HUMAN STUDY #1, un-depict

This piece was created during the COVID-19 pandemic. I am fascinated by faces, and back when we were wearing masks and meeting new people, we subconsciously filled in the rest of their face—and with it, their personality. Later, upon seeing the same person without a mask, they felt like someone completely different, because the person we had imagined wasn’t actually there.

In this performative installation, participants pose for a drawing robot whose visual perception is altered by a deep learning model, producing an abstracted portrait that bears little resemblance to the sitter.