholar Shoshana Amielle Magnet as marginalization of transgendered bodies and mechanized racial profiling. She points out the fact that biometric technologies are based upon obsolete and flawed assumptions about the biological nature of identities which reproduce existing forms of inequality.
“Biometrical Mask” project therefore questions the objectivity of the technology. It challenges the commonplace assumption that human bodies can be reduced to a string of numbers. By using the same algorithmic codes I created a set of distinctive and intricate biometric patterns with counter-intuitive purpose – confusing a wearer’s face to facial-recognition cameras but not other people, by its very own algorithmic systems.
To do so, 6 performers’ faces were 3D scanned, and then the individual biometrical 3D pattern was created, overlapping layers and following their distinctive facial features. The masks were then 3D printed in SLS nylon.
CAD and engineering help by Christian Schmidts from Universität der Künste Berlin
Supported by UCL-University College London
Black edition commissioned Withley Dance company