Giovanna Sun,”Trance Utopia”
Merit Thursday,
Paul Echeverria, “Selfie”
Yamin Xu, “Iris”
As an experiment designed to question the boundary, relationship, and identity between human bodies and AI robots, Iris is endowed with independent perception and temperament by implementing facial expression recognition, bio-signal measuring, and emotion synthesis. This temperament is stimulated by PAD emotional model and expressed through algorithmic motions generated in real-time. Emotions of the Iris are affected by the wearer’s feelings through sensors that measure the bio-signal of the wearer. This ability to perceive and emote reflects certain connections and differences with the wearer as if showing a split personality. Moreover, Iris noticeably affects interpersonal interactions and relationships by showing different responses to people captured by the camera. These effects are heightened during COVID-19 when our faces are covered by masks, which is, based on perception and synthesis, the Iris performs like a highly specialized organ to augment and replace humans’ expressions.
Whatever experience Iris brings to us, invasion or symbiosis, we have to face the reality that similar technologies are being widely used for censorship, surveillance, and manipulation. However, I wish it always expresses cuteness, not brutality.
