Marnix de Nijs: Mirror Piece

Hailing from Rotterdam, artist Marnix de Nijs designs artificial worlds at the open and dynamic transition from reality to virtuality. In his works, he creates performative, interactive situations resulting from the confrontation between man, machine and media. Partly radical and political, but always also with a humorous wink, his “performance machines”, whose interactive game is based on the manipulation of image and sound, provoke the questioning of our perception. His list of internationally acclaimed and discussed works also includes the “Physiognomic Scrutinizer”, whose successor, “Mirror Piece”, will celebrate its Austrian debut at this year’s donaufestival. Equipped with a software that biometrically analyses video materials, the installation scans the features of every face that looks in the mirror and compares them with over 250 people in its database. The database contains the information of various public figures who have all attracted attention through controversial and notorious actions. A computer-generated voice then announces the name of the person the observers of the “mirror” have been identified as. In a radical manner, this work reminds us to face the enormous increase regarding the use of biometric recognition technologies in the public sphere with healthy skepticism.

www.marnixdenijs.nl