La Machine de Lombroso

La Machine de Lombroso is inspired by the works of 19th century criminologists and anthropologists, such as Cesare Lombroso and Havelock Ellis, who thought it possible to detect misconduct by analyzing the physical characteristics of criminals.

Our society, confronted with terrorism and criminality, tries to defend itself using sophisticated software and databases. It is not improbable that the works of Lombroso and Ellis will be one day put again into practice, by crossing them with new techniques of anthropometry.

For the installation, observers are filmed and their image is shown on a LCD screen in real time. As soon as someone comes near the screen, their face disappears gradually and transforms into a superimposed silhouette that tracks them, like a shadow. This unreal image indicates the character of the person (good, malicious, altruistic, egotistic...) that hides behind a face. The installation is thus a surrealist, playful and dynamic composition.

La Machine de Lombroso was exposed at the 4th edition of the Nuit Blanche de Paris, within the context of the exposition L’envers de la vidéo surveillance (The hidden side of video surveillance) organized by Méta Zone. The Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, also allowed his soul to be read by the machine: the verdict was "Just", and the mayor appreciated and was bemused by the judgement.

I don't understand fully how the installation works but i like the idea. Reminded me of the Traité de physiognomonie i had to translate and study at the university.

Video.

By Ignazio Mottola

Via wifi-art.

UPDATE: Ignazio Mottola kindly emailed me more details about his installation: "The installation works with a silhouette tracking program (Eyes web) linked to a webcam and associated with proximity sensors. The attribution of a character is unfortunately still random based, but I think that it is possible to develop more accurate methods.just a question of time and money, as usual."