8 September, 2021
Online (Zoom and Discord)
Max participants: 50
13:00 – 17:00
Tickets: €5 or free for Ars Electronica visitors
In this workshop we delve into the colourful world of filters. Performing artists Yun Lee and Jonathan Reus from iii will show you how to create and perform with face and body filters.
The Bal Masqué consists of 4-7 minute battles between three competitors performing via Zoom with face filters, backgrounds, facial expression, body movement, screen and camera. How do you utilize all these elements to transcend the rectangles and bobbing heads of zoom, build up an engaging performance over time and battle your way to the top?
We will be using Snap Camera and Lens Studio to create our filters. Participants will go through the basics of how to import custom images, animations and 3D models into your filter, working with face and body meshes, creating interactions, and building a performance around these elements. To make the most of your time, come prepared with sketches of specific movements and effects you would like to work with.
And don’t miss the chance to show off what you have learned during this workshop! On Saturday 11 September, you can present your performance and battle with us at the Bal Masqué: EMAP x IMPAKT.
Requirements to participate:
Windows or Mac computer with Lens Studio and Snap Camera installed
Zoom (download here) – we will use Zoom for presentation materials & tutorials
Wifi connection
Webcam
A Snapchat account (create one here) – you will need a Snapchat account to publish and use your filters
Discord account (create one here) – we will use this Discord channel as a community chat space during and after the workshop
(Optional)
An external mouse is useful for navigating the 3D editor of Lens Studio
Images, animated gifs, video files, or 3D models that you would like to use in your filters. (Note: custom media files should be no bigger than 3-4MB, 3D models should be in fbx format for the highest compatibility)
Please test that the software works on your laptop. If there are any issues, please email us (yun@instrumentinventors.org or hello@jonathanreus.com).
Yun Lee is an artist, performer, and curator mostly working with lecture-performances, sound, and workshops. Much of their work engages critically and playfully with recording technology to navigate shifting definitions of what being human is. In short, Yun is concerned with how our filtered ways of sensing both limit and extend the ways we understand, categorize, and compose the world.
For the past few years, Yun has been delving into research on facial recognition, identification politics, masks, anonymity and avatars, resulting in lectures, performances and workshops. Along with this work, Yun will be bringing their performance experience walking and battling in online balls during lockdown.
Jonathan Reus (b. US) is a performing artist, musician, composer, and researcher based in the Netherlands. Fundamentally interdisciplinary in approach, Reus’ performance and artistic works are characterised by hands-on experimentation, hybrid-thinking, and consideration for the material conditions and surroundings in which art, technologies, and communities are created.
In this spirit, Reus’ music and performance work draws equally from vernacular folk music traditions as from live-coding and computational data. His interest in face filters comes out of recent projects where he has explored the role of masks at the intersection of traditional and digital ritual celebrations. Together with Italian designer Nicolo Merendino he initiated the WORTH partnership supported project PERSONA, which involved working together with traditional Venitian mask makers to imagine new digital approaches to generative mask-making for Venice carnivale and masquerades. He has also developed workshops around traditions of deathmasks and burial rituals using 3D facial scanning.
