What do our gestures and facial expressions reveal about our innermost emotions?
What are the boundaries between data interpretation and storytelling?
In 1978, the psychologists Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen developed the Facial Action Coding System (FACS): a method for analysing and classifying facial expressions.
Now, by applying a tracking system to our facial expressions, Fabula offers you the chance to interact with the machine.
The visitor’s face is detected by a camera then analyzed in real time by an algorithm. With every tiny facial movement, the detection algorithm probes the image captured, compares it against a stock of existing images, classifies the connections made and generates a stream of descriptive data.
The slightest hint of a smile, eyes that gaze o into the distance... All of this provides Fabula with the information it requires to produce statistics and make hypotheses.
The device gradually builds up its own set of grammar rules. It analyses, deduces and interprets the way it perceives the emotions expressed by each visitor who crosses its path.
A trace of these perceived “emotional peaks” is printed out and recorded on paper.
Credits
Author: Beatrice Lartigue, Lab212 Collective
Development: Sébastien Courvoisier
Commissioned by: Museum Histoire Naturelle x Quai des Savoirs, Toulouse, FRA
Curator: Maja Wasyluk
