Interactive Installation of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Recognizing ourselves in the mirror is a basic human skill, a practice that sets us apart from the vast majority of animal species. From the age of 20 months, we are aware of our own image; in short, we know what we look like.

This certainty is challenged by Uncanny Mirror, a work created by one of the pioneering artists in the use of AI. Through algorithms, this interactive installation produces digital portraits of viewers in real time.

To do this, the system analyzes biometric facial markers, as well as information on poses and hand movements. It then presents a pictorial image based on all its previous learning.

In this work, the audiences are “an interesting source of data”: they provide information that brings unpredictability and risk. The AI system is constantly learning, assimilating data from everyone who looks in this unusual mirror. Each new portrait is based on the accumulated knowledge of the machine; each face it produces contains something of what went before.

We’ve all seen our reflections a thousand times. However, this work by Klingemann offers different perspectives on how the AI system sees us.

Commissioned by Seoul Mediacity Biennale