Nonfacial Portrait, 2018-ongoing, Face detection software, camera, computer, monitor, canvas, smartphone, table and wooden panel, Variable dimensions.
The artists invited painters and asked them to make portrait paintings of a person. The painters had to follow one rule: “the face of the portrait must not be detected by AI.”
While the portrait is being made, a camera equipped with three face detection algorithms* watches the canvas and a monitor informs the painter if any face is detected. The painter would refer to it and develop the painting. The face of the completed portrait should not be visible to any of the algorithms.
It is tricky. If one paints the portrait close to the human subject, AI will easily detect the face. And the more one tries to make it unrecognizable by AI, the less the painting would be seen as a portrait of the person. One must find the small visual space that only humans can perceive.
In the installation, each portrait is presented along with the video of the painter’s painting process.
* OpenCV Face Detection, Dlib Face Detection and Joint Cascade Face Detection and Alignment.
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Nonfacial Portrait (documentation video), 2018-ongoing.
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Nonfacial Portrait (installation view at Seoul Museum of Art, 2018), 2018-ongoing, Face detection software, camera, computer, monitor, canvas, smartphone, table and wooden panel, 600 x 600 x 240 cm.
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Nonfacial Portrait (installation view at Seoul Museum of Art, 2018), 2018-ongoing, Face detection software, camera, computer, monitor, canvas, smartphone, table and wooden panel, 600 x 600 x 240 cm.
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Nonfacial Portrait (installation view at Seoul Museum of Art, 2018), 2018-ongoing, Face detection software, camera, computer, monitor, canvas, smartphone, table and wooden panel, 600 x 600 x 240 cm.
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Nonfacial Portrait (installation view at Seoul Museum of Art, 2018), 2018-ongoing, Face detection software, camera, computer, monitor, canvas, smartphone, table and wooden panel, 600 x 600 x 240 cm.
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Nonfacial Portrait (installation view at Seoul Museum of Art, 2018), 2018-ongoing, Face detection software, camera, computer, monitor, canvas, smartphone, table and wooden panel, 600 x 600 x 240 cm.
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Nonfacial Portrait (installation view at NTT ICC, 2019), 2018-ongoing, Face detection software, camera, computer, monitor, canvas, smartphone, table and wooden panel, 600 x 600 x 240 cm. Production support: NTT ICC.
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Nonfacial Portrait (installation view at NTT ICC, 2019), 2018-ongoing, Face detection software, camera, computer, monitor, canvas, smartphone, table and wooden panel, 600 x 600 x 240 cm. Production support: NTT ICC.
Participated painters:
Lee Yoonsang, Chang Wooju, Ahn Kwanghwee, Yoon Miryu, Yoonjung Kim, Hyein Hong, Cho Yu-jeong, Lee Hyun-Kyung, Kim Dae You, Shinah Lee, Kashima Rikako, Hanaoka Miyu, Higuchi Mai, Shishikura Shinobu, Kagetsu Keisuke, Kim Yunsoo, Kodera Sota, Taoka Tomomi.
Commissioned by Seoul Mediacity Biennale 2018