Random String of Emotions (eine Studie von Gesichtsausdrücken aus algorithmischer Perspektive)

At the exhibition from September 1, 2018 to June 2, 2019

Emotion recognition software analyzes our emotions by deconstructing our facial expressions into temporal segments that produce the expression, called Action Units (AU; developed by Paul Ekman), and breaking them down into percentages of six basic emotions, happy, sad, angry, surprised, scared, and disgusted.

In this video the artist uses this decoding system to turn the process around. Here – instead of detecting AUs – a computer is used to generate a random string of AUs. In this way complex and perhaps even nonexisting emotional expressions will be discovered. These randomly formed expressions, played in random order, are then analyzed again by professional emotion recognition software.   

This project is generously funded by the Creative Industry Fund (NL) and was supported by the European Media Artist in Residence Exchange (EMARE) at Werkleitz and the Ministry of Culture Saxony-Anhalt. The emotion software is FaceReader, with the help of the Usability Lab, Communication and Multimedia Design, Amsterdam University of Applied Science.

Credits:
Actress: Marina Miller Dessau
Choreography: Marjolein Vogels 
Music: Arnoud Traa
Technics: Joerg Drefs, Sylvian Vriens
Camera: Tim Nowitzki
Makeup: Rafaela Siqueira​​​​​​​
Software: Facereader by Noldus