Public Masterclass: Facial Recognition Camouflage

Public Events

Join Yoke Collective for this online masterclass in camouflaging techniques used by anti-surveillance activists. With face paint, stickers, hair extensions and other materials that you have lying around at home, Yoke will teach you to hide yourself from facial recognition technologies and to protect your biometric data from the camera's gaze. Reclaim your image through graphic and striking looks and join Yoke in a discussion about surveillance in public and private spaces. The session will also look at possible future fashion trends within a society of increased security and monitoring of the public.

You will need to find some 'camouflaging' materials in your home to use during the workshop, anything including the following would work:

Face paint
Food packaging
Wigs and hair extensions
Make up
Headbands, hair clips, hairbands and elastic bands
Old clothes to be cut up or moulded
Old sunglasses that can be tinkered with
Various tapes and stickers
Coloured paper and card
Pipe cleaners
Household products: e.g shaving foam, vegemite and nutella
Stapler, clips and scissors
Any other items you might feel are useful!
Adhesives: double-sided tape, honey, sugar glue, eyelash glue, washable pritt stick
Tools for applying: brushes and spreaders

Yoke Collective is the artistic and curatorial partnership between Georgina Rowlands and Emily Roderick. Yoke works with collaborative research on cyber-politics, looking at increasingly intrusive surveillance systems and how these are questioned against cyber-feminist theory, challenging the positioning of the female body within the algorithms of facial and full body-recognition. Yoke is also part of The Dazzle Club which explores surveillance in public spaces, and holds a regular public walking event in protest of live facial recognition police cameras in London.

Images courtesy of Yoke Collective, credit Antoni Roberts.