In a world governed by biometric data and algorithmic recognition, visibility is no longer neutral. To be seen is to be identified, categorized, and often
criminalized, especially for those who resist, dissent, or simply exist outside the boundaries of power.
This installation is a critical response to the expanding surveillance apparatus, particularly the use of body-worn police cameras equipped with facial detection and recognition technologies.
At its center are nine silicone facial casts, each embedded with distinct camouflage modules. These masks interact with key biometric targets used by facial recognition systems, such as the nose bridge, ocular symmetry, and facial contours. Rather than fully concealing the face, they aim to disrupt its legibility by machines while maintaining visibility to human viewers.
Each mask employs techniques designed to confuse machine vision: asymmetry undermines the facial balance expected by detection models; distorted patterns, checkered or abstract, interfere with the localization of features; three-dimensional protrusions alter the face’s profile and shadow logic; and unusual combinations of color and material challenge the contrast assumptions embedded in recognition algorithms.
A live camera system mounted on a tripod feeds into a projector, displaying the algorithm’s perspective in real time. On screen, moments of misrecognition appear, missed detections, erroneous bounding boxes, or complete absence. These results were later tested and confirmed using widely researched facial recognition technologies.
Here, camouflage becomes protest, a wearable refusal. Not a disguise, but a declaration. These masks are not worn to disappear from human sight, but to evade the machinic gaze. They underscore the unequal burden of visibility and the dangers of algorithmic legibility under systems of authoritarian digital control.
This is not a fantasy of escape, but a provocation. What might it mean to design invisibility as a right?
criminalized, especially for those who resist, dissent, or simply exist outside the boundaries of power.
This installation is a critical response to the expanding surveillance apparatus, particularly the use of body-worn police cameras equipped with facial detection and recognition technologies.
At its center are nine silicone facial casts, each embedded with distinct camouflage modules. These masks interact with key biometric targets used by facial recognition systems, such as the nose bridge, ocular symmetry, and facial contours. Rather than fully concealing the face, they aim to disrupt its legibility by machines while maintaining visibility to human viewers.
Each mask employs techniques designed to confuse machine vision: asymmetry undermines the facial balance expected by detection models; distorted patterns, checkered or abstract, interfere with the localization of features; three-dimensional protrusions alter the face’s profile and shadow logic; and unusual combinations of color and material challenge the contrast assumptions embedded in recognition algorithms.
A live camera system mounted on a tripod feeds into a projector, displaying the algorithm’s perspective in real time. On screen, moments of misrecognition appear, missed detections, erroneous bounding boxes, or complete absence. These results were later tested and confirmed using widely researched facial recognition technologies.
Here, camouflage becomes protest, a wearable refusal. Not a disguise, but a declaration. These masks are not worn to disappear from human sight, but to evade the machinic gaze. They underscore the unequal burden of visibility and the dangers of algorithmic legibility under systems of authoritarian digital control.
This is not a fantasy of escape, but a provocation. What might it mean to design invisibility as a right?