Panégoptique is an interactive installation that dynamically merges the faces of two participants to create hybrid, imaginary beings at the intersection of familiarity and otherness. By blending texture, color, and topology, it produces unsettling portraits that invite us to reflect on how our self-image is mediated by technology, by society, as well as by our own vanity and our fears.

The installation itself is a sculptural assembly of 13 obsolete iPhones. The use of devices deemed culturally outdated—though still fully functional—is deliberate. It seeks to question our relationship to the temporality and ecology of technology. By invoking the iPhone’s omnipresence and cultural significance, the installation also interrogates our personal relationship to social status and obsolescence, as well as to biosurveillance and self-representation.

The cell phones are used to detect the visitors’ faces and photograph them. The images are then sent to the system’s “brain” which transforms them into 3D models and combines them. The resulting portrait is composed of dynamic areas drawn from alternating pixel matrices. Its topology oscillates between the two captured faces. Thus, the colors and textures of one face can be applied to the shape of another. The installation’s algorithms have been designed to explore this liminal space where faces are both recognizable and unrecognizable at once.

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Technical Requirements

The technical rider should answer most questions regarding the physical, electrical and technical needs for this installation. If you have further questions, do not hesitate to contact me.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following partners for their support: