Identity Mask is a wearable, interactive sculpture that hides its wearer behind a digital facial composite. In a process inspired by character creation menus in role-playing games and profile generation on social networking platforms, its wearer controls the mask’s appearance by adjusting sliders assigned to specific physical attributes on a detachable touchscreen interface. LCDs layered over the wearer’s face load and display corresponding images of features isolated from images in facial recognition database. In its use of superficial traits as the heart of a calculated identity, Identity Mask is a reflection of the essentialism and statistical fallacies vital to the profitability of social networks, strategically exploited by social malefactors, and epistemologically corrosive for everyone else.
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Jake Wright is a new media artist and cyberneticist. His work relates to the design and ubiquity of human-machine interfaces, and their influence on human communication and thought. In addition to his artistic practice, he is an instructor at the New York City College of Technology (CUNY-CityTech) and Pratt Institute. Contact via email at jwright.prof@gmail.com, or use the links to the right.below.