Opening: 14 March 2017 |17:00
Running until 25 June 2017
@ Altes Theater, Lily-Herking-Paltz 1, Dessau, Germany
artists: Julius von Bismarck, Benjamin Maus, Richard Wilhelmer
co-organiser: Energieavantgarde Anhalt
Public Face II is an installation that enables the visualization of data related to the energy consumption and production of renewable energy sources for the city and its inhabitants of the region of Anhalt-Bitterfeld by changing its ‘mood’ based on measurements and algorithms developed with the dates provided by energy and meteo GmbH. The eight-meter smiley sculpture made of steel and neon tubes was originally developed in 2008 for the Media Facades Festival to visualise the citizens’ mood. At that time, the artists used a newly developed software from the Fraunhofer Institute, which can measure someone’s mood through a facial detection. Analysing the four emotional states of – happiness, grief, surprise and anger – the dominant mood could be visualized in real time by the Public Face installation. Due to its supreme size and position it becomes part of the skyline and can be visible to everyone in the public space stimulating the inhabitants’ awareness.
For the Energieavantgarde Anhalt the artists are turning their gaze to renewable energy production and consumption. In this effort, a new application is generated by the artist team von Bismarck, Maus and Wilhelmer. Now, the installation expresses the various states of the regional energy systems in Anhalt with the emotional states of Public Face. The emotion’s shift variables are the regional production from renewable energy sources or from conventional energy sources and the regional load. Based on this, the indicators for the different energy statuses can be calculated.
This urban intervention is aiming at conveying consciousness around the urban landscape and every day personal habits that like the smiley affect in a bigger scale the city’s ecosystem. The artists are adjusting their project based on the occasion enabling a broader range of measurements.
Public Face II is supported by Future DiverCities and curated by Susa Pop | Public Art Lab as dissemination event on arts sustainability and climate change.
