dMirror Project
Project by Maša Jazbec and Floris Erich
University of Tsukuba Japan
Empowerment Informatics program, Virtual Reality Lab
in Collaboration with Ars Electronica Future Lab
The idMirror project consist of tablet computer, specially equipped with small mirror and newly developed android app. The Android application uses face recognition to detect the location of the face of the user relative to the device and based on this renders a computer graphic at the location of his or her reflection. The device is designed in the shape of the handle mirror. When a person position himself/herself in front of it can see his/her own face in the mirror which metaphorically presenting his/her identity. Image in the mirror slowly gets distorted like fluid in networks and thus becomes exposed subject to its permanent manipulation. idMirror is an artistic project that investigates how social networks and emerging mobile technologies have forever changed the perception of human identity. The purpose of idMirror project is not just to make an ornamental style used for making data/information more pleasing or more consumable, but to make a powerful statement about the world we live in. Social responsibility should be taken into account when dealing with visual practice. We are living in a time of constant changes of our daily living systems. Technological progress brings about transformation in every aspect of human existence, including the perception of ourselves. New ways of communication and cultural forms are a means of transfiguration of present day identities, forms of community and interpersonal relationships; our perception of time and space is being re-established as well.
People talk about digital life as the place of hope, the place where something new will come to them. Has the identity of Post City citizen shifted to the level of a code; captured in our mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones, and exposed in a form of information on the WWW. The essential question nowadays is: Where are we? By turning the participant’s face into the object of manipulation, this work aims to redefine human position in contemporary world when all kinds of environments – including those of everyday life – are particularly information-oriented in a society. We are citizens of the Post City times. The idMirror project can give us the support to understand and to become aware of all these transformations, and to understand the complexity of the contemporary world around us.