Persona

Jesper Eriksson

Artwork description:

Persona is a living portrait imbued with the ability to perceive and respond to the emotional states of its viewers. The installation invites audiences to sit before the portrait, which reads their emotions via their body language and, in response, is affected by it — thereby fostering a silent conversation between human and machine. The project is inspired by the Expressivist view that art models our psychological and emotional landscapes.

At the heart of our approach is hence the premise that our bodily movements can unveil the dynamics of our mental states. This idea stems from the pioneers of the Movement Psychology paradigm in classical dance and drama, who posited that even simple gestures, such as a greeting wave, can reveal unique aspects of one's personality, emotions, and experiences. This suggests that from birth, we develop personalities and physical characteristics shaped by our cultural and familial environments, leading to the prominence of certain cognitive aspects over others. As a result, each person develops a unique psycho-physical map.

Persona is therefore a first of its kind AI architecture which reads this psycho-physical map in people, whilst simulating its own. By use of modern performance capture and real-time 3D graphics, the architecture and its emotional simulations are then visualised in human form. The portrait premiered at the Saatchi Gallery in London where it became the art fair's most visited work and received high acclaim from the press for its emotional depth and sophistication.