Tomas Laurenzo

2018–2019

Memoirs of the Blind

Memoirs of the Blind is an interactive installation consisting of a screen showing a black-and-white picture of a face with its eyes closed.

Interactive installation; computer vision

Memoirs of the Blind is an interactive installation consisting of a screen showing a black-and-white picture of a face with its eyes closed. This image at first remains still, however, when the interactor blinks, the installation detects it and takes a photo at the exact time of the blinking. Once the new face is obtained, it is processed (cropped, desaturated, and adjusted) and then it substitutes the displayed face.

The artwork becomes a testimony of its visitors, interacting with it, but not seeing it: a moment where the visitor becomes at the same time subject and object.

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The piece reflects on the power asymmetries that technology crystallises, providing a contemplative reflection on the aesthetics of our relationship with it, while simultaneously showcasing the advancements in computer vision that allow for supra-human abilities.

The title of the piece is inspired by Derrida’s book “Memoirs of the blind: the self-portrait and other ruins”. Derrida extends the framework of the symbolic and disrupts the relationship and meaning of the objects. Perhaps similarly, the piece appropriates this principle, proposing a poetic dimension of the power choreography in interaction.

Finally, the piece reflects on the differences between machine time and human time, what Paul Virilio once called ‘speed pollution’.

In Memoirs of the Blind, an inapprehensible moment, the blink of an eye, is resignified in machine time as a relevant event. If Virilio’s words are to come true when he says that “the capacity of interactivity is going to reduce the world to nearly nothing. In fact, there is already a speed pollution, which reduces the world to nothing. In the near future, people will feel enclosed in a small environment”; we owe our future selves explorations like the ones that this piece proposes.

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Memoirs of the Blind’s black square display shows a circular black-and-white portrait on a translucent wall.
A closed-eye portrait within the circular display of Memoirs of the Blind.
Two visitors face the small portrait display in the gallery.
A circular close-up portrait with closed eyes and an open mouth.
The glossy display reflects visitors around a circular closed-eye portrait.
A circular black-and-white portrait on the reflective square display.
Side view of the wall-mounted reflective display and its portrait.
A smiling closed-eye portrait within the installation’s circular display.
A visitor with a backpack approaches the portrait display in a dark-walled gallery.
The portrait display and exhibition label on a dark gallery wall.
A close-up portrait wearing glasses appears in the circular display.
Two visitors face the portrait display in a darkened exhibition space.
A closed-eye portrait wearing dark glasses appears on the reflective display.
A close-up closed-eye portrait fills the circular display.
A closed-eye portrait wearing glasses, surrounded by the reflection of the exhibition hall.
An angled view of the display with a closed-eye portrait and reflected gallery lights.
A visitor photographs the wall-mounted portrait display.
A closed-eye portrait against reflections in the glossy black display.
A light-haired closed-eye portrait in the circular display.
A smiling portrait in the circle, surrounded by reflections in the display.
A bearded portrait wearing glasses in the circular display.
A downturned closed-eye portrait wearing a scarf.
A smiling light-haired portrait in the circular display.
A bearded closed-eye portrait within the black square display.
A visitor with glasses photographs the installation using a phone.
A light-haired closed-eye portrait wearing glasses.
A dark-haired closed-eye portrait wearing glasses.
A closed-eye portrait wearing a patterned headband.
The small circular portrait surrounded by the broad reflective black display.
A smiling portrait in the circular display, with a reflected visitor holding a camera.
A long-haired closed-eye portrait in the circular display.
Two visitors look at and photograph the display mounted on a translucent wall.

Exhibition history:

Publications: Memoirs of the blind, Proceedings of Siggraph Asia 2018.

Technical details:

The installation comprises an Apple iPad Pro (2018) together with an acrylic laser-cut case. Using Apple’s ARKit, the installation is able not only to track the face in low illumination conditions but also to track the users’ eyes and detect their blinking.

The software, after the interactor has been tracked for a random short interval, enters into blink-detection mode. When a blink is detected, it extracts a bitmap corresponding to the user’s face, desaturates it and further processes it. It then substitutes the existing face. No face is stored in the installation due to privacy concerns.

Programmed with openFrameworks and a heavily modified version of ofxARKit.

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