Face and code

2016, 15 min 49 s, HD. Spanish

Video essay on the history of face analysis.

New technologies and the social media networks are producing a new iconography of the face. In the field of research, software is being created that recognises the identity or the emotions. In the field of social practices, the face is the centre of actions such as a selfie or of apps allowing the masking and changing of faces. This renewed iconography is inscribed in a long tradition of studies of the face that have aimed to measure it and make it speak. From physiognomy to digital biometrics, from the correct representation of passions to the monitoring of spectators, passing through the grimace as rebellion, the face has a history made of images.

Produced for Soy Cámara. The CCCB’s video essay channel