Pareidolia Original

In the artwork Pareidolia* facial detection is applied to grains of sand. A fully automated robot search engine examines the sand in situ. When the machine finds a face in one of the grains, the portrait is photographed. The top 100 of best faces found by the machine is displayed on a large round screen. The robotic search engine proceeds as follows: there is a dosing funnel in the machine that sprinkles the sand across a slowly rotating glass disc. The microscope is above the disc and the light comes from under the glass. In addition to the sprinkle funnel, there is a swiper swiping the sand away that has traversed round the circuit, so making space for new grains. In addition to the optics and the mechanics of the robot installation, the artists have developed the detection software themselves, whereby they utilize AI and artificial neural networks. If a face is discovered within the scattered grains, a portrait will be recorded photographically. The system keeps tally of the top 100: as more grains are evaluated, this top 100 comprises increasingly higher scores, therefore better faces. The top 100 are shown on a large screen and its rounded form refers to the ocular nature of the microscope. The work offers a profounder insight into the morphology of sand grains and the inconceivable number of their unique variants. In addition, the work comments in a playful and absurdist manner on the extreme implementation of an anthropomorphic worldview, whereby everything revolves around Man who wishes to see his own image even in the tiniest grain of sand. * Pareidolia is an illusion in which the observer perceives something recognisable in something it is not. Pareidolia was commissioned by SEA - Science Encounters Art. The production was supported by the Creative Industries Fund NL. Photo Heleen Vink.