Mengqiao

SurFace is an interactive artwork that explores the topics of identity, data extraction, AI ethics and language, by displaying one of the state-of-the-art technologies for facial analysis.

Using face recognition technology, the piece analyzes the facial attributes of the viewer by retrieving data from their appearances and comparing it to its datasets. Based on this analysis, the model predicts their gender, ethnicity, age and emotional state and showcases it in label-screens. As the viewer moves, the tracking shortly follows and so does the data extraction. How can we free ourselves from those labels? What comes implicit with those assumptions? How can we free ourselves from the limitations of language?

The artwork aims to reflect on identity labels by drawing a parallel between the labels assigned by AI models and the equally biased labels assigned by society and ourselves. From the moment we are born until we die we have been assigned all sorts of labels, from our names to our nationalities and our age, limiting the understanding of our own selves and curbing us to the constraints of superficiality.