Palpable, Gaze is a participatory installation which narrativizes and visualizes the algorithmic gaze in 3D space as a method of self portraiture. Concerning perception and considering the democratic aspect of both ‘visual operators’ gazing in awareness at one another’s presence - the installation proposes a situation in which the viewer is actively aware of, and participant in, photographic 'looking'.

Technological evolution within the long history of photographic portraiture has brought about a unique situation in which the image can now ‘see’ us. Under the political tone of facial recognition technology within surveillance, and potential applications such as neuromarketing via eye tracking technology, the emerging photographic act of seeing is an invisible experience in which we shift from being the subject to becoming subjected. Social and industrial trends within photographic processes form part of the system of critique – photography has always offered a form of ‘inner reflection’ from the earliest experimental photochemical self portraits to the over proliferation of selfie culture. By imagining photographic vision in 3D space, Palpable, Gaze questions if there is there a potential reversal of power in democratising the act of emerging photographic vision over succumbing to and privileging the multifarious gaze.

Project Credits:
Palpable, Gaze is a research and development project funded by Arts Council England, Developing Your Creative Practice.

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