Project 6 - Experimental Camera

Examples of images Description

The purpose of my camera is to track the subject's (user's) face, then allow the subject to draw their own face on a canvas. The camera is meant to capture both the person and their own artistic creation, by using their face as a brush. I found that the user is highly deliberate in their movements, and often looks at the canvas as a substitute for their own face. The inspiration for this There is a certain duality in the subject. The subject is being 'painted' by a representation of the actual subject. This is a sort of meta-moment for the user of the technology. It is also super engaging to be a part, as the painter, of the work. I think meanings of self and body emerge from seeing yourself in this experimental camera. Just as we are self-conscious about our appearance when we are staring at ourselves, this confronts that notion, and plays with it through art.

Design Process

My design process was rather exploratory. I thought of and sketched three ideas, however I was not happy with any of them. One was to augment a mask on the subject's face, another idea was to pixelate the subject, and the final idea was to create many "screens" of the subject as if the subject was the Architect in the Matrix. I instead just decided to mess around with p5 until something cool happened. I was particularly inspired by one of the presenters' use of the face tracker software, and I decided to hack around with it as well. I ended up accidentally creating the camera image as smaller than the overall canvas. This was a mind-blowing moment, as it almost created a canvas-like environment for the subject. I decided to try to make the face direct a sort of brush, where the brush represents the vertices of the face. I spent much time iterating on the effects and representation of the face vector on the canvas.

Reflection

I found this project powerful, particularly in a world of isolation, where we often find ourselves starting at ourselves through a screen. This project was also very impactful on my creative process. I learned that I can generate my mistakes into eureka moments.