Face / On

Interactive installation playfully engaging with facial recognition technology by Rachel Smith

How do AI systems decide on personal labels such as age and gender based on looks alone?

Face / On was an interactive installation that explored who systems see. It took the form of a closed door embedded with a facial recognition system. Face/On was a gatekeeper deciding on who looked like they fitted its criteria, and who would be permitted entry past the threshold. To encounter the artwork it was necessary to adopt a disguise to fool the system!

For Control Shift 2020 Face / On was installed in City Hall, the central Bristol City Council building.

Thank you Artspace Lifespace for venue support.

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Image credit:

Ibi Feher

About the artist

Rachel Smith

Bristol based Rachel Smith is a media artist and creative technologist with an MFA in Media Art from Bauhaus University Weimar and an undergraduate in Maths. She is a resident of the Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol and recently completed a Fellowship in Automation for the South West Creative Technology Network. Often creating playful experiences and interactive installations, she interrogates emerging technologies with both a critical and affectionate eye. Her main interests lie in the relationship between humans and machines and her work has a particular focus on the hidden decision-making processes found in artificial intelligence. She has exhibited internationally including at the Kunstverein Tiergarten in Berlin and the Ars Electronica festival.