The Face in Film and Media Art as an aesthetic Play with Identity and Criticism of Security Systems

• Duration: 2019 – 2022
• Project lead: Prof. Dr. Winfried Pauleit

The project, which is affiliated with the ZeMKI Lab “Film, Media Art and Popular Culture”, explores the reflection of biometric facial recognition and algorithmically controlled security devices in contemporary photography, film and media art. Under the direction of Prof. Dr. Winfried Pauleit and junior researcher Dr. Rasmus Greiner, the project will examine different aesthetic forms of appropriation of surveillance technologies. The (audio-)visual play with human identity in the interplay with network-controlled surveillance technologies will be interpreted as an explicit critique of the endeavor to seamlessly record and control people. The aesthetic reflection and reproduction of surveillance mechanisms expresses a discomfort with technology, which is used as a tool for the apparitive conditioning and manipulation of human beings.

The aesthetic strategies of different artists should be read as a representation of a “facial society” that functions primarily through the recognizability and representation of faces. The representation of human identity thus shifts to faces captured and processed by the media. At the same time, computer-controlled technologies for biometric facial recognition are being established, as they are already being used in public places such as train stations and airports to check against recorded criminals. Based on cultural studies theory, the project examines artistic strategies in dealing with media representations of the face and their criticism of digital security systems.

The 2013 photo series “spirit is a bone” by British photographers Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, who used Russian surveillance technology to generate (phantom) faces, will be analyzed as an example. The photographers deliberately place their series in the photo-historical context of capturing the human physiognomy for the purpose of typifying and categorizing the external appearance with the aim of precautionary recognition of criminals. The face is to be interpreted as the interface of a multitude of aesthetic and media-specific discourses and conflicts. In terms of perspective, the aim is to build a bridge between art and media studies with a cultural-historical orientation and technology-based information research. The project is made possible by the Central Research Funding (ZF) of the University of Bremen.