Anja Groten – Face the InterFace

On a daily basis, our faces are being detected, recognized, flagged, filtered, swiped, targeted and possibly even criminalized. But what do we actually know about the algorithms looking at us? What decisions do they make? And, more importantly, how do they influence our lives?

This is what Anja Groten aims to explore with Face the InterFace, a smart mirror project that proposes to reimagine the role of our face in the digital realm. The work uses the actual face of its audience as a protagonist and self-directed agent. It recognizes facial expressions and alters the storyline it is telling by merely looking at it.

Face the InterFace makes the technology penetrating our lives not only tangible, but also discussable. The work is developed by Anja Groten and Hay Kranen in collaboration with writer Maartje Smits and artist and developer Jasper van Loenen.

Anja Groten is an independent designer and researcher based in Amsterdam. Investigating the possibilities of frictional encounters as part of design practice, Anja designs collective moments of critical making, aimed at discussion, confrontation and contingency.