Embedded Files
Portrait of Jeremy Bentham (2018)
Jeremy Bentham was an 18th century English philosopher, who amongst other things, helped to formulate the idea of 'surveillance'. Altering people's behaviour by making them feel as if they are being observed.
He described his Panopticon prison design, where a central warder could make an entire prison feel as if they were being watched, as 'a machine for grinding rogues honest'.
Bentham left instructions in his will that he should be dissected, and his remains re-assembled as an 'Auto-Icon', essentially a sculpture of himself, made of himself. This now resides in University College London. His head did not fare well in the preservation process and has been kept in storage for many years.
UCL Culture allowed me to create a 3d photogrammetry scan of his head in their forensics lab. From this I made this installation. A realtime animation responds to the viewer's head position, and renders an image of Benthem, with his eyes looking right at you. Your movements are tracked using a Kinect camera, designed for human data gathering.
The image appeared on a screen housed in a cabinet, to give the idea that Bentham's head was housed inside it.
The installation was positioned as a companion piece to the cabinet housing Bentham's Auto-Icon, and was exhibited on a plinth next to it.
This piece is currently being reworked as a dual axis holographic print.
Credits:
Commissioned by UCL Culture Public Arts for University College London.
With thanks to Sam Wilkinson and the UCL Culture team.
Photogrammetry scan by Sample & Hold.
Photos by Marcus Lyall
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