It’s a Face-eat-face World

The video essay is a digital fable tracing the cyclical evolution from facial recognition to synthetic facial data. Beginning with a digital scan of the artist’s own face, it recounts the invention of facial recognition and the emergence of synthetic datasets, in which deepfakes and computer-generated faces are increasingly positioned to replace real-world images as training material for facial recognition systems. The narrative unfolds through unsettling visuals – a face eating another face, a digital twin traversing a vast abstract landscape that is ultimately revealed to be an enlarged, topographical version of the artist’s face.

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3D scene and script by Sheung Yiu
3D photogrammetry by Mimic Productions
Cinematography by Bela Moritz
Sound design and mixing by Marija Šumarac