Portraits sans permission (a.k.a. Innocent Surveillance, a.k.a. Les visages d’Édouard) is an interactive installation that subverts the conventional use of facial detection algorithms. Instead of using them for surveillance, behaviour prediction or mercantile purposes, the installation uses facial detection to seek faces and draw portraits from them. The portraits are made up of algorithmically-generated lines and are projected on a large circular screen for everyone to see.
The portraits are purposely semi-abstract. This makes it difficult to recognize an unfamiliar face while making it easy to recognize yourself or someone you know. The brain has to fill in the gaps in a gestaltic fashion. The idea is to invite the viewer to think about its right to privacy and to self-image. After all, AI-powered surveillance, forced upon us for security reasons, has its own biases, its own shortcomings and offers no way to opt out. Perhaps art is a better reason for surveillance than security?
While the underlying themes of the project may seem gloomy, most viewers approach the installation in a playful manner, often waiting for the best timing to grab a selfie… Have we now gone full circle or is peer-surveillance even worse, or simply the norm?
As one moves away from the projection screen, the subjective resolution grows. With distance, the impression is that the image is sharper. Obviously, this is a perceptual illusion, but it highlights how our brain can recognize a face with very little information. Interestingly, this is very similar to machine learning algorithms. Such algorithms can easily detect faces from very low-resolution images. To put that into perspective, this means that face detection is currently possible from satellite imagery… As a matter of fact, all the technologies used in the project are readily available which makes spying on a large scale frighteningly easy. But, then again, the cult of the image is now so strong that there may be nobody left to object…
Public Presentations
A prototype of the installation (called Les visages d’Édouard) was created for the 50th anniversary of Édouard-Montpetit College. The installation was on display for 4 months (February to June 2018). During that period, 2500 portraits have been captured. Everyday, numerous passersby felt compelled to have their portrait taken.
The installation was also presented during the following events:
- 404 Festival (University of Massachussets Lowell, USA, January-February 2019)
- Lumifest (Longueuil, Canada, October 2018)
Photos
Technical Requirements
The technical rider should answer most questions regarding the physical and technical needs for this installation. If you have further questions, do not hesitate to contact me.
Acknowledgements
The installation was created by Benoit Lavigne (hardware) and Jean-Philippe Côté (software). Édouard-Montpetit College graciously provided financial and technical support towards the realization of this project.