Face and Code

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 recognizes the identity or the emotions. In the field of social practices, the face is the center of actions such as a selfie or of apps allowing 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.