In the WE ARE DATE – Mirror Room, you were able to experience how we managed to build your profile, using the latest technologies, without you having to touch anything or even answer a single question.
FACEREADER
The FaceReader is the most important technology we use. With it, we are able to register facial expressions – and thus emotions. But the FaceReader can also read your age and heart rate. The software used is in full development; gradually, machines will be able to read emotions better than humans themselves. As a result, constructing personal profiles will become even more accurate.
MEASUREMENTS
In order to read your preferences or determine your worst fears, we have created various conditions which evoke sufficient emotions that are able to be measured. Despite the differences in intensity of these scenes, we can compare them, because we start with the average visitors’ response. This allows us to establish whether you have an above-average preference or fear.
EXPERIENCE
The installation is also aimed at uncovering your unconscious preferences. Tests such as Harvard’s Project Implicit show how influential these preferences are. The installation forces you to make decisions based on these hidden preferences. We capture your response, compare the data
and learn even more about you.
PROFILE
In 2012, the joint European privacy regulators warned that companies
are not allowed to simply build profiles of people using face and emotion recognition. In the installation, it is up to the visitor whether the profile is published or not, in contrast to the outside world, where information is collected unnoticed, often without
you having a say.
INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Are the measurements and the profile scientifically watertight? No. In order to achieve that, the installation should undergo lengthy scientific research, if that were even possible. In real life, however, conclusions are already drawn based on the information that is collected from you. Data
is objective in nature, but the interpretation of data is often far from objective. That is why We Are Data – Mirrror Room confronts you with this step, in the hope that it will foster your data intuition. This will help you to decide what data you do not mind giving away, and what you do.