The Reveal
We’ve only scratched the surface!
We wanted a big dramatic reveal. So we made and distributed scratch cards and showcased the painterly average image upon an easel like display board with a flourish.
The manual compositing was absolutely enlightening. I for one am glad we couldn’t find an algorithm that could do it for us. We had instantly become ruthless machines “Why is this person’s nose so big?”, “Ugh the eyes are too small!” we said as we stretched and squished faces to get the eyes to align- like plastic surgeons. We operated on every layer. We saw ourselves in the image- we noted when we began to disappear- no longer recognisable. The longer we looked at this face — the creepier it became. I was going to be haunted by it. Jingle the “Mother Layer” wearing everyone else on her face. Could the choice of base determine the output? I wonder. Perhaps it would have been interesting to try different faces as the base layer — see if it would have made a difference to the final output. Our biases and choices have clearly seeped into the process- I wonder if we could pinpoint those choices…
Our display in the cafe definitely managed to pique curiosity. Those who participated in the Facebooth photo session were interested to see the final result and those who didn’t stood before this odd face inquisitively.
They ate , as the face continued to watch them — feeling its creepy eyes upon them — yet ignoring it, save an occasional glance. They were part of it. It was part of them. Unrecognisable. They were just a layer- part of a dataset. Who cares. Nothing new.
