Joep Truijen

Facing Average is an on-site installation. The installation encourages us to think about the assumptions we have about the people around us, based on appearance. I hold a mirror to expose our deep-rooted prejudices. Facing Average confronts us with the average face of the people around us and initiates a dialogue between us and the image about the similarities and differences of these people. Facing Average is an application of machine learning and facial recognition within digital culture. It promotes the way in which these two media are to be used, namely neutral, objectively without prejudices. It is up to man to interpret this again in his or her way. So no judgment is made about gender, ethnic origin, religious or social appearance. It is a mirror of collective rather than the individual at a time when the composition of society is drastically changing. Facing Average consists of a computer, monitor and webcam. With self-developed software, the computer makes portrait photographs of all people who look at the screen via the webcam and generates a composite image of this. Each portrait photo is placed over the previous photos and melt together to form the average face.

(De Cacaofabriek)

(campina fabriek)

Body Capture is a preservation solution of the human body from todays world. The project presents a time capsule containing a set of parts necessary to reconstruct the body as it is now for a post-trans humanism era. As the physical body proves to act increasingly as a limitation, trans-humanists predict we will end up in a world where humans can live through machines, uploading their selves onto a computer, and ultimately leading to the extinction of our current human form. With the likes of virtual realities and body modification already prevailing in today’s society, this trans-humanist vision may not be such a far away future. Facing this prospect, the emphasis of the project lies in preserving an objective experience of being, as we live now, within a physical human body. It serves as an archive that documents the body’s physical space, movement and expression, for a time where the human existence is no longer lived out by these same means. The components selected for the time capsule collectively address the qualities that define how we live in our bodies now. These components are: a model shell, a surface color map, a body language dictionary and a phonetic voice and facial motion video recording. The model shell is a physical copy of the body, it is the base for all other components. The color map provides information about the visual surface of the body, while the dictionary provides a documentation that dissects how the body performs specific movements and activities. The phonetic voice and facial motion video recording enables a simulation of the human voice and facial movements to be constructed while corresponding to particular words as they are being spoken. In the coming together of these parts, Body Capture provides a record of the physical human being, specific to both the person and the time, in order for it to be relived in a new physical age. (The model shell + molds)

(The surface color map)

(The body language dictionary)

(The phonetic voice and facial motion video recording)