RANDOM STRING OF EMOTIONS

By Coralie Vogelaar (NL) 2018

A computer is used to generate a random string of facial expressions

Emotion recognition software analyse our emotions by deconstructing our facial expressions into Action Units (AUs - developed by prof. Paul Ekman). AUs are temporal segments that produce an expression. The software deducts AUs into certain percentages of six basic emotions: happy, sad, angry, surprised, scared and disgusted. In this video work, the same decoding system is used to reverse the process. Here, instead of detecting AUs, a computer generates a random string of these AUs. This string produces complex and maybe even non-existing expressions of emotion. These randomly formed expressions, played in random order, are then fed back into the computer and analysed by professional emotion recognition software.

EXHIBITOR BIOGRAPHY

Coralie Vogelaar is an Amsterdam-based visual artist. She is interested in the cross-over where computers and humans intersect. To what extent can our behaviour ever be captured meaningfully by computer systems, and at the same time which new way of seeing can these technologies give us? She finds inspiration from quantitative research methods like eye-tracking, emotion measurement and image recognition software.

Vogelaar graduated in 2007 at the design department of the Sandberg Institute and completed in 2010 a residency at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. She teaches at different art academy's. Recent exhibitions were in ZKM - Karlsruhe, Kunstverein Kassel, Impakt Festival, MU Artspace, V2, FOMU - Antwerp, SPRING Festival Utrecht & PuntWG, Amsterdam.

Exhibit Credits:
Actress: Marina Miller Dessau
Choreography: Marjolein Vogels
Sound design: Arnoud Traa
Percussion: Onno Govaert
Technique: Joerg Drefs, Sylvian Vriens
Camera: Tim Nowitzki
make up: Rafaela Siqueira
Software: Facereader by Noldus

This project is generously funded by Creative Industry Fund (NL), Werkleitz EMARE program 2017, funded by Saxony-Anhalt. The emotion software is FaceReader, with the help of the Observatorium Lab, Communication and Multimedia Design, Amsterdam University of Applied Science

LINKS

Website: coralievogelaar.com

Instagram: @coralievogelaar