Simulacra

A data composition on reality and identity

What constitutes my identity in our hyper-real data society?

"Simulacra" addresses this question based on the theories of the French media philosopher Jean Baudrillard. It is an installation between reality and fiction, a space in which the lines between data and the self become blurred. The viewer's face is analyzed and manipulated. Through a visible translation process and projected mirror reflections, they encounter their own identity in an abstracted, fragmented, data form.

This abstraction is representative of a process that has come to be an essential part of our society: we create our data sets, and they in turn shape us. It becomes impossible to differentiate between the self and the data ego, data becomes more real than the self. Baudrillard speaks of a reality principle that is determined by matrices, computational models and data storage. "Simulacra" examines his theses using the facial data set and its role in shaping ones identity.

The viewer is tracked using facial recognition, cropped to eyes and mouth and reflected onto a surface via a projector and mirror array. The facial data is processed in Touch Desinger. The visible stages of abstraction breaks with the clear separation of the two identities.