Sunday, July 05, 2009

The eye of the beholder

Self-Portrait Machine



Jen Hui Liao's Self-Portrait Machine is a device that takes a picture of the sitter and draws it but with the model's help. The wrists of the individual are tied to the machine and it is his or her hands that are guided to draw the lines that will eventually form the portrait.

The project started with the observation that nearly everything that surrounds us has been created by machines. Our personal identities are represented by the products of the man-machine relationship. The Self-Portrait Machine encapsulates this man-machine relationship. By co-operating with the machine, a self-portrait is generated. It is self-drawn but from an external viewpoint through controlled movement and limited possibility. Our choice of how we are represented is limited to what the machine will allow.

(Via Grinding.)


[Follow me on Twitter.]

3 comments:

Red Pill Junkie said...

Cooperation? Here it looks like the machine is enslaving the user! A bit disturbing for my taste :-/

Mac said...

This thing is basically an Etch-a-Sketch for the Singularity crowd.

contactos valencia said...

In my view one and all should browse on this.