Cámaras de reconocimiento facial en el arte contemporáneo: La obra del colectivo SVEN

Abstract

Closed Circuit Television-CCTV and facial recognition systems, in use in the United States since 1965, are based on cameras and special software that enable the identification of all persons in transit by means of biometric systems, i.e. recognition of persons through their physical characteristics, establishing three-dimensional maps that collect the facial data of the persons they record. From this registration, a series of parameters are established that determine which are the most inherent data of the registered face, and all these records go to the storage database. These facial recognition surveillance systems have been used as a tool for artistic practice by the North American collective SVEN (Surveillance Video Entertainment Network). Their work can be consulted on their website. The SVEN collective criticises this situation of control and surveillance to which English society is being subjected, using the same police surveillance tools to carry out their artistic proposals and which unjustly attack the individual's right to privacy, given that the legislation in force in that country does not protect the privacy of its citizens. In short, SVEN's work tries to ironise the positioning of any individual perceived in front of a security system screen, using the same facial recognition systems that the London police use in the identification of criminals or terrorists, they redirect them to convert them into a parodic system in which they turn a cold and suspicious image of the result of a CCTV camera recording into a parodic, pop image, charged with irony. They criticise the situation, making us see that we are all suspicious under the gaze of CCTV cameras, and turn this gaze into a comical and funny situation.