We are able to call forth a fake smile on someone's face just by stimulating it with electronic computer signals. But nobody is able to produce a genuine, real smile on a person's face unless there are emotions involved.

Manabe Teruoka

Having experimented for some time with stimulating muscles and moving whole body parts through electric stimulation, Daito Manabe was inspired to create Face Visualizer upon hearing this statement by his collaborator Masaki Teruoka. Other influences were the work of French researcher Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne (1806 – 1875) and the performances of Australian artist Stelarc. The result is a kind of 'face instrument' in which people's faces are moved artificially in synch with music through electroshocks produced with the Max/MSP programming platform.

During the workshop, participants have the opportunity to “hack” one another's faces and experience a sensation beyond natural human facial expression.

> daito.ws/en/work/smiles.html

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