This project begins with pareidolia — the tendency to perceive meaningful images, particularly faces, in random objects. From machines to handles to electrical cords, I collected photographs of everyday items that vaguely resemble human faces. I fed them into online beauty-rating platforms powered by facial recognition algorithms, capturing the results through screen recordings.
What fascinates me is how both humans and machines are drawn to patterns that suggest a face — but for entirely different reasons. While pareidolia reflects our emotional and imaginative instinct to find meaning, facial recognition technology applies a rigid logic, identifying structure where there is no subject and assigning value to it. The resulting ‘beauty scores’ expose the absurdity and limitations of these systems, blurring the line between person and object, signal and noise.
By playing with misrecognition and ambiguity, the project questions how machines ‘see’ and interpret humans — and what happens when those interpretations are taken seriously. It also invites reflection on how easily we surrender to algorithmic authority in everyday life, even when the results are clearly flawed.
As an art educator, I believe it is essential to engage students critically with the digital tools that shape their perception. This project demonstrates how contemporary visual culture is entangled with surveillance, pattern recognition, and aesthetics governed by code. By unpacking these systems through artistic practice, we can foster a more reflective, critical, and empowered approach to making and interpreting digital art.
By playing with misrecognition and ambiguity, the project questions how machines ‘see’ and interpret humans — and what happens when those interpretations are taken seriously. It also invites reflection on how easily we surrender to algorithmic authority in everyday life, even when the results are clearly flawed.
As an art educator, I believe it is essential to engage students critically with the digital tools that shape their perception. This project demonstrates how contemporary visual culture is entangled with surveillance, pattern recognition, and aesthetics governed by code. By unpacking these systems through artistic practice, we can foster a more reflective, critical, and empowered approach to making and interpreting digital art.