‘The Body is a Movement’ exhibition @Sectie-C , developed by Baltan Laboratories and Onomatopee DDW ‘23, Images: Barbara Medo
Two piece training gear (red & black tension straps, metal D rings, adjustment buckles), grey colored fitness bands, vinyl lettering applied on whiteboards, lightstands, webcams
Pose estimation model: Running real-time on ‘p5.js web editor’. Developed in collaboration with Rebekka Jochem
The act of surveilling has been an essential tool of the capitalist structure to ensure the translation of human actions. Our daily movements are watched, faces are scanned, and limbs are measured. Just by existing, we are constantly producing data to be collected by visual surveillance technologies. Automatized with artificial intelligence, the performance of these structures is pushed further. However much of their capabilities are forced, these systems still cannot be freed from bias. A loophole in the system where consummately capturing the complexity of the human body significantly fails. Kaan Hiçyılmaz’s body has always targeted this exact divergence, using bodily training as a method to produce biased data. Until his movements start to undermine the accurate predictions of the surveying gaze.
In a training environment, two parts confront each other: one that is trained to detect, the other to deceive. Under camera surveillance, Kaan’s bodily response to being surveilled is unpacked threefold. Prompt boards facilitate insight into his self-training, providing instructions for activating the props in stations. By pulling, stretching, and squeezing, he exercises to manipulate 17 key points on the body. Cameras operating with a trained pose estimation model detect and classify actions from these points, giving auditory feedback until they become biased. While training, the performance decodes the systematic processing our bodies are put under to generate usable information. 'Training for: Another Biased Confrontation' will showcase the affect of being surveilled, to interrogate its threatening potential to shape how we move, behave, and even identify ourselves.