Machine Perception

ALEX CARMICHAEL

8th – 20th April 2013

The Charlie Dutton Gallery is very pleased to exhibit, for 2 weeks only in the new Back Shop Edition space at the back of the gallery, Alex Carmichael’s new intriguing, yet sinister, series of work. After the 2 weeks the work will be available to view online or in gallery.

The images in this series of 24 prints are derived from online documentation of machine perception experiments. The documentation typically consists of a grid, or a set of points or lines, super-imposed over a human face to enable computers to recognise facial expressions. In the process of making these works, this digital map is extracted and used to create a photogram directly from the light of the computer screen.

Together these images comprise a survey. This kind of facial recognition technology is still in the developmental stages and each research group has its own approach to mapping the face, with varying levels of sophistication. Immediately noticeable is the similarity of some of the faces to primitive ceremonial masks or others to death masks. Whilst various competing approaches currently co-exist, it is Inevitable that a dominant form will emerge and standardise the field. Captured on antique photographic paper, this transient moment is made tangible and permanent.

More generally, the survey records an evolution in mapping; from traditional geometric triangulation (used to map our environments for millennia) to high resolution, one to one scanning. The project reflects the narrowing gap between synthetic and real, the map and the territory; a situation that has profound implications for how we experience our environments. The works enable us to inhabit the gaze of a machine and to view ourselves through its eyes.