BIOMETRIC MIRROR

BY LUCY MCRAE & NIELS WOUTERS

Australia 2018

DO YOU TRUST ALGORITHMS TO MAKE JUDGEMENTS ABOUT YOU BASED ON YOUR APPEARANCE?

Computer generated algorithms that claim to accurately analyse your face, are increasingly being used by governments and corporations to make decisions, identify patterns and predict outcomes. Whilst targeted advertising and personalised recommendations systems might improve your life, do they always get it right? Do systems that claim to identify a person’s sexuality, beauty, gender or ethnicity raise ethical questions? Biometric Mirror is a research-based Sci Fi installation that questions the accuracy and assumptions of facial recognition algorithms. Participants entering a futuristic Sci Fi beauty salon have their biometric data scanned revealing a mathematically ‘perfect’ version of their own face based. The new version is based on an algorithm by a Hollywood plastic surgeon, Dr Stephen Marquardt, who hoped to define mathematical parameters of beauty. Whose version of perfection is it?

ABOUT

Lucy McRae is a sci-fi artist, film director, TED Fellow and body architect, placing the human body in complex, futuristic scenarios that confound the boundaries between the natural and artificial. Lucy’s award-winning science fiction artworks have been developed in collaboration with leading institutes including NASA, MIT and Ars Electronica. Her work has been exhibited at the London Science Museum, Centre Pompidou and the Venice Biennale.

Dr Niels Wouters is a research scientist at The Microsoft Research Centre for Social Natural User Interfaces (SocialNUI) at The University of Melbourne. SocialNUI is a place of collaborative research for creating and understanding innovative Natural User Interfaces that facilitate human communication, collaboration and social interaction.

CONNECT

Website: www.lucymcrae.net