Population

installation, software, hardware
2018, Budapest

In the installation Population (Soul Number, Number of Souls), I used a face detection algorithm. The algorithm both enabled the work to function technically and served as its subject.  The work consisted of three juxtaposed image trails.
On the first screen, the image transmitted by the camera showed the viewers themselves, with small white circles around their faces. On the second screen, a series of tiny ID pictures. These are the images the algorithm took of the circled faces. On the third screen was an average of the small images. The averaged image was an unrecognisable but obviously human face. Those who stood in front of the work for a long time could leave more traces, those who showed themselves a second time had their faces merged into a single portrait.

The work is called Population (Soul Number, Numbar of Souls), not as a romantic metaphor, but in exactly the same sense as we use it in everyday life: number of people. Both terms, however, seem to have a hidden meaning, at least in Hungarian.

The way face search algorithms work is not a complicated matter. It compares the resulting image with a given pattern, and if the similarity value exceeds a threshold, it gives the position of the face in the image. Pattern generation, on the other hand, is a complex process. Although mathematics is an interesting subject in itself, I am primarily interested in the human side. What does mathematics mean?